The Last Time She Died, by Zoë Sharp

🎧 Audiobook review 🎧

She came back on the day of her father’s funeral, ten years after she vanished. But she can’t be who she says she is…

When Blake disappeared as a teenager, on a cold dark night, her father never reported her missing. She is presumed dead.

Now, ten years later, a young woman with white-blonde hair sits comfortably in the family living room and smiles at the shocked faces around her.

“Don’t you recognise me?” she says. “I’m Blake.”

Detective John Byron isn’t sure whether she’s telling the truth. But as he investigates, he soon realises no one is happy to see her.

And the people who should be welcoming her back with open arms know she can’t be Blake. Because they killed her the night she vanished…

Didn’t they?

Set in a small Derbyshire village, a former MP, Gideon Fitzroy has been killed in what was seemingly a car accident involving his two surviving step children. Detective John Byron who is currently on leave from the police force is asked to take a quiet look into his death as part of an ongoing investigation. Whilst the family is at the funeral, a young woman has broken into the family home. When arrested, the woman claims to be Blake Claremont, Fitzroy’s daughter from his previous marriage…who went missing 10 years ago and was presumed dead. The family and the entire village are suspicious at her showing up just as her wealthy father has died and she looks different to what people remember – she was 15 when she went missing, she’s a grown woman now. But the young woman knows things that only Blake could know. Why is she here now and did she have any involvement in Fitzroy’s death? Is she really who she says she is? Nobody is more suspicious and more determined to get rid of Blake than the group of people who murdered her and buried her body a decade ago…
Oh my goodness, this book is full of secrets and twists that kept me guessing the whole way through. I didn’t know who or what to believe and the involvement of certain people really shocked me! I really like detective Byron’s character, this seems like the start of what’s going to be a really good series and from the title it seems we can expect more from Blake, which I love. Tamsin Kennard narrated this brilliantly, it was very easy to tell each character apart and she really brought this story to life.

Content warning – grooming, paedophilia, not graphic.