One Last Breath by P. S. Cunliffe | Book Review

[This post contains affiliate links.]

Title & Author: One Last Breath by P. S. Cunliffe 

Genre: Psychological thriller 

Publication date: 16th January 2024

Publisher: Embla

My rating: 4/5

Blurb:

A deadly trap. A ticking clock. How long until she has only one last breath?

Jessie wakes to darkness, cold, and the rain beating down on her. She reaches out, and her hands meet hard stone.

Suddenly she knows where she is. Deep in the woods, far underground, at the bottom of the well where her best friend's lifeless body was found fifteen years ago. After returning to her hometown to investigate a new murder, she now finds herself poised to become the killer's next victim.

Jessie gazes up to the circle of night sky above her, the relentless raindrops landing on her face.

She doesn't know how she came to be here, but she knows that, with the storm getting worse, it's only a matter of time before the well begins to fill with water. Can she make it out before it's too late? And what will be waiting for her on the surface if she does?

Review:

As soon as I started reading One Last Breath, I was instantly gripped. The novel opens with a woman climbing out of a well, only to be pushed back in.

We soon discover that the woman is thirty-two-year-old Jessie, a true crime documentary maker, whose friend Amy was found dead in the same well back when they were teenagers. Her documentary on Amy's murder ended up getting Amy's boyfriend at the time, Connor, released from prison as it was proven that he did not kill her.

Jessie is now back in her hometown with five-year-old daughter Freya to visit her father. Only there has been another murder. This time of a teenage boy and Jessie is convinced that Evan's death is related to Amy's, even though they are so unalike. Against advice of the police, she starts doing her own investigating which, as we know, does not end well for her.

The story is told in flashbacks of the days counting down to Jessie coming to be in the well, her being in the well and her husband Martin in the early hours of the morning rushing to get to his father-in-law's house. It has bit of mixed media too, with transcripts from some episodes of Jessie's documentary, Born Killer.

There are so many characters in this book and I felt like I trusted none of them, convinced each of them were responsible at different points. The urgency that I want from a thriller is there and it is very clever. There are so gross depictions of injuries that had me grimacing and you really feel the claustrophobia of Jessie being trapped in the well. This is a very entertaining thriller! 

First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston | Book Review

[This post contains affiliate links.]

Title & Author: First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston 

Genre: Psychological thriller 

Publication date: 2nd January 2024

Publisher: Headline

My rating: 4/5

Blurb:

Everything she is about to tell them is a lie...

Evie Porter has everything a girl could want: a doting boyfriend, a house with a picket fence, a fun group of friends.

The only catch: Evie Porter doesn't exist.

First comes the identity. Once she's given a name and location by her employer, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it.

Then the mark: Ryan Sumner.

The last piece of the puzzle is the job. For Evie, this job feels different. Ryan has gotten under her skin and she's started to picture another kind of life for herself - one where her boss doesn't pull the strings. But Evie can't make any mistakes. Because the one thing she's worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to - her real identity - just walked right into this town. A woman, who looks just like her, has stolen her name - and she wants more. As Evie's past begins to catch up with her, can she stay one step ahead to save her future?

My review: 

I was always a massive thriller reader but recently found myself getting less excited by them. I think I'd maybe read too many and could see the formula early on which dampened my experience. First Lie Wins was like a breath of fresh air and really reinstated my love of thrillers.

Evelyn "Evie" Porter is in a new relationship with Ryan Sumner. However, Evie is not real. Ryan thinks he is her boyfriend, but really he is Evie's next job.

Her boss, known only as Mr Smith who she has never met, has been assigning Evie (real name Lucca Marino) to jobs where she is tasked to seek out intel and other information from politicians to businessmen, giving her a new identity each time to do so.

When Ryan's friend James turns up at a party with his new girlfriend "Lucca Marino", Evie quickly realises that Mr Smith is out to get her but in this game of cat and mouse, Evie is always one step ahead.

This book is so clever and is meticulously and intricately planned out. The timeline switches between present day as Evie Porter but is interspersed with chapters from Evie's past aliases and jobs. You can see it all play out in your minds eye and it is such an entertaining read. 

I would say that I probably wanted it to end about half a page earlier than it did but that's absolutely a personal thing. I highly recommend this book!