Despite some of those contrivances I enjoyed this novel and read it in a sitting, finding it the perfect Saturday night bathtime read! A female sex worker decides to take one last job before retiring from the profession, but everything goes wrong. I also didn’t quite get how easily she succumbed to the ‘final gig’. How Elspeth kinda handed her over on a platter, despite obviously knowing what it meant (and why there was no mention of her later!), not to mention Dora’s naiveté in accepting the job and then acquiescing when things got a bit weird in France. Dora quits her job but her old client Daniel she’s seen for 6 months need her help to attend a celebration party of his colleague at a chateau in South France. The girl he has a crush on for years who is also married will be there! He needs a pretending girlfriend urgently and Dora knows him so well, she’s the only one who can make his friends believe in their relationship! Dora finds herself face-to-face with a man she has never forgotten, the one man who really knows her. And as old secrets surface, it becomes terrifyingly apparent that one last secret could cost Dora her life…

As the story developed, I could not believe some of the surprise revelations that Parks includes. At some points I was gasping in disbelief, finding myself re-reading some paragraphs in case I had missed something! There were some clever plot twists that come in the final chapters, so this is definitely a book you need to see through to the end to truly appreciate Parks thrilling narrative.I really hate books with gaslighting and I didn’t realize how prominently it would feature here. I couldn’t wait for Dora to catch up with what the reader already knows. The pacing is all off in this book and the first reveal isn’t even a reveal because we have no idea who this person is or why we should care. This was my first time reading an Adele Parks book, and it did not disappoint. Dora’s character was so well done and had me rooting for her the entire time. Parks gets better and better"—Gillian McAllister, New York Times bestselling author of Wrong Place Wrong Time I can honestly say I got very flabbergasted after getting blown away by several twists. Some of them are unnecessary! Harry Bosch and the Lincoln Lawyer team up to exonerate a woman who’s already served five years for killing her ex-husband.

I’ll drop anything for a new Adele Parks: she nails it every time"—Lucy Foley, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Apartment A week at a beautiful chateau in the south of France – it should be a straightforward final job for Dora. She’s a smart, stunning and discreet escort and Daniel has paid for her services before. This time, all she has to do is to convince the assembled guests that she is his girlfriend. Dora is used to playing roles and being whatever men want her to be. It’s all about putting on a front. Dora can’t resist taking one last job - escorting a regular to a French château and pretending to be his girlfriend. No sex allowed. Surely that’s fine? This is told mostly from the first person account of Dora/Teodora, who is a high end escort/sex worker. She isn't ashamed of the way she earns money, but when a client gets too rough she decides it's time to leave the business. Dora can't resist but take one last job as a favor to a client, a weekend away at a luxury home, yet what happens there is not what she was expecting.If you have ever read an Adele Parks book, you know that her plots are never as straight forward as they may seem. Once Last Secret is a compelling read, with so many twists and turns you will not know if you are coming or going! I loved it. When a book continues to surprise me, it is a good thing as I don't think that I am easily surprised anymore.