The Last Goodbye: The heart-pounding new thriller from the bestselling author of The Blackbird

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Within a few pages, we are informed that Fiona did not actually intentionally hurt people, she just had severe trauma that caused her to run off with multiple guys and leave everyone else in the lurch, and had a few arguments with a father figure before storming off. Raker's latest case is one of his most challenging yet, Rebekah Murphy has 2 children, and is now an orthopaedic surgeon living in New York, but almost 40 years ago in Cambridge she was 3 years old when her mother, Fiona, disappeared in Cambridge, walking out on her father, Henry, and brothers Mike and Johnny.

With her father and brothers now dead, Rebekah has come back to Britain accompanied by former NYPD cop, Frank Travis, hiring Raker, feeling a void within her, a need to know what happened to Fiona. This time too Raker is not just the hunter but also the hunted as the Met close in on him and Healy. Weaver lives up to his name well in The Last Goodbye, masterfully handling then bringing together a variety of fascinating threads that span time and geography.It also has a subplot about Raker’s friend Colm Healey’s time in jail and his ability to betray the crimes Raker committed to keep Healey safe. It always amazes me how authors manage to not only invent new stories for long-running characters but also keep the books fresh, Tim Weaver is an artist at that!

Expertly plotted and executed this book, as with the rest in the series, grabs you from the start and doesn’t let you go. Now Rebekah has started to receive condolence cards from her mother – or are they from someone else entirely?He has been nominated for a National Book Award, selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club three times, and shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger. While murder mysteries with their dead victim hook and cast of suspects have been a core tenet of detective fiction since its inception in the 19th century, authors such as Harlan Coben and British bestseller Tim Weaver have shown that missing persons cases can create just as much drama. There just wasn’t enough there to keep me racing through, perhaps too many plotlines competing for attention? There are chapters told from various view points and time periods but they all come together at the end.

How they both get out of it unscathed (at least for the moment) is the novel’s most jaw dropping moment, out of several contenders. David has a lot on his plate and has to use all his ingenuity to stay one step ahead of a particularly nasty enemy as well as the police. As the walls start to close in, so does an overweening sense of danger – and when someone offers him a juicy get-out-of-jail card, he is sorely tempted to snatch it with both hands. As an inadvertent latecomer to the series, beginning with the tenth book, I cannot help but feel a tinge of regret for not delving into David Raker's world sooner.It's an uneasy read at times, especially when it touches on real life past horrors, but, it's the more interesting for that detail and I loved it.

But as Raker digs deeper, he starts to unravel an elaborate history of lies binding the cases together. Raker is asked to help Rebekah who is trying to find out what happened to her Mum who has been missing since 1985. His fourth book, Never Coming Back, is the first in the series to move entirely away from London, and is set in Devon and Las Vegas. After a while, I began wondering why, although his books are a lot grittier and I don't agree with everything he's said re.When she suddenly starts receiving condolence cards through the post who she thinks are from her mother. Over the years Rebekah has received condolence cards claiming to be from Fiona on the passing of her father and brothers. She's also stuck with a thick as shit assistant, has some brilliant comebacks, and at the end of the day she's not bad at her job. I'm a huge fan of the David Raker series and The Last Goodbye floored me with its perfectly executed twists and tense, original premise. Healy is in a difficult situation and wrestles with his conscience, trying to keep Raker safe but knowing that it might be at the expense of his own life.