I need to talk to someone about the ending. Haha. What a crazy story! It caught me when Kelsey goes to pick her daughter up from daycare and no one knew her or her daughter. What?! That just freaked me out. So begins a twisted tale. Even when I figured things out there were still things I didn’t know. The book obviously held my attention. What didn’t work for me was not knowing who was narrating. When an author uses multiple narrators, I don’t want to guess at who is talking. I almost gave up on the book because of that. I’m happy I kept pushing through. I read this on my Kindle but will probably listen to the audiobook, at least some of it, and edit in how the author handles the different narrators with audio. ( )

Last One to Lie by J.M. Winchester is a recommended psychological thriller - for romance readers

After her yoga class, Kelsey Jennings goes to pick up her two-year-old daughter, Mikayla, at the child’s day-care center in Ellicott City, Md. Mikayla isn't there, there is no record of her ever being there, and no one knows a child by that name. Kelsey repeatedly calls her husband, Malcolm, but all the calls go to voicemail. Kelsey, obviously, has a complete meltdown at the day care and the police are called. Detective Paul Ryan is assigned her case and begins to investigate. He's certain that something’s up with Kelsey’s story. Along with Mikayla, Malcolm is also missing and Kelsey is suspected of being mentally ill.

All right, the very beginning of this novel will grab your attention and suck you right into the plot - before it gets ludicrous and goes off the rail. During the final scenes when we get the twisty scoop about what is really happening, I immediately recalled inconsistencies from certain parts of the story that were suddenly ridiculous and incompatible based on the new information. Also you could tell that Winchester is a romance writer under another name. The immediate attraction and sex scenes struck me as absurd and were a negative and a huge turn off for me. Why the recommendation? Because it seems that a whole lot of other readers liked it and were probably okay with all the incongruous details as long as they get the steamy, sexy attraction bits and the twisty ending (which has been done before and better.)

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Thomas & Mercer.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2020/06/last-one-to-lie.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3384965984 ( )

The twists and turns keep coming in this thriller. Fans of Gone Girl and The Woman in the Window will love this fast paced novel starring an unreliable female narrator that you just can't trust. When Kelsey goes to pick up her three year old from daycare and she's not there - shit hits the fan! Not only that but the daycare has no record of her ever being there and her husband has mysteriously disappeared. Did her abduct her? Why is no one taking her seriously? She starts to get close to Detective Paul Ryan - she'll use sex to get her way and she wants him extra motivated to help her find her daughter; her husband she could care less about. The detective soon realizes that things just aren't adding up. What is this gorgeous wife hiding and why does he keep going back for more? When readers finally get to the "aha moment" nothing is as it seems. Who will you believe when the web of lies is finally revealed? A shocking ending will leave all in awe. ( )

Thanks to Tina Meyers (Loves To Read FB group) and the author for this ARC.

What a twisted psychological book that I couldn't figure out (so what else is new)? LOL. At first I was it's a missing child case and then it turned to be totally different. How could her child disappear and then find out that the woman she left her daughter with at a new day care wasn't there?

I really liked the characters and how it all played out. ( )