Agatha Christie may have been the first mystery author to put people on an island and start killing them off, but she certainly won’t be the last. There’s something about a beach, the water, a hotel, and a group of shifty travelers that brings out the murderer in some folks. The latest author to take up Ms. Christie’s mantle is Jaclyn Goldis, who likes killing off people in exotic locales. Her new book is The Last Time We Saw Her, a mystery that takes on the tropes of the genre and adds her fresh take.
Ten years ago, a group of high-school campers and their counselors went on a hike in the Azores Islands, eager to find a rumored treasure. Then 17-year-old Sydney disappeared, and her sister Olivia was suspected of killing her off. But Olivia was never charged, and Sydney’s body was never found. Now the group has reconvened for a memorial for Sydney and a documentary about what happened. Olivia is eager for a chance to clear her name… but everyone in the group has their own secrets. One of them is a killer. Who is their next victim?
The Last Time We Saw Her starts with Olivia’s first-person point of view, and her voice is easy to connect with. I was a bit thrown when Goldis went into another (first person) point of view, and then another. All told, there are eight main characters in the book, and six of them are POV characters. (all first person). There’s Jules, a counselor who’s making the documentary and who’s still in love with her co-counselor Aidan; Lexa, who was Sydney’s best friend and then married Sydney’s boyfriend, the rich Eli; and Reuben and Cass, the sisters’ stepsiblings, in addition to Sydney and Olivia. There’s so much to keep track of in the back story that I wanted to create a map, and the voices of the characters aren’t really that different from each other. I thought there would be more flashbacks and more treasure-hunting; instead, there’s a lot of talking. A few chapters are verbatim transcripts of Jules’s documentary roundtable interviews. Altogether, this makes for a book that isn’t as propulsive as I’d hoped for.
The climax, however, is crazy in the best ways—two convoluted storylines that play out in very unexpected and entertaining ways. (However, Goldis doesn’t end the book as much as just stopping it—a disappointment as I do like a good denouement.) These twists made the slower storytelling worth it to get to that point, and by the end, I was riveted.
There’s an aspect to the story that isn’t mentioned in the Amazon blurb, and I didn’t know whether that was for efficiency’s sake or caution: Every character in the book is Jewish. They were brought together through a Jewish summer camp, and Sydney and Olivia’s father plays an instrumental role in reestablishing a Jewish presence in the Azores Islands (an autonomous region of Portugal) and restoring a synagogue there. While Judaism doesn’t impact the story—and Sydney’s memorial doesn’t even feature the Mourner’s Kaddish—its casual mention as the default for these characters was heartening. In the current publishing climate, where a famous author (R.F. Kuang) was just “canceled” by her readership for briefly mentioning an Israeli pianist in her upcoming book, treating Jewish characters as human can be a risk. I appreciate publisher Atria and imprint Emily Bestler Books for taking it.
The Last Time We Saw Her may have a bit of a rough start, but the ending is worth the ride. Fans of island-based murder mysteries should take it.
Thanks to Atria for the book in exchange for an honest review.
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