Her Last Words: An addictive psychological thriller that will keep you hooked!

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Kim Kelly presents us with beautifully drawn characters and emotional experiences from the highs and lows of life, and love in its many forms. I used to mention when the case was personal for the team, but it seems that is the trend lately and this one is no exception. Amanda knew the victim. She was a source of information of the police for the writer that was murdered. I finally read a murder mystery set in the book publishing world.

This is exactly why you are one of my favourite authors Carolyn!!! Here is to your next guaranteed success 🥂!! Her Last Words is the ninth book in the Detective Amanda Steele series. This can be a stand-alone read but the series is fantastic and worth reading each and every one. This book is so beautifully written and poetic and full of emotion, sadness, happiness, laughter and tears. I didn’t want it to end. The characters are wonderful (apart from Jane) though there are times you will want to scream at them and times you will want to lie next to them and offer comfort. They are so real. They have become like old friends and I shall miss them dreadfully.I wish to thank the author, Kim Kelly, for providing me with a free copy of this book for review purposes. This is yet another of Arnold’s fast paced, engrossing police procedurals. I read it in one day, long into the night, because I could not put it down. Arnold knows how to capture and maintain her readers’ interest. I love the repeating characters, especially Amanda who, despite an earlier tragedy in her life, is a strong, capable, independent female and I find the camaraderie between her and Trent quite entertaining. But one moment will change everything and Penny is left with the unenviably and distinctly difficult job of trying to heal John. John is shattered into a million pieces, bereft, and full of remorse. In the meantime Jane, Thisbe's flatmate makes dishonourable decisions that have the reader spitting feathers and Penny, much later, on the warpath for literary justice.

Having been a long-time fan of Carolyn Arnold's work, I was delighted to read this book. Amanda Steele is always a wonderful character, willing to take risks to solve cases. Her Last Words is an intriguing read with many twists and turns. Plenty of red herrings keep readers on their toes throughout this thrilling adventure. Amanda's courage and determination, combined with Carolyn Arnold's expert storytelling, make Her Last Words a truly captivating read.I could empathise completely with John's struggle with depression and the description the author uses to describe depression was so apt for me personally. I chose to read this book after receiving a free e-copy from the author. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. This was a wonderful novel that brought out many emotions and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

It's a crisp spring morning when Cass drops her husband, a respected lecturer, to the beach for his medically prescribed swim. While waiting for him, something catches her eye. A young woman runs towards her husband and embraces him - until he holds his hand over her face and she falls down on the stones, dead. After extensive investigating into the case, Amanda discovers that Felicity’s book was based on a cold case from many years ago. Was Felicity getting close to solving the cold case while writing her novel? Was she getting close to revealing who the killer was? Was the killer trying to prevent the truth from coming out by murdering Felicity? Well, that is exactly what Amanda intends to find out. The suspects start piling up as the investigation gets deeper. I was not sure who or what to believe. Detective Amanda Steele is one of my favorite fictional characters. Her sense of duty as a detective often plays against her sense of duty as a mother and partner. Amanda Steele shows the real life side of being a detective and spending so much time simply doing her job. She may take personal time, but she is always on call, if needed. She is fearless and her sense of justice points in the right direction. All of the characters in this book and this series are interesting. The plotline is frantic as they try to find a killer who is smart and calculating. I could not sleep until I finished it. I know when I start a Carolyn Arnold book that I will not be satisfied until I finish it, as she is a winsome storyteller who knows how to pull the reader into the story. If you are a puzzle lover, you will enjoy this book as the book concludes and everything neatly falls into place to complete the puzzle. Set in Sydney, Her Last Words is contemporary with an complementary dash of crime. An incredibly engaging story, it’s all about love, grief, betrayal and hope. Kim Kelly's characterisation was second to none and every cast member, whether primary or secondary, good or bad, was expertly created and developed. A deep and meaningful story about love and morality that I heartily recommend. I read this via Pigeonhole and one of my comments was that this is a balm for tumultuous times. Right now the world is very tumultuous so this book is the perfect antidote to all of that!Each installment just gets better and better, Carolyn Arnold is a master at writing this genre and never fails to disappoint. As always I'll be waiting on tenderhooks for #10. This is a review that I've found quite difficult to write, and also a book that I found quite hard to rate. While I think the author wrote beautifully and I appreciate what the novel was about, I found the majority of it fairly depressing and got me down a bit. The novel finishes in a more positive place which I liked but the journey there is hard for a lot of the characters. From the beginning, it would be hard for anyone to not feel for John: he is utterly broken by the death of his partner, with whom he argued with right before her death. When the story moves ahead seven years, John is still heartbroken and full of despair and guilt; it's painful to read but also I imagine a very realistic portrayal. The novel includes perspectives of several different characters, with some featuring more than others, but all being affected somehow by the death of Thisbe even if they did not know her. The plot of this one was fun, I enjoyed that the murders were actually based on Felicity’s book. It made it just a different type of case to solve and to figure out why someone would use the victims’ own story to conduct their killings. Of course, there was a possible connection to a cold case that the victim was not killed in the same way. However, you learn that this is what Felicity’s next book was going to be about and maybe she was just a little too good at her research. There were a lot of people who you are introduced to that you think could this be the murderer? I know that I guessed on a few different people before finding out who it was and I did not guess correctly. I like it when I am surprised at who the murderer is because I feel a lot of times you are able to figure it out. John comes very close to getting his wish, just as he realises it’s not really what he wants. Kelly’s insight into John’s depression is thoughtful and empathetic as he struggles both mentally and physically, haunted by his last moments with Thisbe.

Set in Sydney, Aussie author Kim Kelly’s latest release, Her Last Words, is a foray into a different genre for her. With mostly historical fiction to her name – all titles I’ve loved – this is contemporary with a little crime on the side. An excellent story, it’s one about love and grief, about publishers in the current industry, about betrayal and hope. Her Last Words made me laugh, made me sad and made me think. A thoroughly enjoyable read, Her Last Words is one I highly recommend. Oh, and I absolutely love the cover! I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for this dynamic duo. The are as fabulous as the series is. This is another suspenseful story and I hope the author still has a lot of cases for them to solve. 5 stars Full disclosure - I was provided an advanced reader’s copy of this book by the author or their representative but have voluntarily provided a review. All opinions are my own.

I love this series. I had a hard time putting this book and other books by Carolyn Arnold down. Once you start the story, you are engrossed and taken on a wild adventure with well-developed characters, a gripping storyline, and a gripping and addictive crime thriller. This blurb got me so intrigued, I couldn't resist to start the book as soon as I possibly could. After reading the first chapters about this event, questions started to form instantly. How can a man kill so swiftly and coolly? Know that he simply puts on his clothes and shoes and steps into the car! How can a wife stay silent about what she just saw? Who was that young woman, was she his mistress? I first got a glimpse of that and I sighted, afraid that I had fallen for a milked out "wife-husband-murdered mistress" trope. But the scene was so well rendered, eerie and mysterious, that I kept on reading. And pretty soon, I understood that there was much more to it, and I let out a sigh of relief. In every chapter, changing POV's each time, you get a snippet of information that leads to another path, and that kept me absorbed till the ending. And with great pacing, the perfect amount of twists and a killer I wasn't expecting. This was an enjoyable and engaging addition to the series, and I'd happily recommend it to all.