The Last to See Her by Courtney Evan Tate – Review, Excerpt & Q&A
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Description:
A woman disappears into the dark city night…
Gen is on the verge of a divorce from her cheating husband. When her sister, Meg, has a convention to attend in the Big Apple, she invites Gen along to celebrate her newly found freedom. But the perfect sisters’ getaway quickly goes awry when a tipsy Gen defiantly throws her wedding ring off the hotel room’s balcony. Then, wanting some fresh air, she decides to take a late-evening walk alone and vanishes without a trace.
The investigation that follows uncovers secrets—and betrayals—between sisters and spouses that will twist the truth in on itself until nothing is clear.
What really happened to Gen and who, besides Meg, was the last to see her?
Review:
The Last to See Her by Courtney Evan Tate is a standalone mystery thriller. The story begins with Gen, a romance novelist, who is planning to move back to her home town, since she wants to get away from a bad divorce. Her sister, Meg, who is a doctor, convinces her to meet in New York (she is at a convention) and celebrate her new freedom. They enjoy each other’s company, having dinner and even to the point of both getting drunk, with Gen saying she needs to take a walk and get some air, and Meg telling her to be careful. But Gen never comes back. Meg is desperate to find her sister, and the police will do nothing, until a day or two passes.
What follows are flashbacks through the POV’s of Gen, Meg and Thad (Gen’s husband), which is also in past and current formats. The police intereview Meg and then Thad to try to discover what happened to Gen, which does make both of them suspects separately. During these investigations, many secrets, lies and truths will be revealed, opening up a different light to Gen’s disappearance.
In Gen’s past Pov, we learn how she discovered her sister betrayed her trust by sleeping with Thad. Gen hires an investigator to spy on Thad, learning he was spending a lot of time with another women. In Gen’s current time, we find out that she was attacked, and saved, but now being imprisoned by Thad’s mentally challenged sister. According to the sister, Gen stands in the way to having her brother stay and take care of her. She just needs to decide what to do with Gen.
During Meg’s POV, she learns that Gen discovered her tryst with Thad, and feels guilty, even though she says it was a mistake that only happened once. The cop investigating the case learns about an investigator hired by Gen, and they also find a journal, which is the start of a new novel, with the story line covering a cheating husband, bad sister, and her plot to kill them. Did Gen plan her own disappearance? Was there any truth to the novel?
The Last to See Her was very well written by Tate, which kept us glued to the page, as there were so many twists and surprises, especially when the truths are discovered. I will say that I thought the constant changing of POV’s past and present could have been less, as at times it was a bit confusing. I also do not want to give more information, as it would be major spoilers. Overall, The Last to See Her was a great thriller.
Reviewed by Barb
Copy provided by Publisher
Genevieve tipped the courier and set the certified letter on the coffee table.
She knew what it was. She’d been waiting for it for al¬most a week.
Every day, she’d wondered, Will it be today?
And each day it wasn’t.
Until today.
Nervous energy buzzed through her fingers and toes, tin¬gling through her veins, like ants scurrying in a thousand directions. She paced for a minute, stopping at the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring at the magnificent cityscape lin¬ing the horizon. Buildings burst through the hazy pollution, their tips scraping the clouds.
People far below her were bustling here and there, quick to walk, slow to linger. They had things to do, places to be, and she didn’t.
Not anymore.
She ripped open the envelope, pulling the banded documents out, scanning through the words, hunting for the of¬ficial stamps and signatures that declared this an official act of the court.
They were all there.
This was real.
It was finally happening.
She focused her gaze on the words before her.
Honestly, they were simple.
The black-and-whiteness of them was stark and startling. There were no gray areas, no areas open to interpretation.
They reduced the last ten years of her life into a handful of legal phrases and technical terms. Incompatible differences associated with adultery, marriage dissolution and absolute divorce.
She stared at the words.
Soon, she would be absolutely divorced. She just had to sign the papers.
It had only taken six months of her life to iron out the details. To separate all of their worldly possessions into two camps, his and hers, to figure out who got what. Divorc¬ing a lawyer was the only thing worse than being married to one. No matter that he was the one in err, because he re-peatedly fucked someone else, he was out for blood and it took months to sort it all out.
But thank God no children were involved.
That’s what people kept saying, like it was a good thing or a blessing.
But if she’d had a child, she wouldn’t be all alone, and someone would still love her.
She felt like she was floundering. For so long, she’d put all of her energy into a man who hadn’t deemed her wor¬thy to stay faithful to. That had done something to her self-confidence. Something terrible. It wounded her in places she hadn’t known she had, and now she had to figure out who she was without him.
She wasn’t Genevieve Tibault anymore, one half of a whole. She was Genevieve McCready again, and what was Genevieve McCready going to do now, now that she had to stand alone?
She pushed herself off the couch and ran water in her cof¬fee cup. It was a habit Thad had taught her. He hated it when the cups developed coffee rings. She stared at the running water, and then set her cup down.
She didn’t have to do what he wanted anymore. If she wanted coffee rings or tea rings or any kind of fucking rings, she could have them.
It was an epiphany.
She was her own person again. It had been so long since she was a me instead of a we.
She looked around, at the condo she had fought so hard for…the marble floors that they couldn’t agree on—she’d wanted slate, he’d wanted marble—at the modern light fix¬tures that he’d gotten his way on, at even the tan wall col¬ors. She’d wanted gray.
Why had she even wanted this place?
It was all Thad, and none of Genevieve.
A sense of exuberance, a strange jubilation, welled up in her as she searched online for a realtor and then dialed the phone.
Bubbles of excitement swelled in her belly as she arranged a time for the realtor to come see the place.
And then again, as she stared at a map.
Unlike Thad, someone who had spent years building up his legal practice and honing his networking skills in this one city, she could work from anywhere.
She wrote novels.
She could work in Antarctica if she wanted to.
She didn’t want to, but she could.
She already had a plan. She knew where she was going, and what she was doing. She just had to have the courage to do it.
She picked up the phone and called her only sister, Meghan.
“Meg, I’m moving home.”
Her sister paused. “Home as in…?”
“Cedarburg.” There was a long pregnant pause now.
“Um. Why would you want to move back to Wisconsin? You haven’t lived there in…”
“In eighteen years. Since I left for college. Yes.”
“But…why?”
“I don’t know,” Gen said honestly. “I just feel a need to get back to my roots. I love Chicago, but the traffic and the noise…” She stared out from her twentieth floor windows again. Even from up here, even though the vehicles looked like Matchbox cars, she could still hear the honking. “This feels like Thad. I want to feel like me.”
“There’s nothing there,” Meg said carefully. “Nothing but fields and cold and—”
“And friendly people,” Gen interrupted. “And our parents, and familiarity, and open spaces, and distance from Thad.”
“But I won’t be there,” Meg reminded her gently. “I’m not moving back. I think you need to be near me, Gen. You need a support system. Divorce is no joke.”
“I know that,” Gen said patiently. “I’m the one living it. You’re still with your Prince Charming and point five chil¬dren living the American Dream, and I’m the one sitting in an empty condo.”
She fought to keep the bitterness out of her voice, as she compared Meg’s bustling, messy home to her own stark and empty condo in her mind’s eye.
“I’ll tell Joey that you’re counting him as a point five,” Meg chuckled.
“Well, he’s only five, so it’s fitting. I mean, honestly. He’s not a whole person yet.”
They laughed again, and then Meg sobered up.
“Is this really something you want to do?”
Gen nodded. “Yeah. I think so.”
Meg took a big breath. “Well, let’s do it, then. I’ll help you with your condo, and finding a moving company, and looking online for a house there, and hell’s bells, we’ve got a lot to do!”
“You don’t have to help with all that…” Gen trailed off, but Meg interrupted with their life-long pact.
“Sisters forever,” she decreed. They’d used that pact since they were kids. Whenever one didn’t want to do something, the other would remind them “sisters forever,” and they would concede.
Gen realized she wasn’t going to get away with not letting Meg get her hands in all the new plans.
“Sisters forever,” she agreed.
“But first, you promised to go to my convention with me,” Meg reminded her.
Gen hesitated.
“Don’t tell me you forgot. New York City? Spa days, shopping—you need a new wardrobe, sis—and nights on the town. You promised.”
Gen paused again, and Meghan cajoled, “Pleassssse. We need this. You need this. It can be your divorce party.”
“Okay,” Gen found herself saying. “Fine. I’ll still come.”
Her sister squealed and Gen hung up before Meg could get too excited. She was moving away from everything she’d known for over a decade. Even though the world seemed un¬settled and uncertain, for the first time in at least five years, she felt at peace.
Excerpted from The Last to See Her by Courtney Evan Tate, Copyright © 2020 by
Lakehouse Press, Inc. Published by MIRA Books
Q: Please give the elevator pitch for The Last to See Her.
A: Basically, two sisters (Meg and Gen) go away for the weekend, and only one (Meg) returns. When Meg frantically seeks out the help of the police, she is told suspiciously, that she was “the
last to see her.” Suspicion, plot twists and angst ensue.
Q: Which came first: the characters or plot line?
A: For me, it’s always the characters. I’m a character-driven writer. I see my characters first, spend time getting to know them, and then the plot comes second.
Q: Why do you love Meg and why should readers root for her?
A: Hmm. Meg is flawed, and so is her sister Gen. As readers read about them, and their stories unfold, I feel like it’s a true testament to the flawed human nature, and how we all have darkness and light inside of us. We all have redeeming qualities, and the not-so-redeeming. I’m hoping the reader will catch a glimpse of her/himself in both Meg and Gen.
Q: What was your last 5 star read?
A: Taryn Fisher, The Wives.
Q: What is one thing about publishing you wish someone would have told you?
A: Yikes. Umm. I think it’s: Be true to your story. Oftentimes, your beta readers, critique
partners, editors, publishers, and so on, all have different subjective opinions about the
storyline. But the fact is, everyone has a different opinion, and the story, the vision, is yours. Be true to it. If you try to please everyone, your storyline will come out muddy and nothing like you envisioned.
Q: Stories about sisters …. so delicious! Why so popular?
A: Readers love to relate to a storyline, to be able to drop themselves into the storyline and
imagine themselves there. So many people have a sister, and so it’s easy for them to do. Also, sisters have such a fierce bond. Any storyline about fierce bonds being broken or tampered with… that’s a nail-biter. 🙂
Q: Secrets…. Why is domestic suspense so popular?
A: People love to scare themselves. People LOVE LOVE to scare themselves with ideas about what could actually happen. Domestic Thrillers, often, are storylines that could happen to anyone. We explore dark things that lurk in the shadows, just beyond the perimeter of perceived safety. People love to voyeuristically examine the dark side of life… in a safe way that ends when the last pages have been read, and the covers of the book have been closed.
Courtney Evan Tate is the nom de plume (and darker side) of the New York Times and USA
Today bestselling author Courtney Cole. As Courtney Evan Tate, she is the author of Such Dark
Things and I’ll Be Watching You. Courtney grew up in rural Kansas and now lives with her
husband and kids in Florida, where spends her days dreaming of new characters and storylines
and surprising plot twists and writing them beneath rustling palm trees. Visit her on Facebook or
at courtneycolewriters.com
Social Links:
Author Website
Twitter: @Court_Writes
Instagram: @CourtneyColeWrites
Facebook: @CourtneyColeWrites
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