The Last Friend – Harvey Church
The Knock on his Door…That Changed his Life
Fifteen years after Donovan’s daughter is abducted, Monica Russell knocks on his door. She claims she knew his daughter while in captivity and says she made a promise to tell him about their friendship.
The Last Friend to hold His Daughter’s Hand
When Monica claims to know where his daughter’s remains are buried, Donovan is immediately committed to doing whatever this last friend needs from him, regardless of the warnings from his family and friends.
The Friend Who Can Help Him Seek Vengeance
And when Monica claims to know where he can find the man who abducted, assaulted, and murdered his princess, Donovan knows he will stop at nothing to get his vengeance.
What Cost Will He Ultimately Pay?
Monica claims she can show Donovan a lot of things about his daughter, but what price will Donovan ultimately pay the young lady who claims to be the last friend to know his daughter?
Review Quotes
“An unexpected and exciting series of events that will grab readers.” -The Booklife Prize
“The short chapters and fast pacing coupled with an intriguing storyline made this a page turner that I could not put down.” – novelgossip.com
“There’s no way to read this and not feel the gravity of it.” 5-star review, an Amazon reader
“You know it’s a 5-star book when you can’t put it down and stay up way too late reading!” 5-star review by an Amazon reader
“This book was a fast read . . . if you like psychological thrillers, then this will be right up your alley!” Goodreads Reviewer
“The plot hummed along at an incredible rate.” 5-star review by an Amazon reader
Review
Many thanks to the author Harvey Church and blog tour organiser Caroline Vincent for the ARC in return for an honest review.
I have been thinking about this novel from the moment I finished it! How it made me feel and the things I liked about it and any elements I didn’t. Honestly, I couldn’t find one single fault. It’s a first-class, well crafted thriller, with outstanding characters and a gripping storyline.
The characters are all highly believable and written with an assured touch. The leading character Donovan perfectly embodies the sorrowful image of a father desperate to finally discover the fate of his daughter. I loved that he is flawlessly described as unable to move on with his life, but still functioning enough to have hope of a life with meaning. If only he can escape from the ghosts of his past that haunt his present. Then we have the last friend of the title. Almost perfectly revealed to us, like the complex layers of an onion, we get to know her and her connection to Donovan’s daughter. Yet parts of her remain elusive and you never know if she can be trusted.
The storyline is hard hitting in that it deals with the kidding napping of a young girl, but Harvey Crouch doesn’t seek to shock us with cheap imagery. He’s telling a story rooted in the depth of his characters suffering. It’s about emotions, grief, anger, pain and the journey each takes to gain retribution and final answers to questions their hearts are struggling to form.
The tension builds up slowly and needing answers as much as Donovan, I read on and on, feeling like I was taking the journey with him.
If you are looking for a solid and intelligent thriller, give the Last Friend a read. I enjoyed it so much; I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it any of my thriller reading friends.
The Last Friend can be purchased from Amazon.
About the author.
Harvey Church has a background in finance, which is how he found himself writing about the people and ridiculousness (sometimes the same thing) of that field in his Edwin Burrows light mystery series. Although he considers himself retired from that field (aka not working), he’s planning another three Edwin Burrows novels for 2018.
His first “serious” novel, The Last Friend, is a Kindle Scout writing competition winner and was published by Kindle Press on January 9, 2018. The BookLife Prize called it “an entertaining read for mystery and thriller fans alike,” and said it is “an unexpected and exciting series of events that will grab readers.” Harvey plans two sister novels to The Last Friend in 2018, one titled The Last Night (Spring 2018) and the other tentatively titled The Last Survivor.
For fun, Harvey likes to practice street magic and spends hours engineering tricks to wow his audiences. He is also an avid hockey fan (Go Leafs Go). He has a wife and two kids. His favorite color is blue, but he drives a black car because he read somewhere, back in the 90’s, that radar detectors have a tough time seeing them. Interestingly, he never speeds because he’s too busy singing like nobody’s watching, or maybe it’s that everybody is deaf.
He’s a supporter of double-chins, double-dates, and double-dipping (though never on double-dates), and obviously enjoys writing about himself in the third person, in the voice of the narrator from The Royal Tenenbaums.
Connect with Harvey Church by searching Harvey Church Mysteries on Facebook, at @hashtag_harv on Instagram, and @harveychurch1 on Twitter. You can also find him wandering the streets of Chicago, Toronto, Montreal or the Lido deck of a Princess Cruise ship. If you ever meet Harv, ask to see a magic trick!
You can follow Harvey Church on his website Harvey Church Mysteries, Twitter and Instagram.
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