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Author: J.P. Pomare

Category: Thriller / suspense

ISBN: 9781869718183

RRP: 32.99

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Synopsis

Ever have the feeling you’re being watched? A smart, unsettling, unputdownable literary thriller from the award-winning, critically acclaimed writer

Lina and Cain are doing their best to stay afloat. Money has been tight since Cain returned from active duty, and starting a family is proving harder than they thought.

Putting Lina’s inherited lake house up for rent at weekends seems like the solution to at least one of their problems. The secluded house is more of a burden than a retreat, anyway, and fixing up the old place makes Cain feel useful for once.

But letting strangers stay in their house might not be the best idea. Someone is watching – their most mundane tasks, their most intimate moments – and all the things Lina and Cain want to keep hidden will be exposed.

A darkly riveting psychological thriller from the bestselling author of Call Me Evie, In the Clearing and Tell Me Lies.

‘A twisty thriller … Possibly not one to read in your rented holiday cottage. I’ll certainly be checking the light fittings at my next beach holiday rental’ The Age

‘Chilling . . . Should keep readers up at night. Pomare knows how to keep the pages turning’ Publishers Weekly

‘An emerging master of the taut and fast-flowing psychological thriller’ ArtsHub

‘a plot that will drag breathless readers to the finish line’ Herald Sun

‘This is a rip-snorting read that burbles along on fine prose, from a novelist who while still early in his career has already stamped his mark as a masterful storyteller. An excellent read from a must-read author’ Good Reading

‘Tense and dark and twisty – don’t look away’ Michael Robotham, author of When You Are Mine

‘J.P. Pomare’s first two books rocked my world – this one manages to exceed them. The Last Guests is a cunning, complex, contemporary thrill-ride.’ Christian White, author of The Nowhere Child

‘The Last Guests is a twisty thriller with an ending I didn’t see coming. A cautionary tale for our times.’ Megan Goldin, author of The Night Swim

‘Pomare’s latest creation will keep you guessing right up to the last page.’ Rose Carlyle, author of The Girl in the Mirror

‘Couldn’t put it down, can’t stop thinking about it. Bump it to the top of your must-read list immediately.’ Anna Downes, author of The Safe Place

J.P. Pomare is an award-winning writer whose work has been widely published. His debut novel, Call Me Evie, was critically acclaimed and won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel. Pomare’s novels In The Clearing and The Last Guests were critically acclaimed bestsellers, while his novel Tell Me Lies was a #1 Audible bestseller and was shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel and the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction. The Wrong Woman is his fifth book.

He was born in New Zealand and resides in Melbourne with his wife and daughter.

The Last Guests by J P Pomare

J P POMARE has always been drawn to the dark. He grew up on a horse-racing farm in small town New Zealand with two brothers, a sister, two cats and two border collies.

Eventually he would find himself leaving Rotorua and landing in Melbourne, Australia. For three years he has produced and hosted

a podcast, interviewing guests
from Joyce Carol Oates and Dorthe Nors to John Safran and E Lockhart. He also worked in marketing but in the evening he was always writing.

A first love for literary fiction quickly developed into a taste for sharp, fast paced story telling. Stories that surprised him, stories that tied a cold knot in the pit of his stomach.

Good Reading recommends:
In the Clearing ★★★★
Call Me Evie ★★★★★
Tell me Lies ★★★★★
The Wrong Woman ★★★★★

Follow J P Pomare on twitter at @JPPomare or visit jppomare.com

Good Reading Review

One of the most talented and exciting fresh voices to emerge in Australasian fiction in recent years, award-winning Melbourne-based Maori storyteller J P Pomare continues to set the bar high with his latest standalone psychological thriller.

Lina and Cain are a young married couple in Auckland struggling as they deal with past traumas and present secrets.A former SAS soldier, Cain has gone from being elite to feeling lost as a personal trainer with a battered body who can’t get his business going. He turned to gambling to recapture the risk he misses. Lina is a paramedic who has her own secrets.When Cain suggests they rent out Lina’s childhood home on Lake Tarawera to short-stay tourists, she agrees.The extra money coming in could help.What could go wrong? As it turns out, a lot. Strange things, then deadly things.

Pomare conjures a deliciously tense tale that entwines ‘domestic noir’ with explorations of issues including surveillance, technology, voyeurism, and more. Expectations are set, twisted and upturned. This is a rip-snorting read that burbles along on fine prose, from a novelist who while still early in his career has already stamped his mark as a masterful storyteller.An excellent read from a must-read author.

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson