I liked Luanne Rice’s suspense novel, Last Day. My biggest problem? I wanted to love it as much as I loved her book The Silver Boat. Rice often writes about sisters, their love for each other despite their differences. I bogged down in Last Day, though. It just seemed to drag on for too long.

When Kate Woodward was sixteen, she and her younger sister, Beth, were held captive in the basement of the family art gallery, tied to their mother while thieves stole paintings. Although the police released the two teens, their mother died. For twenty-three years, Kate has tried to be there for her sister. When she couldn’t reach her for three days, Kate insisted the police break in. She finds Beth murdered in her bed, and blames herself that she couldn’t protect her younger sister. She also blames Beth’s husband for the murder.

Detective Conor Reid had held and consoled Kate when her mother died. For all these years, he’s watched over the Woodward sisters. He’s seen Kate remain restless, and take to the skies as a pilot. He watched Beth marry, run the family art gallery, have a daughter. He saw Beth’s husband cheat on her. Like Kate, he blames himself that he couldn’t protect the sisters. And, he blames Beth’s husband for the murder.

There’s a great deal of beauty in Last Day. There’s quite a bit of discussion of art because of the family art gallery, and the family love of museums. The book is also set in a beautiful beach area of Connecticut, an area the sisters and their friends appreciate. That beauty is a sharp contrast to the ugliness of murder, both in the present and the past.

Last Day is a complex suspense story of family and secrets. Readers meet the two women who were best friends to Kate and Beth. They watch Beth’s teen daughter, Sam, struggle to cope with the loss of the woman she loved most in life. Reid digs into the family life as he investigates Pete, Beth’s husband. And, Pete’s lover struggles because of her past friendship with Beth. As close as Kate was to her sister, though, there are still secrets sisters keep from each other.

But, there was just something missing in this book, for me. Maybe it was passion because Kate has been frozen since her mother’s death.  At times, Kate seemed to be a protector, rather than a sister who cherished Beth and Sam. But, she was always too cold to stay in one place, and was always on the move.

I really do understand that Kate’s personality is an important part of the story. And, I don’t know if that’s why I wasn’t caught up in the book or not. Last Day just seemed too long, and too lacking in passion for my personal taste.

Luanne Rice’s website is https://www.luannerice.net/

Last Day by Luanne Rice. Thomas & Mercer, 2020. ISBN 9781542018203 (hardcover), 402p.

*****
FTC Full Disclosure – I received the book to review for a journal.