Last Seen Alive by Claire Douglas - Review

I'd read a previous book by Claire Douglas (Local Girl Missing) and while I did enjoy it, I couldn't say I found it unputdownable and I didn't remember much about it afterwards. Maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind, because her latest, Last Seen Alive, had me thoroughly gripped.

It begins when Libby - recovering from stressful events in both her recent and more distant past - and her husband Jamie (plus dog Ziggy, who was great) agree to a week's house swap, exchanging their very ordinary flat in Bath for a beautiful, incredibly luxurious country house in Cornwall following a desperate request from a stranger. It's clear there is more going on here than meets the eye, and indeed strange and often alarming things start to happen very quickly. 

While this premise - young couple move into a remote house, scary stuff happens - was in itself not especially original, I really enjoyed this part of the book. Claire Douglas builds up the tension very effectively and while it was obvious that *something* was going on and all was not as it appeared, I had absolutely no idea what. I was also finding the straightforward, linear style of storytelling quite refreshing, devoid (apart from a very short section right at the beginning) of the flashbacks, flash-forwards and multiple narratives and timeframes so beloved of current psychological fiction. I have nothing against these devices which can work very well indeed, but they do seem to be all but compulsory now.

This does change, however, in the second part of the book, when everything suddenly gets turned on its head in a rather mind-bending way and it takes a while for the reader to work out what on earth is happening. This was very effectively and cleverly done, though it's difficult to say any more without risk of spoilers! And yes, there are flashbacks and yes, there are changes of narrator - though it is not overdone.

All in all I enjoyed this enormously.  The plot was unpredictable, often surprising, and does become quite complex, but ultimately the twists and turns made sense The only thing which jarred a little was the ending, which left the reader on a knife edge with matters unresolved - if with a certain sense of natural justice perhaps being dispensed. While I'm not someone who necessarily requires everything to be tied up neatly with a bow, though, this was just a step too far in terms of future uncertainty! I hope Claire Douglas will at some point resolve this, perhaps through a reference in a future book.

A recommended read!