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title: Last Seenauthor: J.T. Ellison
published: 8.1.2025
publisher: Thomas & Mercer
genre(s): thrillers
pages: 424
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | BookBub | BookHype | StoryGraph | Goodreads
rating:
the blurb
From New York Times bestselling author J.T. Ellison comes a twisted psychological thriller about the bonds of family and the disconnect between memory and the truth.
Come here. Come closer.
Halley James knows her marriage is over. But she’s not prepared for the rest of her life to fall apart too.
No one can hear you. No one can help you.
She just lost her job at the forensics lab. Her dad needs emergency surgery. But the biggest blow comes back home in Marchburg, Virginia, where she discovers her mother didn’t actually die in a car crash. Her mom was murdered—and her father lied about it all these years.
I have nothing to hide from you. Are you hiding something from me?
Since she was six years old, it’s been Halley and her dad. Now, she doesn’t know what to believe. Desperate for the truth, Halley chases down a lead in Brockville, Tennessee. But all there is not as it seems. Brockville’s utopian charm hides a chilling darkness. And Halley’s search for answers threatens to expose an unspeakable reality.
a few notes
trigger warnings: ❗
- graphic: murder, death of parent, violence
- moderate: mental illness, emotional abuse
- minor: sexual assault, adult/minor grooming/relationship, trafficking
POV: multi
setting: Marchburg, VA, Brockville, TN
keywords/phrases: betrayal, murder, lies, family
tropes: troubled protagonist, high stakes, gaslighting, crime in the family
spice: 0/5🔥
language: 5/5🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
mood reading: in the mood for a twisty read with dark secrets, mystery, and deep emotions.
bonus points: the setting and the mention of The Goode
my review
This is my third J.T. Ellison, and what I’ve discovered is that this woman can write a thriller.
the story
The story line was deep and layered, with shifting perspectives, timelines, and voices adding to the suspense and anticipation. The interwoven stories made for a twisty and tense read, The use of these tools also led me to a theory I held for much of the book, only to discover just how wrong I was.
the setting
Much of the story takes place in the fictional twin of Brockville, a small town created to be a utopia. The author created such an eerie vibe, culty meets Stepford Wives. It is a purposely and meticulously planned town that seems perfect on the surface. But that perfection hides deep and dark secrets, which creates a pool of suspects to keep the reader guessing.
the characters
I love a flawed character, the feeling of reality and authenticity that they bring to a story. This book had several, all very believable. Halley herself was scarred in ways and for reasons even she didn’t know, providing the impetus for her actions and thoughts for much of the book. Theo, her estranged husband, definitely had his flaws, too, which made the way he felt and acted in different scenarios more understandable. There wasn’t truly a main actor in this story that wasn’t flawed in some way, which informed so much of the story in such interesting ways. In reality, this book is as much a family drama piece as it is a psychological thriller.
in conclusion
This is a fast-paced thriller with no shortage of potentially evil bad guys, including the mysterious narrator that appears from time to time. J.T. Ellison is masterful in the way she creates mind-bending plots that mess with the readers in all the right ways. She creates red herrings that are so subtle that only later does the reader recognize them as such, allowing for delicious twists and turns. I love being wrong when I read mysteries and thrillers, so I appreciated that I had a lot of different theories throughout, very few of them correct. And the ending suggests there might be more for these characters in store.
bonus points
There’s also a bit of an Easter egg, the setting of Marchburg, Virginia also being the setting for Ellison’s 2019 release, Good Girls Lie. That book is set at a private school, The Goode School. Halley’s father in this book is a teacher at that school, the events of Good Girls Lie referenced a few times within this story. That being said, they can be read independently of one another. You can read my review of Good Girls Lie here.
About J.T. Ellison
J.T. Ellison began her career as a presidential appointee in the White House, where a nuclear physicist taught her how to obsess over travel itineraries and make a seriously good pot of Earl Grey, spawning both her love of loose leaf and a desire for control of her own destiny. Jaded by the political climate in D.C., she made her way back to her first love, creative writing. More than 20 novels later, she is an award-winning New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with thrillers published in 27 countries and 15 languages. She is also the EMMY-award winning cohost of A WORD ON WORDS, a literary interview TV show. She lives in Nashville with her husband and two small gray minions, known as cats in some cultures. She thinks they’re furry aliens.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2025 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge: Author Edition
- 2025 Linz the Bookworm & Logophile Reading Challenge
- 2025 PopSugar Reading Challenge
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