Firstly I must say thank you to C. L. Taylor and the publishers for the advance review copy of Her Last Holiday and congratulate them on the subsequent small but effective changes which make the published cover so dramatic; especially to anyone who is anxious around steep drops.

Her Last Holiday is a classic suspense thriller. It is set in everyday surroundings with activities that are not beyond the expectations of most of us. Let’s face it, many of us feel that our lives are humdrum and lacking direction; what harm can there be in a retreat break to learn more about ourselves, to meet like-minded people and to experience something different?

The author has an easy writing style. The story is told in the third person, mainly from the perspectives of three ladies; Fran, Jenna and Kate, with the action switching from Jenna’s retreat and Fran’s retreat about three years later. Each chapter is clearly headed so that we are in no doubt which time period we are in and whose view we are seeing. C. L. Taylor uses a reflective technique so that key events are repeated from the different viewpoints, which is always useful.

As the book developed I felt I fully understood the characters of those three central ladies and of Tom who is the key link to them all. There are several peripheral characters that we learn just a little about and which may cause some confusion; if in doubt jot down their names.

The tension grows, the action keeps moving and the final chapters fly by as the various threads are tied up. Some of the reveals were as anticipated whilst others totally surprised me. I was however left wondering about one or two actions by lesser characters which I could not quite understand.

That said, Her Last Holiday is a very tense and entertaining psychological thriller. I have awarded 4.5 stars.