Frank hasn’t spoken to his daughter Maggie in years, so he’s surprised when she calls him out of the blue to tell him she’s getting married. He’s even more surprised to discover that her fiancé is the wealthy son of a business tycoon, and the site of the wedding is a secluded resort-style property that Frank never would have imagined visiting in his wildest dreams as a Gulf War veteran and UPS driver. But something doesn’t seem right. Maggie’s fiancé is withdrawn and secretive, the story of how they met doesn’t add up, and Maggie keeps warning her father not to ask questions. Then Frank gets an anonymous letter – a young woman is missing, and Maggie’s fiancé is implicated. What really happened, what does Maggie know, and what happens when another woman goes missing from the wedding party?
There are many elements at play in The Last One at the Wedding, hints of what kind of book it might be: horror in a deceptively idyllic setting, a locked-room mystery where wedding guests drop off one by one, a woman-in-danger plot where dad must come to the rescue. None of these more typical storylines roll out by the end of the book. Instead, the story is ultimately about a man’s second chance at fatherhood, and the unsolvable mystery of why some kids turn out good and others don’t. A page-turning read with quieter and surprising undercurrents. – Michelle (Sunset)
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