The Last Party 2 - The End (Pages 82 - end)

 RATING: VERY GOOD

SPOILERS!!!

Ffion and Leo investigate the murder of Rhys Lloyd, and it seems that many had reasons to want Rhys dead, even Ffion herself. The man had seedy financial dealings connected with the development of the Shore, and most people in the village hated the development. Besides, Rhys was a seducer and frequented prostitutes in London and seduced young women.

Leo finds a connection between Ffion and Rhys, and Ffion confesses that when she was fifteen, she was part of the choir that Rhys directed, and one day after a party he seduced him. Ffion has to tell Leo that Seren is not her sister, but her daughter. Her parents decided that it would be better for everybody, and Seren does not know. 

Yet, this changes when Seren is talking to young Caleb and he notices the resemblance between Seren and Ffion as they find a photograph of Ffion and Rhys at the party. When Seren confronts Ffion, the latter can't deny her, and Seren is offended. So she tries to run away in a boat which capsizes. Thankfully, Ffion and Leo manage to save her, and Seren is admitted to hospital with hypothermia. The girl refuses to talk to Ffion.

It is around this time that Ffion and Leo finally discover the killers. Rhys's mother was upset when she discovered her husband's will among Rhys things, stating that he did not want the land to be developed. This was the original will, but Rhys presented a second one. Upset as she was, she hit her son in the head, and then Clemmie found her. Clemmie thought that if Rhys died, nobody would know that she owed so much money. So she convinced the older woman to remove the body, and she would help her. Clem wanted to believe that he was actually dead, but there was a moment when she thought that she heard a soft heartbeat, but she igonred it and took the body to the lake. 

Ffion and Leo arrest both women, and they confess everything. Ffion is happy to close the case, and she is hopeful that she and Leo could start something. However, she makes a discovery when she is springcleaning the shed in her mother's house. She finds some hidden photographs, which show Ffion looking at Rhys with obvious adoration. She never told her mother who Seren's father was, but it is clear that Elen knew. When Ffion confronts her, Elen confesses that she was furious to discover that this man seduced her fourteen-year-old daughter and got her pregnant. It is Elen who used Ricin to poison Rhys. It was the poison which killed Rhys, and not the blow or the lake. 

At the end of the book we discover that Ffion did not say anything and sank all the incriminating evidence in the lake. This means that she could never confess the truth to Leo, and her hopes for a romance were trashed that way.

I really enjoyed the novel, and I will read the next instalment.