Last Night, a breathtaking thriller about a family shaken by lies, vengeance, and a cold-blooded crime.
In This Spotlight on Last Night
About Last Night
A fierce blizzard is burying the eastern seaboard, but on the icy Rhode Island shore renowned artist Maddie Morrison finds warm sanctuary from a contentious divorce at the legendary Ocean House. Hours later, her body is found buried under a blanket of snow and her little daughter, CeCe, has disappeared without a trace.
For Detective Conor Reid; his brother, Tom, a coast guard commander; and Maddie’s grieving sister, Hadley, the posh hotel becomes ground zero for an investigation. Trapped by the blizzard, they must hunker down and determine who in the young mother’s life could have possibly wanted her dead. There are stories of a twisted romantic past. Of old jealousies and resentments that still cut to the bone. And a history of greed, rage, and revenge that created the perfect storm for murder. A storm that has just begun.
ISBN-13: 9781542030205
Publisher: Amazon Publishing
Publication date: 02/01/2024
Source: Publisher
Editorial Reviews and Praise for Last Night
Library Journal
Conor Reid has the perfect proposal planned. The detective with the Connecticut Police Major Crime Squad and his girlfriend Kate Woodward are vacationing at the posh Rhode Island Ocean House hotel. When they encounter Hadley Cooke there, their plans fall apart. Hadley is worried about her sister, renowned artist Maddie Morrison. Maddie and her six-year-old daughter CeCe are living at the hotel due to a contentious divorce. The two left the hotel as a blizzard hit, and haven’t returned. When Hadley leaves to look for her sister, Conor and Kate follow. Hadley finds Maddie’s murdered body, but CeCe is missing.
Although Conor is sidelined from the official investigation, the Rhode Island police do keep him in the loop. He teams up to solve the case with his Coast Guard brother and Kate, who’s knowledgeable about the art scene. The murder investigation and frantic search for the missing child tie together Maddie’s past history as an artist and lover, in a story about the local community, jealousies, and greed.
VERDICT Readers of Rice’s previous novels involving art, family, and Conor (Last Day; The Shadow Box) will be most interested in this story, with its complicated conclusion.—Lesa Holstine
Kirkus Reviews
A prolific author blends characters old and new in a thriller tied to the destructive powers of greed and jealousy.
Rice’s latest novel literally starts with a bang. Acclaimed artist Maddie Morrison—her level of fame is compared to that of Andy Warhol and Banksy—is fighting her way through a raging blizzard on her way to meeting someone outside a historic hotel situated on Rhode Island’s coastline. Within seconds, she’s shot execution-style, and the killer finds her 6-year-old daughter, CeCe, hiding in the snow. The killer kidnaps CeCe, then Maddie’s sister discovers her body, and the race to catch a killer and rescue CeCe explodes on the page.
Rice fans will welcome the return of affable detective Conor Reid and Kate Woodward, his art historian girlfriend, who were featured in The Shadow Box (2021) and Last Day (2020), Rice’s two most recent thrillers.
The vast number of people who might want Maddie dead becomes shockingly evident as the investigation progresses. A gold-digging soon-to-be ex-husband tops the list, but Rice keeps the suspect pool growing as the tense search for CeCe continues and white- and blue-collar criminals crawl out of the proverbial woodwork.
Rice’s strengths as a storyteller pulse through this thriller, which she leavens with engaging observations on the art world, Rhode Island’s natural beauty, and, most of all, what it means to be a sister, one of her most popular themes….Maddie’s murder is solved, but the motives and the complexity of the surprising conspiracy behind it will stay with readers.
Take a deep breath and dive into this foreboding tale set on Rhode Island’s seashore.
About Luanne Rice, Author of Last Night
Luanne Rice is the Amazon Charts and New York Times bestselling author of thirty-eight novels, including The Shadow Box and Last Day. Several of her novels have been adapted for television, including Crazy in Love and Blue Moon, as well as Follow the Stars Home and Silver Bells for Hallmark Hall of Fame and Beach Girls as a Lifetime miniseries.
You can find and follow Luanne Rice on her website, and on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and X (formerly Twitter).
Titles by Luanne Rice
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