The Last Time I Saw You

March 11, 2019
In this uneven page-turner from the pseudonymous Constantine (The Last Mrs. Parrish), blueblood Baltimore surgeon Kate English’s enviable life implodes with the shocking murder of her mother, a beloved philanthropist—followed by chilling texts insinuating she’s next. To make matters worse, Kate wants her architect husband, who she’s convinced has been cheating on her, to move out of the family mansion, but he insists on staying so he can help protect her and their four-year-old daughter. About the only bright spot is Kate’s unexpected reconciliation after the funeral with long-estranged childhood best friend Blaire Barrington, who offers to apply the detective skills she’s acquired writing a bestselling mystery series to the case. Though increasingly ingenious twists only spotlight the flimsiness of the players, Constantine (sisters Lynne and Valerie Constantine) expertly ratchets up the tension as the nursery-rhyme-referencing threats mount, leading to a security breach that strikes perilously close to home. Those who value plot over character development in their psychological thrillers will be satisfied. Agent: Bernadette Baker-Baughman, Victoria Sanders & Assoc.

March 1, 2019
"Baltimore Heiress Bludgeoned to Death in Her Home"--and now the killer is after the dead woman's daughter."Only days ago, Kate had been mulling over what to get her mother for Christmas. She couldn't have known that instead of choosing a gift, she'd be picking out her casket." Unfortunately, things are about to get much worse. Immediately after the funeral, Kate receives a text. "You think you're sad now, just wait. By the time I'm finished with you, you'll wish you had been buried today." That same night, she finds three mice in her bathroom sink with their eyes gouged out, accompanied by another alarming message. "They all ran after a charming life / he took their eyes with a carving knife / Did you ever see such a beautiful sight / As three dead mice." Kate and her semi-estranged husband, Simon, hire round-the-clock security guards, since one thing these people have is plenty of money. Also Ivy League degrees, designer clothes, a nanny, a cook, a beach house, a foundation, and big, successful careers. Simon is an architect, and Kate is a pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon, or at least she's supposed to be--there's not a single detail that makes this feel believable, unless "she'd worked her butt off to get into med school and to ace the MCATs" counts. Maybe complaints about the money-porn aspect of the book seem picky, but the whodunit aspect, which is where it lives or dies, is not much more substantial. Suspicious details pile up so quickly against the various suspects that one never actually suspects them, and then so much backstory has to be shoehorned in at the last minute to support the solution to the puzzle that it's not very satisfying.The two sisters who write as Constantine (The Last Mrs. Parrish, 2017) can do better than this.

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April 15, 2019
The second "Last" domestic thriller (after The Last Mrs. Parrish, 2017) from Constantine (the pen name of sisters Lynne and Valerie Constantine) once again revolves around a complicated friendship between two women in an affluent setting. Dr. Kate English, a woman who has it all, reunites with her estranged best friend, successful crime novelist Blaire Barrington, after the shocking murder of Kate's socialite mother, and the narrative of their shared past sets a there is something missing here tone. Blaire's investigative skills are useful in unmasking the monster behind the threats and gruesome gifts Kate subsequently receives. Kate totally unravels as her faith in her marriage is shaken to the core, and her father's behavior is called into question. And why had her mother planned to change her will? An absorbing tale for readers willing to surrender to some unlikely character behaviors and an occasionally predictable plot, although fans of Gone Girl and its successors will appreciate an ending that puts a pricey shoe on one foot and then changes it again . . . and again.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2019

At the funeral of her mother, murdered in her upscale Baltimore home, Kate English reunites with once close friend Blaire Barrington, from whom Kate has been estranged since her marriage to the stuck-up Simon. Best-selling mystery author Blaire supports Kate through her trauma but becomes increasingly aggressive as she grills friends and family about the murder. Will the author, actually sisters Lynne and Valerie Constantine, pull off a surprise twist worthy of their eye-popping LibraryReads pick, The Last Mrs. Parrish? With a 150,000-copy first printing.

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