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The Last Party
It’s the party to end all parties….but not everyone is here to ring in the New Year. At midnight, one of them is dead. By morning, all of them are suspects.
Tucked into the mountains of North Wales, the village of Cwm Coed is bordered by a shimmering lake on one side and an army of pine trees on the other. But the tranquility is shattered when homegrown celebrity Rhys Lloyd returns to develop a luxury resort on the shore opposite the village.
Old resentments begin to rise to the surface, and new tensions emerge between the locals and the outsiders. Still, when the resort throws open its doors for a New Year’s Eve party, with champagne flowing through the night, none of the villagers can resist the invitation.
The next morning, a body is found floating in the lake—and it’s Rhys. Ffion Morgan is summoned to investigate, but with her deep ties to the village she dreads what she might find out about her neighbors, friends, and family. In a village with this many secrets, murder is just the beginning.
This discussion guide was shared and sponsored in partnership with Soucebooks
Book club questions for The Last Party by Cassidy Lucas
Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.
What are the residents of Cwm Coed’s complaints about The Shore and vice versa? Do you think the two communities could have been bridged? Was the New Year’s party the right tactic? Did you see any other attempts to make peace throughout the book?
How does the author play with structure and timeline in the novel? What was the effect of the mirrored scenes in the second half?
How did the chapters documenting Rhys’s final months shape your understanding of the rest of the story?
Compare Ffion’s and Leo’s investigative techniques. Are their strategies shaped more by personality or jurisdiction? Who is the better detective?
Why does Leo struggle to address his supervisor’s myriad inappropriate comments? Why do Rhys, Jonty, and Crouch all disguise their bad behavior with humor?
Who was your leading suspect throughout the book and why?
What was Rhys’s original vision for The Shore? If he were able to secure backing for that concept, how do you think the events of the book would be different?
Why didn’t Ffion consider her encounter with Rhys to be rape until she discussed it with Leo? How does the “asking for it” narrative prevent people who have been assaulted from seeking help, even when help is desperately needed?
Clemmie Northcote wonders if not saving someone counts as murder. What do you think? What is Clemmie’s motivation throughout the book?
How would you describe the true murderer’s motive? How does Ffion handle the truth? What do you think you would have done in her position?
The Last Party Book Club Questions PDF
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