Absolutely love Tim Weaver as an author and this book was well worth the wait ! What a brilliant book, it started out not giving much from The Blackbird but it quickly gave a rollercoaster ride until the very last page. It had surprises and twists. Loved it 📚 now the long wait for the next instalment.
My thanks as always to NetGalley and to publisher Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for the early read.

Another solid David Raker story that typically moves from intriguing to audacious. The writing is smooth and easy to read, the lead characters are engaging and there are nice tie-ins with previous stories.
A good addition to the series.
With thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an early copy in exchange for an independent review.

All of Tim Weaver's books are excellent and this one was too. His plots are very clever and unravel at a good pace. Thank you @NetGalley for this book.

Wow - book 12 and Tim Weaver has not lost his touch! A man and his son queue to go into the ghost house at a theme park. They are seen on CCTV going in and don't not come back out. Rebekah (from Missing Pieces) decides she would like Raker to look into disappearance of her mother many years ago. Surely two disappearances' so far apart cannot be connected can they? It makes for a very Raker/Weaver start. Raker starts by looking at the time when Rebekah's mother vanished.

Woven into the main narrative are a number of snippets of story. Some are obviously connected, some are far less obvious. Fans will not be surprised to know that things are not straightforward for Raker. The police have not been fans of his at any stage of his career really and a storm seems to be gathering. Add that to the fact that the investigation takes him in to waters at least as dark as any previous ones and the stage is set for a very good read.

Weaver's characters are almost always well crafted and convincing. The ones in this book are no exception to that. There are new people and some old friends. He is a master of pace and controlled tension. OK it's playing games but Weaver does it so well. A chapter ends on a key thought/aspect... And then so does the next one! There is light and dark here and bubbling around that ideas are building. Some bits I maybe worked out. The major twist I certainly did not!

Fans should love this. People new to Weaver's writing really should start far earlier in the series than this - you miss too much otherwise. It's worth noting that Missing Pieces, a standalone story from a couple of years ago, does have some background to this story. Personally I would recommend anyone reading that one. It's not Raker but it is a very good read. Peering into my crystal ball makes me think that we may not have seen the last of Rebekah yet.

My review of the last book (Blackbird) said I loved the ending and laughed out loud. The way things are left with Colm - long a favourite character of mine - made it obvious that this tale should have a Colm dimension and it does. The ending of this one left me with a real feeling of anticipation - I WILL read the next one. These are thriller crime tales but as with any decent writer the characters development over time adds greatly to the enjoyment.

Not for the first time my partner and I agreed that even an ordinary Weaver story is better than most thing we read. This is definitely not an ordinary Weaver tale and the 5 stars are happily given.

I have been a huge fan of the David Raker novels and The Last Goodbye is once again a fanastic thrilling read! Now, you do need to accept that some things are a little bit too wild to be true, but it only adds to the excitement!

The Last Goodbye, Tim Weaver.

It’s a good day when a new Tim Weaver book drops.

David Raker returns, with a case as complex as ever. Tom Brenner and his son enter a haunted house and never leave.
Forty years ago Fiona Murphy walked out of her house and vanished without a trace.
David Raker links the cases and finds himself about to uncover secrets that were never supposed to be exposed.

You might expect a drop in quality or plot from an author so far into a series. You won’t find it here. The Last Goodbye is as tightly wound as ever book that came before. Every twist and turn will take you by surprise. This is as addictive as them all. Weaver is a stand out in his genre.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #PenguinRandomHouse for my copy

The Last Goodbye is number 12 in the David Raker series, he specialises in finding missing people. Tom Brenner and his son Leo enter a ghost house in a theme park but never exit!!! David is contacted by Rebekah to find her mother who disappeared 40 years ago....are these two incidents linked? Such a great plot so many twists and turns. David Raker needs his wits about him as he tries to solve these cases and the ongoing plot with his friend Healy who is now in prison. Such a fantastic book, I couldn't put it down, very enjoyable. Congratulations to Tim Weaver for bringing it all together!

I've read most of the David Raker series and really enjoyed all of them so was thrilled to have the opportunity to read The Last Goodbye, the latest in the series.
Tom Brenner and his 9 year old son Leo disappear from a theme park and David Raker is contacted by Rebekah Murphy to help find her mother Fiona who disappeared nearly 40 years ago. How are these disappearances connected to each other and to another missing woman?
Tim Weaver skilfully connects the various plotlines as the story cleverly comes together. Raker is a likeable hero and this was a complex and compelling read. I was also invested in what happened next to Raker's friend Healy, now in prison for faking his own death and using an assumed identity. My only criticism of The Last Goodbye is that it is an overly long novel that I feel could have been slightly edited. However, it's still an enjoyable read and another great addition to the series. Recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

I love the David Raker series. I love knowing that when I pick up these books I am going to enjoy it. The only question with Tim Weaver is whether it's going to be a four star or five star and this was definitely the latter.

Weaver always pulls me in with a great synopsis, here we have a father and son going missing at the fair after stepping into the ghost house and never coming out. Decades earlier, a woman walks out on her family with no warning and yet now starts making contact with her daughter.

Raker is pulled in to investigate what happened all those years ago and takes us through a thrilling ride.

As always, the story is complex and requires a lot of concentration to keep it straight in your head but if you have read his books before you will understand this and know it is definitely worth it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Michael Joseph publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a big David Raker fan and have read all of this authors previous books about as well as a stand alone which introduced Rebekah as a character. In this novel Rebekah and David come together as she hires him to look into her mother’s disappearance. Fiona Murphy walked out on Rebekah, her father and her brothers nearly 40 years earlier when Rebekah was 3.
All her life she has wondered what happened and hopes missing person investigator, David, can bring her closure.
There is also a strand of the plot which relates to David’s friend Healy, now in prison for faking his own death. The police are desperate to make him incriminate Raker who has been helping him stay off grid.
David has a lot on his plate and has to use all his ingenuity to stay one step ahead of a particularly nasty enemy as well as the police.
I really enjoyed the intrigue interwoven into the story. There are chapters told from various view points and time periods but they all come together at the end.
Raker is a great hero, relentless and brave, trying to do good and find out as much as possible for his client in order to help her come to terms with her loss at a young age.
Healy is in a difficult situation and wrestles with his conscience, trying to keep Raker safe but knowing that it might be at the expense of his own life.
The conclusion of the book was very clever and it left me wanting to read more about both David and Healy and perhaps some of the other characters.
If you’ve read the earlier books you won’t want to miss this one and if you haven’t you’ve got a real treat in store catching up!
Thanks to NetGalley and Michael Joseph for my arc.

4+ stars


I'd like to say I read this in one sitting, but I didn't.
I stopped to make a coffee when the tension got to its peak.

Weaver is a master storyteller, he has several strands that even by half way through the book I don't see tying up.
Then the book ends, and it's all done neatly.
On top of that, we are forever moving forward in the tale of Raker and Healy, something I'd happily read without all the other stuff going on.
This one left me a bit misty eyed at the end.

As always, it's going to feel like the longest wait for the next book.