The characters are excellent, the writing is good, but the storytelling is hampered by jumping back and forth in time. The plot and setting are probably more interesting for those who like the movie industry and the crazy it attracts.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
"The Final Act" by Lisa Gray is a suspenseful and addictive thriller set in Hollywood. While the first part of the book, with its timelines jumping back and forth, was a bit confusing, the second half was intense, keeping me constantly guessing what was happening.

The story is told from two points of view and timelines: Madison in 2002, and Detective Sarah in 2022. I enjoyed both storylines, and both characters were very likeable.

Madison had always dreamt of being a famous actress and living a glamorous lifestyle in the spotlight. But 20 years later, she still craves these things. Despite starring in some smaller movies, she has not achieved the fame she desired. Now, she is missing, her purse was found in a park and no one has seen her since Monday. This is where Detective Sarah from the missing person unit comes in.

The story explores Madison's struggles in pursuing her dreams, the darker side of Hollywood, the influence of money, and the ceaseless pursuit of goals.

Heartbreaking twists, the harsh reality, the unfairness of power, and manipulation will keep you turning the pages.

Thank you, NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this copy!

Thank you @lisagraywriter#thomasandmercer for my complimentary copy. My thoughts are my own. This one is highly recommended by my friends @thrillerbookloversthepulse!
Actress MADISON JAMES hasn’t had a really good acting job in years. One day, Madison disappears, and her purse is found along a hiking trail by a young woman who promptly posts about it on her social media. This starts a media frenzy!

Enter Detective Sarah Delaney, who is new to the missing persons squad and must navigate working with a new partner as she muddles through the darker side of Hollywood.

The story, which is part police procedural and part narrative, is recounted through dual perspectives and timelines: Madison in 2002, and Detective Sarah in 2022. There is a large cast of characters, and as the story unfolds, the reader gets a glimpse of Hollywood, with its hints of murder, and other unsavory acts.

I enjoyed both storylines, though I think I liked Madison’s story more. The story slows just a bit in the middle, then at 70%, the action dramatically picks, leading to an astonishing conclusion!

Madison, a former, struggling Hollywood actress, suddenly becomes famous when she disappears. She becomes a TikTok sensation when an amateur investigator discovers her purse. Social media EXPLODES and everyone wants to know....
What happened to Madison?

A very fast paced, ADDICTIVE, popcorn thriller that will make you TINGLE with excitement as you read! You won't believe the ending!
I really enjoyed this one!

This was a great read! I really enjoyed the Hollywood setting of this book and almost listened to the full story in one go (kids needed dinner so I had to stop for a bit!). I look forward to reading more by this author.

This story hooked me from the start and didn’t let go! I loved Sarah’s character and would love to see another book with her and get more of her backstory! The back and forth between Madison and Sarah was perfect and kept me wanting to read on! I had no idea how the story was going to end. So many good twists! It was also a really quick read at 272 pages and I felt like it flew by!

🔪 Hollywood
🔪 Dark side of fame
🔪 Thriller
🔪 Police Procedural
🔪 Dual POV/Timeline

🎬𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐜𝐭🎬
𝔱𝔥𝔯𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔢𝔯
🗓️𝙿𝚞𝚋 𝚍𝚊𝚝𝚎: 𝙹𝚞𝚕𝚢 𝟷, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟺
𝕄𝕪 𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘: 𝟜.𝟝 ★★★★✬

🤏𝚃𝚎𝚎𝚗𝚢 𝚝𝚒𝚍𝚋𝚒𝚝…All she wanted was to see her name in lights & now her disappearance has her as front page news.

😋𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚊𝚢...First off, I can’t believe this is my first Lisa Gray book because holy hell! This one WAS.SO.
GOOD! Backlist, I will be coming for you soon. 🏃‍♀️All Madison James wanted was to be a final girl..you know the one in horror movies who gets to live. 🙌She is still trying so hard for this even 20 years later, but goes missing on the way to an audition. Guys, I am such a sucker for these Hollywood thrillers! 🎬🔪This one shows us the ugly side of the business, but also takes you on so many other paths you won’t know what is next. 🌀We are dying over this one @thrillerbookloversthepulse & want yall to save the date or preorder this one stat. You won’t be disappointed!

@lisagraywriter this was a total blast!! Thank you! 🥰👌

Thank you, Lisa Gray, and NetGalley for a digital copy of this book. The opinions are my own and freely given.

Madison James, an up-and-coming actress from the early 2000's gets blackballed by one of Hollywood's elites. Fast-forward 20-ish years and Madison who is trying to make a comeback goes missing. No one seems to take her disappearance seriously until her purse is found on a hiking trail. Enter Detective Sarah Delaney, new to the Missing Persons Unit (but not a new detective) who investigates all of Madison's comings and goings in the days leading up to her disappearance.

This book alternates between Madison when she first arrived in Hollywood leading up to her disappearance and Sarah being called to investigate. This book addresses the #MeToo movement. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Addresses how the rich and powerful in Hollywood can buy their way through anything and everything if they want. There are a few twists, and some small turns. I read this book super-fast and didn't want to put it down.

Twenty years ago, Madison James was a Hollywood actress with dreams of becoming a successful movie star. She starred in a few films and then seemed to disappear from the big screen. Then all these years later, she disappears completely and her story goes viral when her purse is found in a park by a hiker who posts it on Tik Tok.

Sarah Delaney and Rob Moreno are the detectives on the case and the search is on to find Madison! This wasa a quick read with many twists and it really dove into the dark and not so glamorous side of Hollywood. It’s told through dual timelines alternating between Madison’s past life and the things she went through in her quest to find fame and the her disappearance in the present. It all comes together in the end when the very satisfying ending reveals what really happened to Madison!

Bravo! What an intriguing story! At its heart, it’s a mystery that delves into the “glamour” of Old Hollywood, told through a dual timeline of Madison in her golden years of being a young actress in the early 2000s and her harsh reality in 2022. The narrative is rich with deceit, corruption, and all the glitter and spotlights of Tinseltown. The story evoked vibes of “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” combined with “Law and Order: SVU.” Portions of the narrative are told in newspaper clips and headlines. Although it felt like a slow burn at times, and for a solid 65% of the book I thought I had it figured out—boy, was I wrong! This was my first Lisa Gray novel, and she will definitely stay on my radar.

Thank you to Netgalley, Lisa Gray, Thomas & Mercer, and The Pulse for the eARC. Grab your copy now!

A bingeable Hollywood mystery with a great cast of characters, including a few you'll love to hate. After her career fizzles out, Madison James becomes front-page news when her purse is found in the park by a Tiktok amateur sleuth. I liked the picture the author paints of the dark side of fame through dual timelines in the past and the present. I also loved Detectives Delaney and Moreno who work the missing persons unit at the LAPD. Having never been to Hollywood, I enjoyed feeling immersed in the culture of this unique city.

A fantastic book about retribution before the #metoo era, I loved the dual timeline of present day and late 90's/early aughts and the story of upcoming Hollywood actress Madison James. Her tale is probably all too familiar in the world of glam and glitz Los Angeles however this was a twisty ride about where James disappeared to and why she's gone. I had no idea until pretty fairly late in the book and was just enjoying the ride along with detective Delaney as she solved the mystery of the missing has-been actress. I thought the author did a great job of keeping the reader hooked and I would love to see more books featuring Delaney and Moreno.

Thanks to #thrillerbookloversthepulse for recommending this one!

Lisa Gray's The Final Act, is one heart-stopping twist after another. Just when you think you think you have something figured out, Ms. Gray throws another wrench in the plot and you have to start over in trying to figure out what the outcome is. Normally, I can figure out who or what is guilty before the halfway mark of the book and I get bored, but with Ms. Gray, I can never quite do that, and I have to force myself not to read the ending first just to see if I'm correct in my assumption.. The Final Act is different from Ms. Gray's other books, in that she set this book in the U.S. instead of the UK. It was interesting to read a book that takes place in Hollywood, yet every once in a while you see a British term thrown in, and I have to say I loved it.

Having read several of Lisa Grays previous books I was expecting more from this that it gave. It was good but not up to the same standard as other books.

✨️ The team at @thrillerbookloversthepulse are reviewing The Final Act and it is so fun!! It's definitely one you'll want to add to your TBR 😍
#pulsepoint #thepulse

The Final Act was an extremely fast paced, engaging, addictive and super entertaining read. As soon as I started this one I knew it would be a one sitting read. This was the perfect popcorn thriller.

The multiple POV’s and dual timeline truly helped make the story so much more engaging. It was the perfect way to expose the plot little by little with twists and turns slowly being revealed. I truly loved the Hollywood backdrop and seeing the toxicity of how it can be. The shady characters also added to the intrigue.

This was a well fleshed out book. The plot was perfectly done and undercovered to keep the reader hooked without ever letting go. Great popcorn thriller, definitely worth a read!

✨️Thank you to @thrillerbookloversthepulse, @thomasandmercer, Brilliance Publishing & @lisagray for my gifted ARC & ALC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5

Madison moved to LA to become a star. After a few flops and minor parts in movies she hasn’t lived up to her dream. One day she goes missing and the police are looking into her disappearance. Where did she go? Is she safe?

I enjoy stories that revolve around Hollywood and fame! The good, the bad and the ugly! This book had all of that and more! I guessed the big reveal what happened to Madison about 2/3 of the way in, but this book had me hooked and I couldn’t put it down! I love an easy read and this was a popcorn thriller through and through (which I always enjoy!)

It is told through Madison’s POV in the past and present, as well as the detective’s present day POV. I enjoyed the sprinkling of news articles throughout the story!

This was my first Lisa Gray book (how?) but I have had my eyes on some of her books for awhile now. This one comes out July 1 and would be a fab pool side read!

The Final Act is a story of the darker side of Hollywood. It is told 20 years apart starting when Madison was starting her acting career and then when she goes missing. I love a dual timeline so this book was perfect for me. This is my first book by Lisa Gray and I was hooked from the first page. This is a character driven story with a great twist!

An addictive, fast-paced plot with definite Hollywood vibes, The Final Act had my attention right from start with quite the spellbinding prologue. From the twisty, twisty premise to the dynamite characters who came alive on the page, this popcorn thriller won me over hook, line, and sinker. Believe me when I say that while I might have had an inkling about what lay in store, the multiple blind twists kept me guessing all the same. There was even one surprising turn, in fact, that totally turned the whole plot on its head.

As for the characters, from a few truly unlikeable individuals to the realistic winners front and center with the narration, I was a fan of them all. Told via the dual POVs of Madison and Sarah, we were blessed with both the past and present timelines throughout the failed actress’s career and disappearance. Even better, however, was how fully fleshed out Madison felt. But it was Detective Sarah Delaney of whom I’d love a second helping. Please say it’s so, Ms. Gray. A sequel would put me over the moon.

All said and done, this quick, easy read was truly unputdownable. Coming in at only 270 pages, I flew through it in just a single sitting. But it was the well-written dark side of Hollywood and the serious topics it brought to mind that really nailed this in one. That’s not to say that the crime fiction edge to this thriller wasn’t just as alluring. Trust me, it was. Ultimately, I had a blast speeding through this fun rollercoaster ride of suspense. So if you have yet to read anything by Lisa Gray, take this as your call to duty. After all, those of us at Thriller Book Lovers: The Pulse are utterly head over heels. Rating of 4.5 stars.

This was such a thrilling read! I did not expect it to go the way that it did, but was so satisfied by the ending. Everything came full circle. It flowed easily and kept my interest the whole time. If you enjoy mystery/suspense/thriller you are sure to like this ode

New Favorite Lisa Gray Book Alert!! I have been a fan of hers for so long, and this book is SOOO good! Hollywood mysteries are my absolute favorite, and this one delivered. Fast-paced and twisty, it was impossible to put this book down until I figured out what happened to Madison James! The big reveal shocked me, and I thought the ending was perfect. Highly recommend!