Gripping story with the remote island setting increasing the tension as it becomes clear that there is no escaping and that it can’t be assumed that anyone can be trusted .With ways of leaving the island quickly diminishing, some form of cataclysmic ending looms large. Interspersed with the main character’s backstory, it is cleverly revealed at the end how you can never leave your past behind .

A thoroughly enjoyable read. Very different type of thriller with an absorbing story. The setting of the island off the coast of Madeira made it even more interesting.
The characters were great with just the right amount of intrigue about them.
Very good story.

Uninhabited island? Touchy Wi-Fi? Tensions reaching bubbling point? Secrets turning deadly? Tell me a more perfect concoction for a thriller! This was so compulsively enthralling that I couldn’t put it down!
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Thank you to the publisher for the arc!

A locked room mystery set on a remote island in the Atlantic ocean. I liked the premise and setting but the slow narrative and the lacklustre characters meant I did not enjoy the story as much as I wanted to.

Tess Macfarlane is a documentary videomaker, who is approached by Seawild, a marine research foundation, to capture the beauty and fragility of the monk seal population on Navigaceo, an island off the coast of Madeira in Portugal.

Navigaceo is a part of the Desertas Islands archipelago, and it’s the furthest of the four islands. No one has set foot on it for the past fifty years.

Dr Alex Dahlberg is the head of the expedition. Accompanying her are Mike Woods-Hughes, Vinny Perriera, and Tess.

When they arrive on the island, Tess goes off exploring to get some shots for the film. Imagine her shock when she finds the body of a dead man on the beach, wearing a ‘Seawild’ hoodie.

Tess starts to ask questions and her three colleagues are elusive when it comes to answering them. She receives brisk responses and it’s clear that something doesn’t add up.

Alex, Mike, and Vinny knew the man on the beach, they worked with him. What are they not telling her?

It soon becomes clear that all the people on the island are keeping secrets.

Including Tess.

What a STORY!

I loved everything about this book: the remote location, the uninhabited island in the middle of the Atlantic, sparse internet connection, tensions running high, people keeping secrets that then turn deadly.

I liked the complexity of Tess’s character. Her past, especially making the documentary Spill that turned her into a household name, was still haunting her. This book offers a dual timeline, where we discover what happened when Tess was shooting Spill.

I immediately knew who the ‘baddie’ on the island was, but I didn’t guess the bigger picture behind it, certainly not the ending – that came as a surprise!

I definitely recommend this book.

Many thanks to Sphere for my NetGalley widget.

The Last Visitor is a compelling crime story .Atmospheric full of tension and suspense .On an Island that has not had visitors for 50 years a recently dead body is found !!! A Film crew are there to film Seals and this is what they found .A well paced story that is very gripping .Thank you to NetGalley for my ARC.

Just brilliant.

I LOVED @martingriffinbooks first book, The Second Stranger, and his second offering did not disappoint. Another remote setting filled with suspense, atmospheric tension and a journey of twists and turns.

This one is set on a remote island, just the kind of place I would love to explore. The story switches between then and now, telling the main characters back story as she works as a cameraman for a research group.

I didn’t see the ending coming at all!

Thanks to @littlebrownbookgroup_uk @netgalley and @martingriffinbooks for the #arc

This book was a bit hit and miss for me.
I found it intriguing on one hand, but quite slow paced on the other.
Would read another by this author.
4 stars.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An empty island with a mystery. A tale of mystery with a very large who done it. That premise alone had me hooked. Throw in a dead body and a mission to tag the seals and I was sure this would be a perfect summer read mystery. I left the island a little disappointed.

While there is mystery and intrigue on the island, it fell flat with the characters. They're well written, but weak. The main character, Tess, just did not appeal to me and losing interest in the main character left me little interest in the story.
However, I persisted. Luckily the mystery is well written and filled with red hearings to keep you guessing. I think i suspected every character at various points and was still surprised come the end.
As for the end, well it came eventually, but did feel a few chapters longer than needed.
Overall it was a summer mystery story with a cast I wish had missed the boat. Grab this book for a pool side read, just maybe not on a deserted island.

Miles from civilisation, four people are alone on a remote island tasked with tagging seals. Tess is filming the seals and the team for a documentary when she stumbles across a dead body on a secluded beach. Where did the body come from? No one has set foot on this island for 50 years.
Is one of the four a murderer? Tess believes this to be the opportunity of a life time. Capturing her investigate on film, secretly searching the island for clues and asking the team members about their past as she slowly starts to unravel the history of the groups relationship as well as revealing her own past.

At the time, having flashbacks to Tess's backstory felt like an unnecessary distraction to the main story, with which i was totally enthralled. Although I can understand how it does tie the plot together.
This is a lovely original novel, hearing the story of conservationists and documentary makers trials and tribulations as they struggle against nature.
The world was so wonderfully described, I was picturing the island in Jurassic Park, but without the dinosaurs, as they were exploring the woodland, treacherous landscapes and extreme weather.

Thanks to the publishers, Little,Brown Book Group UK, and Netgalley for giving me the chance to read this book for my honest review.

There is always something so alluring about a locked room mystery, isn’t there? The setting on a remote and isolated island definitely piqued my interest. Unfortunately, ‘The Last Visitor‘ didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

To begin with, I wasn’t particularly fond of the main character, Tess. While I did enjoy the way it felt as if she was telling the reader her story, there was just something rather unlikeable about her. Her intentions aren’t always clear, even if her utterly obsessive nature is. There is a big secret hiding in her past that takes eons to be revealed, but there is always this feeling that she will do whatever it takes, no matter the consequences, and that maybe somehow she hasn’t quite learnt her lesson from events in her past.

Tess finds herself on an island with three other people, supposedly to film footage for a wildlife documentary. However, when she discovers a dead body in a location where there shouldn’t have been any people for at least fifty years, Tess’s objective changes. She has a reputation to rebuild after all. Does this mean there’s a murderer in their group? And who would want to harm this person, or why? Nobody seems willing to talk about what happened on their previous trip.

I must admit I struggled with the slow pace of ‘The Last Visitor‘, which prevented me from becoming absorbed into the story or invested in the characters. For the first part, it felt as if nothing much important was happening, and sadly the second part became slightly too predictable. That’s the thing about a popular thing like a locked room mystery, I suppose. It’s becoming harder and harder to surprise readers, and I personally felt I’d read something like it before. A little bit “been there, done that”. Even the reveal wasn’t all that unexpected.

There is a pretty high level of distrust amongst the group members, there are secrets, and obviously there is the mystery surrounding the dead body. Enough intrigue then, and it all plays out in an atmospheric and immensely isolated environment, but ‘The Last Visitor‘ just failed to grab me. I needed something a little faster paced, and with some more tension and suspense perhaps. But that’s just me so don’t let that put you off.

Tess, a documentary filmmaker, travels to a remote island in the Atlantic Ocean, containing only caves, seals and a lighthouse, where no one has been for fifty years. While there she stumbles across a body at the foot of the cliffs but it seems recent. How can that be the case when no one has been on the island so long? Could a member of the research team be a murderer?

I enjoyed the premise of this. A locked room mystery in a locate location. I found myself interested in trying to uncover what was happening and found that the author is talented at creating an eerie, haunted atmosphere, which adds a sense of tension and suspense. The characters are written well and I developed distrust for each one at some point in the novel. There was also a great twist which I did not expect. Although this was a well written story I found the first half a bit slow and it took a while for me to get into the story.

This is great book for those who are looking for an intriguing, well plotted mystery. I still have this authors first novel on my to be read shelf so will be picking that up soon and I’ll be looking out for his new books. 3.5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in return for an honest review.

A remote island on which no one has stepped foot in the last 50 years. A late night campfire story of an abandoned shipwrecks and panicked lighthouse keepers. A murder with only four people on the island. This book had all the trimmings of a great thriller and it did not disappoint.

The alternating perspectives of Tess’ past and present documentaries was intriguing and had me scrabbling to figure out her motivations. The cast of characters seemed both endearing and suspicious at the same time, and I found myself constantly second guessing their stories.

Ultimately, the island is what made this a truly thrilling read. The author skilfully played on the sense of unease built in the first half of the book to full on terror in the second half, as the true desolation and threat took hold. My heart was racing, and I couldn’t put the book down. Lucky this was such a fast paced and quick read! I’d highly recommend to anyone looking for a captivating and creepy thriller.

Thank you Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for a copy of this book. Opinions expressed are my own.

"Lonely places, haunted places, just rocks and a lighthouse" So says the AUK captain Arnaldo as he takes four members of Seawild off to the island of Navigaceo. Having left Madeira and also escaping London where she is being reinvestigated for the death of a colleague on a documentary film Tess Macfarlane has taken up the unlikely quick offer of a dream job.
Nothing seems quite what it is as they are left on the island, supposedly tracking seal numbers and trying to save the planet. In fact the plot had much to say about fossil fuels, illegal ore mining and corruption generally and this made the story bloom as a deadly trail was uncovered on the island and within the lighthouse which is the focus of much of the action.
The characters soon became both worrying then frightening and the huge twist later on kept me right on the edge literally of those rocky escarpments.
The link to Tess's previous documentary and death of Gretchen took a while to establish itself but soon funnelled into the whole plot really well.
A beach. A body. "A museum of dumped things." Summed up the closed island fear really well even if Tess seemed far more agile in escape than I'd anticipated!
Not my usual crime subject matter but really enjoyed it.

The Last Visitor is the second book from Martin Griffin and whilst the blurb promised an interesting and engaging book the reality is that it was a disappointment.

The book was slow to start and fairly predictable throughout.

Not one for me.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I went into this book, I'd read the blurb and it sounded interesting so I requested.

I was pleasantly surprised, it starts off quite slow, building characters and setting the scene, building the unease and making it hard to know who to trust. But things then really start to snowball and the story ends up being satisfyingly clever and has a twist that I really didn't see coming.

I read this book in one sitting, it's pretty short and completely devourable. I haven't read anything by Martin before, but I will be sure to now. He clearly has talent for a mystery.

An intriguing thriller following a group of scientists tracking a seal colony set on a remote island supposedly untouched for many years. They are accompanied by a videographer called Tess with a mysterious and troubled past. We follow both the main story on the island and some shorter sections from Tess’ past. A body is found and the questions start. It is a fairly well paced story with mounting tension throughout. Tess is a good main character although I found the flashback parts less interesting. I enjoyed the remote island setting which really added to the atmosphere.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc copy in exchange for an honest review.

An intriguing start hooks me into Martin Griffin’s latest novel, it’s full of tension and has this reader asking a multitude of questions!

Tess Macfarlane is a wildlife documentary filmmaker and owner of Pocket Films. Ten years ago she makes her name with ‘Spill’ but that film hangs over her to this day. She’s approached by Seawild for a job on Navigaceo, a closed island on which no one has set foot for fifty years and Seawild claim they want to keep it that way. Tess is offered the opportunity with remarkable speed which should have rung an alarm bell or two but she chooses to ignore the clang. In addition, she realises she has been followed in London-why??? If that’s not enough of a reason to vacate the capital, Tess is trying to avoid answering questions that have dogged her for the last ten years. Along with three other employees of Seawild, she heads for Madeira and then on to Ilhas Desertas. Will she live to regret her decision?

Yet again, Martin Griffin has constructed a gripping tale. The remoteness and unique atmosphere of Ilhas Desertas is a terrific choice of location on which to set this twisty story as it provides an excellent backdrop. It’s well worth looking these islands up as they’re real and a Portuguese Nature Reserve. They’re desolate, bleak and wild and lend a haunting tone to the plot. Initially, Tess and the others feel the joy and freedom of being on Navigaceo, it’s well depicted and easy to visualise. All the characters are an enigmatic puzzle and Tess discovers quickly that it’s hard to figure out who she can trust especially after one shocking discovery. It becomes apparent that she has stepped into a hornet’s nest and getting stung is the least of her worries. Lies, lies and darned evasion, the fear and threat factor intensifies and to describe the characters as jumpy is an understatement. Curiouser and curiouser, the mystery of Navigaceo builds and the feeling of claustrophobia especially of being trapped by the vagaries of the weather looms over the storytelling. It’s suspenseful, full of tension with plenty of twists and turns to keep me immersed.

The pace is a bit variable but that suits the unfolding events. I like how Tess’s past is fused with the present day events although occasionally the links feel a bit contrived. There’s a shock or two in the past too.

Overall, an enjoyable and entertaining read and what lies at its heart is all too easy to believe.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Little Brown Book Group for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Documentary filmmaker Tess Macfarlane is tasked with bringing the wildness of a tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to life. Uninhabited, it hasn’t been touched by human hand in half a century, and for Tess, this job is a chance to also come out of the wilderness. This bright young thing burned out quickly and she needs this job to get things back on track. However, there’s only four people on the island, and a whole load of seals, but there feels like more humans are about. If you can imagine spooky goings-on, things going missing and a sense of being watched, you’re on the right track. Then Tess finds a body and everything is thrown awry…

Having read a previous novel by this author, I was looking forward to reading this book. I was hooked from page one. The novel was well paced and absorbing. The writing style was enjoyable with short chapters. Slick and modern vocabulary keeps the reader engrossed. The characters were well developed and compelling. The writing is atmospheric and the description of the isolation of the location is superb.

Tess Macfarlane is a documentary filmmaker. She has been tasked with capturing the wild beauty of Navigaceo, a group of small islands in the Atlantic Ocean. Tess is accompanied by a small team of researchers led by Dr Alex Dahlberg of Seawild, Mike Woods-Hughs and Vincento Perriera. Their research should take 5 days. Then a body is found.

I give a 4 star rating and I would recommend the novel.

I WANT TO THANK NETGALLEY AND LITTLE BROWN BOOK GROUP FOR THE OPPORTUNITY OF READING AN ADVANCED READING COPY OF THIS BOOK