Review: The Last Match by Jessa Maxwell

Synopsis: One weekend. Fifty singles. Endless secrets. From the beloved author of The Golden Spoon comes another seductive, high-stakes thriller, this one set at an exclusive matchmaking retreat at an historic Newport hotel.

When fifty influencers and celebrities gather at an historic Newport estate for an exclusive matchmaking retreat, the weekend is billed as a dreamy escape—sunlit yoga, champagne by the sea, and the legendary Magnus McBride, a matchmaker with a near-mystical reputation. But behind the marble halls and ocean views, something darker lurks.

Tegan Reyes, a once-famous artist, hopes the trip will revive her stalled career. Ruby Valenti, a disgraced socialite, longs for redemption. Omar Abebe, a trivia champion haunted by loss, wants a fresh start. And Lacy Bryant, a glamorous YouTuber, is chasing more than love—she’s hunting a secret treasure rumored to be hidden in the hotel’s depths.

Then the hotel’s owner is found dead at the base of a cliff.

As a storm closes in, alliances form and fracture, old scandals resurface, and the matchmaker’s final pairings may prove fatal. Because at Windmist, everyone has something to hide—and someone will do anything to keep the past buried.

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Having read Maxwell's "Dead of Summer" (which I adored) and "The Golden Spoon", I was looking forward to this mystery with one corpse and fifty suspects!

However .... I was not really into this one. As mentioned, one corpse, fifty suspects, but zero investigation. It would seem this tome was more character driven than crime focused. The murder superfluous, the investigation non-existent, the care factor of the match-making participants zero. An indictment of today I wonder where the vast majority of humans are glued to screens, to posting and tweeting, heads in the sand unless events actually impact them directly on a personal level. These characters were no different and quite frankly my empathy with any of them amounted also to zero.

With regards to the story-telling, there is a mix of first and third person narratives of a few key characters. Maxwell provided the reader with a plethora of secrets, scandals and Big Brother style alliances; revenge and redemption; and no real happy endings.

It is not a taxing read (despite the time I took to read this), and others may enjoy this more than I did. I will still keep my eye out for more from this author.