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Rose has been working as a broadcast journalist for a decade in Africa, where she met her husband, Dylan. After marrying and having a son there, the couple have decided to move to Dylan’s hometown in England. Rose finds right away that she stands out in the village, first because of her American accent, and next because of her marriage into the Kynaston family. Unfortunately, she learns soon enough that the villagers talk about Dylan’s late father in connection with some kind of shameful scandal in the past.
Soon after their arrival in town, an archaeological dig on the family’s land started in connection with a TV series turns up human bones — from about two decades earlier, the same time of the questionable incident that sullied the Kynaston name.
Local police sergeant Ellie Trevelyan gets involved, trying to get to the truth behind all the rumors. Rose works with her and with the village’s sole newspaper writer/editor to look for information from the past to know the truth for herself and, she hopes, to clear her husband of any suspicion. Meanwhile, her mother-in-law has been a recluse for years and now may be exhibiting signs of dementia — and while she needs her help watching her little boy when she works, Rose worries for his safety at the crumbling-down family home and in certain particularly dangerous parts of the property.
I enjoy stories with old secrets, and I admit I’m a devoted Anglophile. So the setting of an old mansion sitting on a centuries-old manmade hill, with suspicious deaths in the past, checked my boxes quite nicely. The Last to Know is a satisfying read for those who share these interests. It’s not one that is going to stick in my mind for long, but it was entertaining.
Rated: Moderate, for four uses of strong language, more instances of milder and moderate profanity, and a few uses of the name of Deity. Sexual content includes references to a past affair, a teen girl being held in a “nail salon” for sexual purposes and references to past crimes of sexual abuse of a young teen boy. Violence includes references to time one main character spent held by terrorists in Mogadishu, a possible suicide, accidental deaths and a fire consuming a house.
* I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
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