Wow! This book tossed me about like the waves on the shore of the beach it was set on. Fascinating story about a pair of childhood friends and their lives together. The lovers, the families, the past, the present and the future. It was a little slow to start, but gained momentum and had me gasping out loud after each revelation! Expertly woven tale. Would absolutely recommend.

I really enjoyed this book. It had me captivated from the start. Sarah and Isla's lives told from both perspectives are full of love, sadness and lies. Their story and the story of Jacob and Marley their sons is beautifully to,d. Every chapter seems to bring another revelation. So much has been left unsaid and so many lies have been told. Lucy Clarke is an excellent writer and this book is definitely worth reading. I want to start reading it again to see how I missed the clues and to read njoy it all over again.

I didn’t request this book, it just appeared in the download list, I am unsure of how it got there.

Two friends, each with boys the same age spending their summers living in beach huts on the beach. Seven years ago one of the boys went missing at sea, and now on the same day seven years later the other boy has gone missing. People living on the sandbank seem to know more than they are letting on. Surely someone must have seen what happened to him?
I enjoyed this book following the lives of Sarah and Isla as their boys, Jacob and Marley grew up. When Marley goes missing on Jacob's tenth birthday things are never quite the same again. Jacob goes missing on his seventeenth birthday and Sarah and Nick are praying he's OK. There is always more than meets the eye and we start to delve into the lives of people who live in the beach huts during the Summer. There are some good twists and turns through the book which kept me interested.

A book that I was engrossed with from start to finish - my full review is here: http://www.mamamummymum.co.uk/2017/06/last-seen-by-lucy-clarke-june-book-of.html

A unique story that was a well written light summer read. It was easy to imagine the two young boys playing on the beach as children and to see in one’s mind all the other beach hut occupants. There were some strange parts though that once started did not seem to expand to conclusion and the reader was left wondering about the outcomes of the situation. The story does evolve at a gentle pace with new clarifying information well-spaced throughout. The final chapter was a real eye opener and certainly unpredictable. I liked the story but did not find it a compulsive read.

My review as posted on Goodreads:

The setting amongst a beach hut community was the background for this book. Very soon an interesting group of characters were revealed and an intriguing plot line began to unfold.

The last seen in the title is 17 year-old Jacob, son of Sarah and Nick.

Chapters alternate between the views of Sarah and her lifelong friend Isla.

Some chapters look back in time to the death of seven-year-old Marley, Isla's son.

Nobody has seen anything.....or have they?
Who can you trust?
Who has something to hide?

Slowly the truth unfolds.
More twists and turns than a mountain road.
An interesting ending.

My thanks go to Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for a copy in exchange for this review.

Ever fancied spending the summer in a beach hut right on the sea shore? Well, if you read Last Seen then it certainly feels like you have! A well written novel, full of insight on love, lovers, children, families and interrelationships backed with a thoughtfully contrived mystery with quite a few twists. Whether after reading about beach hut life you'd really like to dip your toe in the water (so to speak) is a different matter. However, I do know of one for sale but you'll have to read the book to know whose it is!

A beautiful setting for deadly secrets. This thriller is set in a beach hut community in the south of England and the writing was so wonderfully evocative that I could smell the salty air and feel the wet sand scrunching between my toes. This is the tale of friendships, secrets and jealousies. Isla and Sarah have been friends since the first time they met, skipped drama club to spend the day together on the sandbank where the beachuts are. Fast forward 20 years and the girls had huts side by side, ,but life is far from idyllic. Isla, bereved and desperatley seeking answers, whilst Sarah, now married to Isla's first love plays her cards close to her chest. As the heat of summer increases, so does the feeling of claustrophobia in the small beach hut community and when Sarah's son Jacob disappears, Sarah starts to question what secrets and lies the community are hiding. But Isla is aware that her old friend Sarah also has her own secrets and Isla is determined to find out what secret she's hiding. This is a perfect beach thriller and highly recommended.

Loved this book, was especially happy to recognise this part of the world as being the part that we inhabit. Great feeling of the sun, sandy atmosphere and the close knit community at the edge of the sea. Wonderful stuff, will look forward to more Lucy Clarke

Thought this book was going to be a similar sea story from author but I was soon engrossed and could not put it down.I wanted to know what had happened to Jacob and also the story of Marley.There were twists in the tale and towards the end wee surprises in each chapter.
I warmed to the characters and found myself wanting to hire a beach hut and be near the sea!
I once had a best friend but we no longer talk and it brought back memories of my youth.
I would thoroughly recommend this as a summer holiday ,beach read.

Last Seen is a twisty turny delight of a novel. Opening with the rescue of someone stranded out to Sea (we don't find out who until much later in the novel) and the suggestion that there is another person out there, still stranded.

Sarah and Isla practically grew up together on the beach near their home, and dreamed of owning beach huts next door to each other when they were older. Fast forward a decade or so and there they are on the beach next door to each other, perfectly manicured beach huts in tow.

Isla is a single Mum to son Marley, and Sarah is married to Nick, they too have a son, Jacob. Marley and Jacob are best friends like their Mothers. Until one day a tragedy splits the boys apart, with Jacob safe and Marley nowhere to be seen. Isla and Sarah's friendship is changed forever.

However friends they do remain and continue to spend their summers together at the beach huts. When Jacob goes missing the morning after his Eighteenth birthday, Sarah is certain that someone knows where her Son is. But then she remembers how Isla was after Marley's disappearance and is determined not to split the beach community apart however much she wants answers.

Her so called best friend Isla is out of the country, Jacob's girlfriend is behaving oddly, her oaf of a Father being vile and Sarah struggles to know who to turn to for the answers she so desperately wants.

Told from Isla an Sarah's alternate points of view, it is difficult to know exactly who to believe and who to trust. Last Seen is a clever novel that really explores some complex family and non family relationships.

Thank you to the publishers HarperFiction and net galley for the arc in return for an honest review.

Told from the viewpoint of Sarah and Isla, two lifelong friends. Theirs is a claustrophobic relationship. Where Isla leads, Sarah follows, even if she cannot see that this is what she is doing. Their lives are so closely intertwined, yet it is clear that Sarah resents this, whilst also actively seeking to strengthen the bonds between them.

The book focuses on a Summer, 7 years after the terrible tragedy that shattered their lives, and the untangling of the lies told and secrets kept by most of the characters in the book. No-one in the beach community is above suspicion when the surviving son disappears on the anniversary of the accident. Relationships are tested and no-one escapes unscathed.

It is a book full of twists and turns, and an interesting premise of the relationship between the two friends and their families. The ending is a shock, and quite upsetting.
However, I couldn't immerse myself fully in the book. The characters of Sarah and Isla failed to evoke any real sympathy in me, and some interesting threads that were hinted at in the novel were never fully explored.

7 years ago, 2 young boys, best friends, Jacob & Marley went missing at the beach. Only Jacob is recovered. This book tells the story of 2 women, Isla and Sarah and their families who meet up every summer where the tragedy took place. This particular year, Jacob (Sarah's son), now 17 has gone missing again.
Full of emotion, highs and lows. Excellent read. Very twisty. Just how I like them. 5* from me.
One to recommend. My thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for the advance reader copy.

I adore Lucy Clarke's books and, due to their recurring themes of water and the sea, I usually try to save her latest and take it on my Summer holiday with me! Every book so far has been the ultimate beach read but Last Seen has a definite edge for me due to the wonderfully described beach hut setting that conjured up picture perfect, warm and sunny days by the sea. I don't think I've ever read a book where the main characters loved in a beach hut before so I loved the whole "living the simple life" ethos. Having been born and raised in Norfolk, I have always had a fascination for those brightly coloured little huts that can only be compared to The Tardis.... "it's bigger on the inside!" Where I lived there were very strict rules about not sleeping in them but everywhere is different and if I had one of the gorgeous but expensive huts in somewhere like Southwold then I would definitely want to spend every second of every single day and night there!

The plot here is a heart wrenching one for any parent to face, let alone one living right on the waters edge. When Sarah's son goes missing, she firstly thinks that it is due to a row between them on his birthday. But as the days pass by, things come to light that may mean all is not as it first seemed. There are secrets galore to uncover but will any of them lead to the answer of what has happened to Jacob?

What an atmospheric slow burner this book was! I couldn't put it down until I had discovered what had happened to Jacob! There's a lot tightly packed into the plot and lots of teasers so that you think you know what's going on but ultimately, if you're like me, then Lucy Clarke will keep you in suspense right up until the very end. There are many themes twisting themselves throughout the narrative, friendship and loyalty, jealousy and suspicion and what it really means to be a mother. I felt for Sarah as she fought her feelings that something was seriously wrong when she realised Jacob was first missing. She did what many parents of teenagers do, trying to give their child the freedom to spread their wings but it's difficult when that goes against every protective bone in a mother's body! Both Sarah and Isla were clearly drawn characters and their relationships with their sons, and especially with each other, were cleverly constructed throughout. There were many eye opening surprises along the way to maintain the level of tension and the readers interest.

This is a brilliantly written book that will tug at your heartstrings. I felt like I was almost there on the beach with Sarah, looking out to sea, tasting the salty breeze as it swirled around my body and feeling the warm sunshine spreading itself over my skin. In fact, when I took my sandals off whilst reading it I half expected a little gritty pile of shimmering sand to fall out of them. If you want to feel like you're on holiday but you're only in your back garden then this evocative book is the one for you.

I feel like I have been waiting forever for this book and I'm now incredibly sad that it's all over. The final few pages had the hairs on the back of my neck standing to attention as I felt the summer slowly fade away. It was an emotional farewell, both to the characters that I'd come to love and the questions in my head that had finally been answered. Highly recommended by me!

I loved this book from start to finish and it is easily the best book I have read this year. The story of how a friendship could turn so toxic through no fault of their own. I would thoroughly recommend it and thank you for the chance to review it.

Fabulous read. Could not put this thriller down. 2 friends have beach huts together, are childhood friends and had sons at the same time. But all is not as it seems.

Totally gripping, full of twists and turns, I could not put this book down as I had to know what the ending was. I guessed some of what transpired but was totally unprepared for the ending..

I would have no hesitation in recommending this to my friends and would look forward to reading more from this author.

This was a well told and convoluted mystery although I guessed who/what really killed Marley well before the end. The characters were complex and the fact that many of them lied was a device used to keep the reader guessing. Sarah is definitely not a sympathetic character but neither is Isla, they both have their faults. Worth a read.

Wow this was a massive head messer of a read. Two boys go missing on the same day 7 years apart. They were together when the first boy had his tragedy. The boys mothers are best friends but one is left without her son until the second boy disappears. At no point could I say I knew how or why this happened or who was involved. Just when you think it all starts to bind together another twist will fling you in a different direction. A wonderfully written book. I am off to find more by Lucy Clarke.