Blog Tour and Review - The Last Stage Louise Voss

Blog Tour and Review - The Last Stage Louise Voss

I am very pleased to be part of the Blog Tour for The Last Stage by Louise Voss as I've read and loved her previous books. I read, enjoyed and reviewed her previous book The Old You also for a Blog Tour and am thrilled to report that readers who loved The Old You are in for a treat with the fast-paced chilling read which is The Last Stage.

My Review:

The Last Stage is a taut and terrifying look at how one womans life begins to unravel as her past and present collide and old threats and fears come back to haunt her.

We meet the main protagonist Meredith as she is managing the Gift Shop at a stately home, in her 40s her life is very different to what it was in her 20s when she was the lead singer in a chart-topping Punk Band. 

Still single and notoriously bad at long term relationships she is lonely, with only her twin brother as a trusted confidant. But she can still put away a few bevvies and proves herself to be just as good at making BAD decisions in her middle age as she was when she was younger when she seizes the chance of a quick one night stand with a colleague which has a disastrous end.

This is only the beginning of a series of disasters and incidents which lead Meredith to believe she is being targetted. It wouldn't be the first time, her physical scars are almost as deep as her psychological ones and as her past is revealed little by little it's clear that someone may have it in for her. She doesn't know hwo she can trust and yet she can't really think of anyone who she should mistrust, as a result, I suspected every innocent soul she comes across of harbouring a death wish against her. 

Things pile up, from mild vandalism to outright murder and mayhem, the pace is relentless and the storytelling is superb. If you like to be taken on a roller coaster ride and never quite know who's doing what to whom this book will delight. I had a lot of empathy for Meredith, she has been pretty self-centred in her youth and this rings true. We all do stuff we wish we hadn't and we change as we mature, it makes her flawed but believable. The secondary characters are also really well rounded and real.

I know its easy to say I didn't see THAT coming! But I really didn't work out the culprit, despite suspecting almost every character in the book and there is wry humour, along with the hapless clumsiness of Merediths attempts to lead a normal life. 

Its a wonderfully twisted tale with psychological turns and terrifying consequences and quite a twist in the tail. Devilishly clever and immensely readable.

My thanks go to RandomThingsTours for including me on the Blog Tour.

The Blurb

A violent and horrific incident forces a young woman to go into hiding, at the peak of her career as lead singer of an indie pop band. Years later, strange things start to happen and it becomes clear that some know who she is…

At the peak of her career as lead singer of a legendary 1980s indie band, Meredith Vincent was driven off the international stage by a horrific incident. Now living a quiet existence in a cottage on the grounds of an old stately home, she has put her past behind her and come to terms with her new life.

When a body is found in the manicured gardens of her home, and a series of inexplicable and unsettling events begins to occur, it becomes clear that someone is watching, someone who knows who she is … Someone who wants vengeance.

And this is only the beginning…


A dark, riveting and chilling psychological thriller, The Last Stage is also a study of secrets and obsessions, where innocent acts can have the most terrifying consequences.

The Author - Louise Voss

Over her eighteen-year writing career, Louise Voss has had eleven novels
published – five solo and six co-written with Mark Edwards: a combination of
psychological thrillers, police procedurals and contemporary fiction – and sold
over 350,000 books. Her most recent book, The Old You, was a number one
bestseller in eBook. Louise has an MA (Dist) in Creative Writing and also works
as a literary consultant and mentor for writers at www.thewritingcoach.co.uk.

She lives in South-West London and is a proud member of two female crime-

writing collectives, The Slice Girls and Killer Women.