Last Girl Standing: A Novel of Suspense

Lisa Jackson · Nancy Bush

May 2020 · Zebra Books

About this ebook

New York Times bestselling Sisters of Suspense join forces for a gripping standalone novel about a clique of popular girls whose high school friendship is marked by a tragedy that continues to haunt them decades later. Jackson and Bush take the reader’s hand and twist them through this shocking tale of suspense.

“An increasingly tense race to find who’s doing the killing—and who’s going to survive.”
—The Oregonian

First they were five. Then they were four.

Whose turn will it be next?

At Bristol High they were an elite clique known as the Five Firsts: Amanda, Bailey, Carmen, Delta and Zora . . . ABCD & Z. They could have accepted their classmate, Emmy, as "E", but with her bookish disposition and her embarrassing status of scholarship student to boot, they rejected her and chose wealthy Zora instead.

At a pre-graduation party just before the end of senior year, Lance Ventura, the hottest guy in school, falls down an embankment toward the river and is barely rescued in time to save his life. One of the Five Firsts, Carman, rushes to save him, but isn't so lucky. Her sudden death causes a community to mourn and rumors of foul play to swirl, but the tragedy is ruled an accident.

Fast forward ten years and the classmates all meet again at the high school reunion. Some of them have had good fortune in their lives. Others, not so much.

 
PRAISE FOR LISA JACKSON AND NANCY BUSH
 
“Superb . . . a masterpiece of romantic suspense.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review) on Something Wicked
 
“A chilling thriller with enough false leads to keep readers enthralled to the finish.”
—Library Journal on One Last Breath

Ratings and reviews

LAST GIRL STANDING.... ...Lisa Jackson...3*** There were five from high school calling themselves The First Five they ruled and mocked others and it seemed like they were stilling doing it, as adults. By chapters you meet them. Then there was four, etc. Then there ten year reunion, and was like a television soap story of who slept with who. Not her usual good mystery. Given arc for my voluntary review and my honest opinion by Net Galley and Kensington.

There are 5 girls who rule the school. There are several young, hot guys. One is particular is Tanner. Gorgeous he is ... and he knows it. Delta is supposedly his girlfriend, but Tanner does like the ladies .. and doesn't understand why Delta would be upset. Among the girls there is a rule .. no stealing each other's boyfriends. Unfortunately not all the girls follow the rules. And then one of the girls is eliminated. Accident ... murder... suicide? And then there were four. Five year high school reunion .... everyone is a bit older, but are they any wiser? One of the girls who has now become a cop lets one of the 'hot' boys take her for a ride in the woods. The next morning they are found ... victims of a murder/suicide? And then there were three. Ten years later, Tanner is stabbed multiple times. His wife, Delta, is the prime suspect. There are three girls still standing who still have feelings for Tanner .... did one of them try to kill the man of their dreams? Do mean girls remain mean through adulthood? The story is told from the viewpoint of multiple people. Back and forth from high school to the present, from one person to another. There are lies and secrets that have been held for years ... there's also resentments and jealousies that persist. Who lies and who doesn't? Many thanks to the authors / Kensington Books / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction of suspense. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Although I love both authors I just didn't fall in love with this story. It was ok but going back and forth with the characters got a little confusing and a lot of long writing that I found some of it was not really needed. And the ending felt as if it was missing something. Hopefully the next one will do better.

About the author

LISA JACKSON is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than seventy-five novels, including Paranoid: Liar, Liar; One Last Breath; You Will Pay; After She’s Gone;Close to Home;Tell Me; Deserves to Die;You Don’t Want to Know;Running Scared; and Shiver. She has over thirty million copies of her books in print in nineteen languages. She lives with her family and three rambunctious dogs in the Pacific Northwest. Readers can visit her website at www.lisajackson.com and find her on Facebook.

NANCY BUSH is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of Bad Things,Jealousy,Dangerous Behavior,The Killing Game, You Don’t Know Me,Nowhere Safe,Nowhere to Hide,Nowhere to Run,Hush, Blind Spot, Unseen, as well as Wicked Ways, Something Wicked,Wicked Game, and Wicked Lies, in the Colony series co-written with her sister, bestselling author Lisa Jackson. She is also the co-author of Sinister and Ominous, written with Lisa Jackson and New York Times bestselling author Rosalind Noonan. Nancy lives with her family in the Pacific Northwest. Readers can visit her website at www.nancybush.net.