The Crossing Places: Ruth Galloway's first mystery - start this megaselling series here Murder on the Orient Express The Hunting Party Not Quite White
Broadchurch (Series 1): the novel inspired by the BAFTA award-winning ITV series, from the Sunday Times bestselling author The Crossing Places: Ruth Galloway's first mystery - start this megaselling series here Murder on the Orient Express The Hunting Party
Not Quite White Broadchurch (Series 1): the novel inspired by the BAFTA award-winning ITV series, from the Sunday Times bestselling author The Crossing Places: Ruth Galloway's first mystery - start this megaselling series here Murder on the Orient Express
The Hunting Party Not Quite White Broadchurch (Series 1): the novel inspired by the BAFTA award-winning ITV series, from the Sunday Times bestselling author The Crossing Places: Ruth Galloway's first mystery - start this megaselling series here

Five books that influenced The Last Party, by Clare Mackintosh

By Little, Brown Book Group

Five books that influenced The Last Party, by Clare Mackintosh

By Little, Brown Book Group

The Last Party is set in a fictionalised version of north Wales, where I live. I drew inspiration from my surroundings (which was handy, as I wrote it during the Covid lockdown of 2020) and from a number of brilliant books. Here are five of them.

The Crossing Places: Ruth Galloway's first mystery - start this megaselling series here

The Crossing Places: Ruth Galloway's first mystery - start this megaselling series here

Elly Griffiths

£10.99 £10.44

Embarking on my first crime series was rather daunting, and who better to learn from than Elly Griffiths, who has written 15 books in her Norfolk based series? The Crossing Places introduces us to archeologist Ruth Galloway and DCI Harry Nelson, as they investigate a missing child. A compelling beginning to a brilliant series.

Murder on the Orient Express

Murder on the Orient Express

Agatha Christie

£9.99 £9.49

I’d challenge you to find a single crime writer who hasn’t been influenced in some way by Agatha Christie, the doyenne of the murder mystery. When I was planning The Last Party, I knew I wanted to throw suspicion on every character, so I re-read this classic crime novel. Every passenger on the Orient Express had the means, motive and opportunity to have killed American businessman Edward Ratchett – but will the reader reach the same conclusion as Hercule Poirot?

The Hunting Party

The Hunting Party

Lucy Foley

£9.99 £9.49

A group of old college friends are snowed in at a hunting lodge in Scotland, in this superbly atmospheric thriller where the victim’s identity isn’t revealed right away. I love a locked room, or closed cast, mystery, and Lucy Foley writes them so well. You won’t be able to put it down as relationships unravel and old scores are settled. Golden age crime with a contemporary edge.

Not Quite White

Not Quite White

Simon Thirsk

£9.99

This satirical exploration of English colonialism and Welsh nationalism was written by my neighbour, who also unwittingly sparked an idea for the structure of The Last Party, during a conversation we were having about poetry. Not Quite White was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards and provides an excellent insight into Welsh English relations.

Broadchurch (Series 1): the novel inspired by the BAFTA award-winning ITV series, from the Sunday Times bestselling author

Broadchurch (Series 1): the novel inspired by the BAFTA award-winning ITV series, from the Sunday Times bestselling author

Chris Chibnall and Erin Kelly

£9.99 £9.49

This one’s a bit of a cheat, as I watched the TV series before reading the novel which followed, but nevertheless I took huge inspiration from the tight knit community in the Dorset town of Broadchurch. An eleven-year-old boy is missing, and the investigation is led by local officer DS Ellie Miller and an incomer – DI Alec Hardy, from Scotland. Utterly compelling.