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  • Published: 9 April 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405957885
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 400

The Last Time I Saw Her Alive




Two bodies, discovered thirty years apart. One mystery, the truth of which will shock them all...a slow-burn murder mystery for fans of Lucy Clarke and Ruth Ware

It’s been years since Rain went home.
To many, growing up on the Tanglewood estate, nestled in a beautiful corner of the Cotswolds countryside, seemed like a dream.
But for Rain, memories of her childhood there are forever tainted by what happened that summer. The wild party. The body…
Now estranged from her mother, and all ties to Tanglewood, Rain thought she’d moved on.
Yet when another dead body is found at Tanglewood, she knows she must face her past.
Rain has long held suspicions that what happened that summer wasn’t an accident. It was murder.
And now's her chance to prove it.

  • Published: 9 April 2026
  • ISBN: 9781405957885
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 400

About the author

Kate Riordan

Kate Riordan is a writer and journalist. She started out as an editorial assistant at the Guardian, followed by a stint as deputy editor for the lifestyle section of Time Out. She now works freelance and lives in the Cotswolds, where she is currently working on her next novel.

Also by Kate Riordan

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Praise for The Last Time I Saw Her Alive

Praise for Kate Riordan

:

I devoured it. Beautiful writing and characterisation and a gripping plot. Such an atmospheric read

Sarah Pearse

Superb storytelling. The ideal read for a holiday!

Prima

A scorching summer read

Lucy Clarke

Completely addictive and wonderfully compelling. A sun-dappled summer escape with a jagged dark heart. You won't be able to put it down

B P Walter

Sultry, atmospheric and unsettling

Erin Kelly

One of my favourite suspense writers

Anna Bailey

A gorgeously written and hugely atmospheric thriller with a dark, compelling mystery at its heart

Lucy Foley

The Last Time I Saw Her Alive is an evocative, atmospheric, and deeply satisfying novel. I was thoroughly drawn in by Rain and her world, acutely feeling all the push and pull of her home, the beauty of the wild Cotswolds landscape, and the danger lurking beneath the surface. Stylish and heartfelt, I loved it!

Emylia Hall

The Last Time I Saw Her Alive is, simply, sensational; both fiendishly compelling and jaw-droppingly beautiful. Kate Riordan has a unique and wonderful talent for complex characters, almost unbearable suspense and wildly evocative, haunting settings. I was blown away by this novel

Rosie Walsh

Both a twisty thriller teeming with family secrets and a gorgeously written exploration of childhood ghosts, truths that won’t stay hidden and the many shapes haunting can take, The Last Time I Saw Her Alive is Kate Riordan at her finest. With all the haunting beauty of Midsommar and the intoxicating mystery of The God of the Woods, this story will creep under your skin and into your heart, right to the breathtaking conclusion. Wonderful

Emma Stonex

Atmospheric, compelling and thrumming with intrigue, I was captivated from the opening line of The Last Time I Saw Her Alive. With its lyrical prose and evocative country setting it’s a must for readers craving the next Broken Country

Lisa Timoney

The Last Time I Saw Her Alive is more than a thriller. It is a world, a beautifully written mystery within a mystery, packed with vivid characters that feel like real people. Glued from first page till last, I read to figure out what happened, how, and to whom, my heart clenched all the while in the hope that Rain could answer the biggest question of all: that of her very identity

S.E. Lynes

The Wicker Man meets the Cotswolds Bohemian set in this deliciously twisty fable of fractured truth and false memory

Sam Steele