The Introverted Bookworm

Title: Our Last Dinner

Author: B.L. Deck

Genre: Domestic Thriller / Suspense

In Our Last Dinner, we are introduced to Grace and Sebastian, a seemingly perfect married couple, who own a successful restaurant. Sebastian, a handsome man in his forties, is a revered chef, known for his culinary expertise and rugged good looks. However, everything is not as it seems: his wife is harbouring a secret grudge against him because he is having an affair with confident, brazen, beautiful twenty-two-year-old waitress, Ava, who works at their restaurant.

Grace believes that she has too much to lose if she simply divorces her cheating husband. Afraid of losing her home, financial security, and reputation, Grace concocts a devilish plan to wreck revenge upon Sebastian’s mistress and her cheating husband. However, Grace underestimates her adversary, and the trio are caught up in a deadly game where each character strives to protect their own interests.

This taut, tense thriller is well-crafted, and makes truly addictive reading. From the outset, B.L. Deck captures the reader’s attention though the use of first-person narration. Immediately, we are thrown into Grace’s world – the painful and humiliating torment of an embittered and wronged wife, who is hellbent on evening the score. Moreover, this intimacy is sustained throughout the book, and also applies to Ava, and (in one chapter) Sebastian as well. Tension and suspense are built upon gradually, tier upon tier, as we are manoeuvred from one perspective to another, gradually gaining insight into Grace and Ava’s thoughts, feelings, and motivations, as they scheme and plot the downfall of their rival.

The first two-thirds of the book focus exclusively on Grace and Ava’s perspectives, with the final third centring around the events that ensue on the day of the climactic dinner party. This is an effective plot structure, with the tension almost reaching boiling point; keeping the reader engaged and desperate to know what happens next.

Grace is portrayed as vain, insecure, bitter, and scheming, whereas Sebastian can be controlling, manipulative, and callous in his dealings with others. Ava – entitled and arrogant in her role as mistress – does not exactly engender sympathy. However, although they are not particularly likeable characters, it is impossible not be immersed in their various separate dilemmas. What binds this trio together is their own self-interest, and B.L. Deck has crafted three central characters who prioritise self-preservation and survival more than anything else. Their willingness to go to any length to protect themselves, whilst not endearing us to them, keeps the reader guessing. After all, they all have something to lose, and there is no telling how far they might go in order to safeguard their own interests.

As is the case with any excellent thriller, an explosive, masterful twist awaits the reader at the end when Our Last Dinner takes an unexpected turn. This is a story that is primarily focussed on the theme of revenge, but, ultimately, in a way that we do not necessarily expect, and the ending caught me completely off-guard.

Our Last Dinner is an immersive, psychological thriller that is perfect for fans of relationship-driven stories with a fast-paced and engrossing plot. With flawed, yet gripping characters, and many twists and turns along the way, this book will keep the reader hooked until the very end.