A mystery, a love story, and a search through a shadowy past. Two strangers unite in this novel of family secrets by international bestselling author Marc Levy, the most read contemporary French author in the world. When London journalist Eleanor-Rigby Donovan receives an anonymous letter alluding to a crime committed by her deceased mother, her life is turned upside down. It points her to a bar … points her to a bar on the Baltimore Harbor, where she finds a stranger who has received the same mysterious letter about his own mother. Together, Eleanor-Rigby and this young man, George-Harrison Collins, embark on a quest through the shadowy past of the Stanfields, a moneyed Maryland family full of unimaginable secrets. These secrets will transport them back decades, across continents, and to a mysterious crime long buried…until now.
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A brilliant novel with a fresh perspective and entertaining characters. Easy to follow generational format with recognizable landmarks and obscure locations. There’s enough mystery to keep you guessing until the end. Merci M. Levy for your latest masterpiece.
This book was amazing! It took a lot of twists and turns that I didn’t expect, and kept me turning pages. The story switches between from character/time/perspective, which I always find interesting. It was fun to piece together the story, that ultimately had a different ending than I expected. Loved this book!
Marc Levy is an excellent storyteller. His most recent book, THE LAST OF THE STANFIELDS, is no exception. I love the way he braided three distinctly different strands of time together to create one captivating story. And it has a twist at the end. Trust me, you won’t see it coming!
I read Marc Levy in the original French and have always enjoyed his novels. They’re quick reads and usually involve two totally different people for whom destiny has a plan. Often romantic, Levy usually adds in science and history to frame his stories and educate the reader. In The Last of the Stanfields, you have a great mystery, some history from World War II, and a bit of destined romance. It’s a fun read!
Knowing that the author is French and writes in his native tongue, it was impressive how he seemed so plugged into the American psyche and the setting of Baltimore’s high society in the mid-century.
The affectation of the plot twists and interruptions in the narrative to move back and forth in time were annoying but not a stopper to the seduction to solve the mysteries.
This was a marvelous book. I had no expectations going in; I barely even knew what it was about, just had glanced at the blurb on NetGalley and decided that I really wanted to read it. I got SO lucky with this one [not all blind faith reads turn out like this one did].
This is the story of Eleanor-Rigby – a girl with serious wanderlust, who lives her life as a journalist that travels the world. She loves her family, but after the loss of her mother, she just cannot seem to stay at home or near home much anymore, much to the dismay of her twin, Michel, younger sister Maggie-Mae and their beloved Dad. She was fairly content with her life until the day she received a letter that changes everything she ever knew and believed about herself and her mother and takes her from London to Baltimore, Maryland, where she meets a man named George-Harrison who also received a letter [about the search for his father] and the game is on and the search for the truth begins and they continue on, no matter the cost. And the cost could be very steep.
Filled with twist and turns and LOTS of sadness, this was an amazing story told from several points of view [which is needed to get the whole story] – from a safe house in the wilderness of France during WW2, to NYC, to Baltimore, England and Canada. And it is a story that is amazing, crazy and sad. Lies and secrecy will never get you anywhere but mired in sadness and bitterness and this book showcases that fact very well.
These are fantastic and believable characters that you have empathy and liking for right from the beginning. And the end is really quite perfect.
I am so glad I took a chance on this book – it was such a great read for me!
Thank you to NetGalley and AmazonCrossings for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I read mostly at night and found myself looking forward to reading this book. I love the characters. It was like getting to know them personally. Love the way it is written, going back and forth from one generation to the other. Loved the names from the Beatles songs. A really good book.