Review: The Last Guests, J. P. Pomare

I wandered into Petrarch’s Bookshop in Launceston, Tasmania and like the best kind of bookshop customer with only the vaguest idea of what they wanted, asked for @jppomare's latest book, which I thought was a "kind of post-apocalyptic thing", based on a couple of snippet write-ups I'd skimmed.

No wonder the woman serving me was confused: the book is better described as a domestic psychological thriller. Thankfully I'd got the correct impression of the tone of the reviews, if not quite their content; I sank into the story like a stone dropped into a well.

J.P. Pomare was New Zealand-born, though now lives in Victoria, and his third novel is set in New Zealand. Paramedic Lina, and Cain, a retired soldier attempting to reinvent himself as a personal trainer, are happily married, but an undercurrent of dissatisfaction in their lives is compounded by financial instability. They turn to an online platform to rent Lina's beautiful family lake house on the weekends to help make ends meet, despite Lina's misgivings about strangers entering her family space.

She writes off her doubts as paranoia, but then a horrifying event confirms that their every move was watched, and that they have unwittingly facilitated the terrifying situation in which they find themselves trapped.

The premise of privacy destruction through a technology now so commonplace as to be virtually ubiquitous may explain why I had mistakenly thought this a "post-apocalyptic novel", despite its present-day setting.

I did find protagonist Lina's choices and reasoning as the main character at times frustratingly opaque, and I remained somewhat disengaged emotionally.

But this is a book driven primarily by plot and place and there is certainly no fault to be found there. There is a compelling, sinister darkness about it and Pomare maintains an iron grip on your guts the entire length, with twist after twist. You're hooked for multiple mysteries, with solutions remaining outstanding until virtually the final page – even Stu the master ending-guesser didn't pick it.

I read it within days and did not hesitate to pass it to multiple fellow readers, with the assurance that this was one enthralling read.