The Last Time We Saw Her
By Nils A. Shapiro
Readers of this monthly column are well aware of my personal preference for non-fiction over fiction but that every once in a while, in service to those whose tastes differ from mine, I look for a novel that I can find deserving of a recommendation. So it was a rather rewarding surprise when in 2023 I discovered, loved and wrote a rave review of The Chateau, a novel by a new young author, Jaclyn Goldis, whom I described then as a worthy successor to the late Agatha Christie for fans of such classic detective mystery stories.
One year later, Ms. Goldis’s The Main Character proved to be every bit as wonderful as her previous book, and in 2025—for the third year in a row—I had the pleasure of enjoying and recommending in this column, The Safari, another outstanding novel that combines this author’s skillful writing style and imaginative story lines with settings that range from a British castle to the Mediterranean coast to the South African plains.
So one can readily understand why the announcement of a new Jaclyn Goldis novel being published last month would have me immediately schedule it for this July review column. But after turning the final page of The Last Time We Saw Her, I just sat in place for a full half hour, very confused—as I had been for hours.
To be sure, this author’s writing skills are as evident as ever, inviting readers to turn the pages rapidly as the story evolves. And her flair for dialogue, in my view, comes as close as any writer to that of the master in that category, Stephen King.
The problem, instead, is that in her newest novel Goldis has—perhaps ironically—expanded her already creative imagination to having conceived a mystery so complex, with nine main characters, that it is very difficult to keep up with the story line. Each chapter is told in the voice of one of these characters, so that we learn about the events from their individual perspectives.
The setting this time is the Azores, a group of islands off the coast of Portugal. Ten years earlier a group of teenage Americans had arrived there to take part in an extended hiking and summer camp overseen by a counselor and supervisor. While there, the group learned of a legend about a local buried treasure. One of the girls, Sydney, disappeared; she was never seen again. Now, ten years later the group is convening again to honor the missing girl’s memory and to film a documentary in the hope of somehow finding out the truth about her murder or disappearance.
As the story unwinds, chapter by chapter, through the voices of the many different characters we learn that a number of them had motives to commit the crime: one of the boys had been dealing cocaine and Sydney accidentally took his backpack to her room and would have realized it. Several of the girls were jealous of Sydney’s popularity with the boys and one of the girls has since married one of those boys whose family is the richest on the island. Sydney’s sister, Olivia, was accused by many as being guilty of the murder because the two had been arguing and she was later seen wearing a necklace that Sydney had been wearing … and so on.
But Sydney’s body was never found. And more than one person claimed to have seen Sydney alive from time to time during all these ten years since then. So no charges were ever filed, and their hope is that this reunion a decade later will provide an answer to the mystery.
Some readers will consider it an accomplishment on the author’s part to have developed a story line so complex and a cast of characters so numerous. I found it somewhat confusing and from time to time had to flip back to the beginning of a chapter just to double-check the name of the character who was describing these events.
The eventual solution to the murder mystery provided by Goldis in the final pages of this book was a shocker for me. Perhaps you will be a better sleuth. But while this was not my favorite of her novels I still look forward to her next one and strongly recommend that you select any of her novels as an introduction to this brilliant writer’s wonderful stories.
