The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak

 

This is the second book I've read by Jason Rekulak. The first one being Hidden Pictures, one of my favorite thrillers. I was hoping this book would have a similar effect, but it didn't live up to it. The book started out quite well, which made me really excited about where it was going to go, but in the end, it was just mediocre.

The Last One at the Wedding tells the story of Frank Szatowski and his strained relationship with his daughter Maggie. Frank lost his wife Colleen when Maggie was only 10, due to a fatal aneurysm. Frank is proud of raising her by himself (with the help of his sister Tammy). However, there was an arson incident at Maggie's place of work, and with Maggie acting suspicious, Frank accused her of being involved in the arson, causing a rift between their relationship for 3 years.

At the beginning of the novel, Maggie calls Frank after the 3 years of silence to let him know that she's getting married and he's invited to the wedding. He's beyond excited to hear from his daughter finally, and starts asking questions about her fiancé. She tells him his name is Aidan Gardner and he's a painter. Not a house painter but an artist. They've been dating for 6 months. She won't tell him who his father is. Frank feels increasingly worried about this new man. Maggie tells him he should come to their house and meet Aidan. 

Frank arrives to an office skyscraper in Boston, wondering if he's gone to the wrong place, when a beautiful lady opens the door for him and addresses him by name. He's shocked to find out that Maggie is living in the penthouse suite in this high rise with Aidan and it's got direct elevator access. His jaw is on the floor at the amount of wealth Aidan has. Come to find out, Aidan is the son of the CEO of a successful tech business, Capaciti, where Maggie has been working at. 

Frank notices Aidan is rather quiet. He feels uneasy about this whole thing, but is happy that Maggie seems happy. After the visit, he receives his wedding invitation in the mail. His sister Tammy receives one as well. Shortly before the wedding, Frank receives a postcard in the mail, of a picture of Aidan with another woman. On the back of the picture, it says "Where is Dawn Taggart?" This makes Frank even more uneasy so he asks Maggie who is Dawn. Maggie tells him she's a missing woman and her family thinks the Gardeners had something to do with it, but police has proven that they don't. Frank and Tammy carpool together (with Tammy's foster child Abigail) to the wedding, which is a 3 day event. At the wedding, Frank is suspicious of the groundskeeper Hugo, and finds it odd that Aidan is nowhere to be seen and Aidan's mother Catherine is almost always behind a window. Frank sees Aidan with another woman, walking towards the forest, so he follows them. He overhears some heated conversation between the two and is even more suspicious of what's going on. He confronts the woman, who's name is Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn says she is Aidan's friend, and will tell him everything next day morning when everyone else is going on a hike. Suspiciously, Gwendolyn's body is found floating in the river later that day. No one seems overly concerned as everyone says she's a habitual drug user. Frank doesn't believe it because she seemed fine when he talked to her.

Frank decides to talk to Catherine. He's been told she is reclusive because she's not feeling well, but he finds out that she's not sick. She's just an alcoholic because her husband Errol keeps cheating on her with younger women. She tells Frank that it was Errol who slept with Dawn. Dawn got pregnant and confronted Catherine for money. Catherine got angry and killed Dawn. Errol and Aidan helped cover up the murder. Maggie who gave Aidan his alibi, also helped with the coverup and that's why she's marrying Aidan - the family agreed to this fake marriage which will only last a year, then Maggie will leave with half of Aidan's assets. Aidan is a victim in all of this, as he feels that he can't make any decisions for himself.

Later, Aidan kills himself with a gun. Much to Frank's chagrin, Maggie continues to be involved with the Gardners. Frank even finds her in Errol's bed! Frank finally starts to come to terms with who Maggie is, a manipulative individual who will stop at nothing to obtain wealth. Tammy eventually adopts Abigail. Frank helps with raising Abigail.

This story was OK. Overall, there was just not really any shock value. The deaths felt really non-emotional. I enjoyed Frank's conversations with the Gardner family, lots of funny moments for me due to their wealth gap, so this was pretty good as a funny book, but as a psychological thriller, it fell short. 

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