Everyone on my late husband’s side of the family speaks with an accent very different from mine. Dennis grew up in Trinidad in the West Indies, but his family scattered themselves pretty far around the globe. When Dennis was born, Trinidad was still part of the United Kingdom but celebrated its independence in 1962. He used to brag that he spoke “the Queen’s English” because he felt that his English was so much more proper than mine.

He usually did speak very properly, I’ll give him that…until he was on the phone with a relative and they dropped into their “Trini lingo.” When we first got married, I could barely understand him sometimes. He enjoyed teaching me random phrases and laughing when I didn’t pronounce them quite right: “Whey yuh dey?” (Where are you?) “Ah dey hey.” (I’m here.) “Go bave.” (Go bathe.)

“Look ting” (look at that) could be about anything he liked—a new bike, a cool car, a pretty girl. Yeah, usually a pretty girl. 🤣 As Corinne got old enough to understand, he would randomly say “Look ting, look ting!” as we drove around just to make her yell at him, “You’re married!”

Even now as I think about those phrases, I never pronounced them quite right. It’s an accent thing. I am solidly Midwestern. Dennis’s accent was solidly Trinidadian, despite the fact that he spent the majority of his adult life in the United States. It’s difficult to describe, but I usually know it when I hear it.

The pronunciation that we laughed about the most would have to be the short O. You know the one…box, hot, socks. Corinne and I would say one of those words, and Dennis would inevitably correct us, stressing the O.

“It’s not ‘BAHX,’ it’s box” with a bit of a UK pronunciation.
“It’s not ‘HAHT,’ it’s hot.”
“It’s not ‘SAHKS,’ it’s socks.”
(If you really want to hear the difference, check out Cambridge Dictionary online.)

The funniest story I have about accents though was not with Dennis, but with his father. I never met his dad in person unfortunately. He was a radio broadcaster in Trinidad before he remarried and moved to Venezuela. We exchanged so many emails about his days in radio because I had been a journalism major—print journalism, but journalism nonetheless.

One Christmas, we visited Dennis’s mom in New York, and his father called while we were there and asked to speak to him, but Dennis was in the shower. I hadn’t spoken to him in person, so I was excited to talk live and answered the phone.

“Hi, Paul, it’s Nancy!”
“Who?”
“It’s Nancy.”
“Who?”
“Paul, it’s Nancy. Dennis’s wife.”
“Oh, ‘Nahn-see!'”
(Cambridge Dictionary pronunciations)

Because me ⇚ solidly Midwestern, Paul ⇛ solidly not.

I finished a new release recently based in England and Wales, and pronunciation (and mispronunciation) was a major plot point. My first by Clare Mackintosh, it was an excellent read, the first of a series for the main character, and I know I’ll be reading the rest.

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Book Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5 Stars for The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh

436 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication Date: November 8, 2022
The Creepy Book Club selection for December 2022, purchased on Amazon.

Publisher’s Description

At midnight, one of them is dead. By morning, all of them are suspects.

It’s the party to end all parties…but not everyone is here to celebrate.

On New Year’s Eve, Rhys Lloyd has a house full of guests. His vacation homes on Mirror Lake are a success, and he’s generously invited the village to drink champagne with their wealthy new neighbors.

But by midnight, Rhys will be floating dead in the freezing waters of the lake.

On New Year’s Day, Ffion Morgan has a village full of suspects. The tiny community is her home, so the suspects are her neighbors, friends and family—and Ffion has her own secrets to protect.

With a lie uncovered at every turn, soon the question isn’t who wanted Rhys dead…but who finally killed him.

In a village with this many secrets, murder is just the beginning.

************

Main Characters:

• Ffion Morgan – Detective Constable in Wales, 30 years old, lives with her mother and sister in Cwm Coed since separating from her husband
• Leo Brady – Detective Constable in England, 36 years old, lives alone since divorcing his wife, has a young son
• Elen & Seren Morgan – Ffion’s mother and 16-year-old sister
• Rhys & Yasmin Lloyd – Rhys is a famous singer originally from Cwm Coed, trying to rebuild his career and hopes to capitalize on his popularity to make The Shore an attractive investment for wealthy Londoners, Yasmin dabbles in interior design; parents to twin teenage daughters Tabby and Felicia
• Jonty & Blythe Charlton – Jonty is an investor who typically matches investors to opportunities, but he is the primary investor in The Shore; he and his wife Blythe own one of the homes; parents to Woody and Hester
• Bobby & Ashleigh Stafford – Bobby is a down-to-earth retired boxer also originally from Cwm Coed; after his retirement, he had a small part in a television show that pivoted to a recurring role; married to Ashley, a social media influencer who really just capitalizes on Bobby’s fame
• Clemmie & Caleb Northcote – the seemingly least wealthy residents of The Shore, Clemmie moved with her teenage son Caleb from England to remove him from the troubling circle of friends he had
• Dee Huxley – older owner of one of the vacation homes of The Shore, no one seems to know much about her, she lives alone, stays to herself
• Huw Ellis – Ffion’s estranged husband, main contractor of The Shore
• Mia Williams – one of Ffion’s friends (by default), they were two years apart in school and now go out drinking together; she is a housekeeper and has just started cleaning at The Shore
• Ceri Jones – the postwoman of Cwm Coed
• …and too many more to mention 😉

Wow…just…wow!

This was my first Clare Mackintosh novel, and it will not be my last. This felt like the mother of all whodunits, and I promise you that I will not give it away. Everyone loved Rhys Lloyd! Who would want to murder such a beloved star? But the more of the book you read, the more you wonder who wouldn’t want to murder him. Literally everyone is a suspect.

The story begins on New Year’s Day, in the village of Cwm Coed (pronounced Coom Coyd), the morning of the New Year’s Day swim when Rhys Lloyd’s body washes up in Llyn Drych (Mirror Lake). A famous singer who grew up in Cwm Coyd, Rhys and his investor Jonty, had invited residents of Cwm Coed to a New Year’s Eve party at their vacation resort The Shore.

There’s a lot of animosity between the not-so-wealthy residents of Cwm Coed and the wealthy owners of the vacation homes of The Shore. Rhys’s mother Glynis still lives in Cwm Coed, and the land used for The Shore had once been part of Wales and was left to Rhys by his father. The goal of the party was to show the people of Cwm Coed that residents of The Shore just want to be part of the village, one big happy family.

Or not.

A major component of this story is the conflict between the Welsh and the English. People speak Welsh to prevent the English from understanding. One of the residents from England tries to learn some Welsh phrases to fit in. And there are a number of annoyed references to mispronunciations of Welsh names.

I was glad I read it on a Kindle to translate some of the phrases from Welsh because the author didn’t always define them and context clues weren’t all that helpful at times. But what seemed like a bit of a distraction at first really helped demonstrate the animosity…and turned a “whodunit” into a “no really, whodunit?”

I loved the interactions between Ffion and Leo from the beginning. They demonstrate a ton of chemistry. Leo makes Ffion realize she doesn’t need to work alone (she calls herself The Lone Ranger), and Ffion makes Leo realize that he is capable of fighting back against his ex-wife. They are good investigators alone, but they are so much better together.

The story alternates time frames in Part One with the investigation (Ffion and Leo chapters) working forward from New Year’s Day and the character reveals (all the other residents) working backward from New Year’s Eve. When we get to Part Two and really start to learn what’s going on, the investigation still continues forward, but the character reveals go back to June when The Shore opened and work their way up to the party.

The buildup to the big reveal of who killed Rhys was incredibly satisfying, and I still gasped at the ending. You don’t want to miss this. This is a stand-alone, and I can’t wait to read how Ffion’s story continues.

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