The Last House on the Street: A gripping, moving story of family secrets from the bestselling author

In a small southern town in North Carolina (near the east coast of the US) Kayla Carter moves into the dream house that she and her architect husband designed and built together. The house is at the end of a street backed by a beautiful wooded area and a pond. Unfortunately he died in a tragic accident on the building site just before they were to move in with their young child. In the depths of her grieving Kayla decides to go ahead and move into the house as planned. Strange things begin to happen that frighten her.
Sixty years earlier Ellie Hockley lives with her parents at what was the end of the street at the time. Past them was only woods and the pond. Ellie becomes involved in the voting rights movement. Segregation struggles are rife with danger and violence. During her summer break she joins a largely Black group that canvases the rural areas encouraging the poor sharecroppers to register to vote. She meets and falls in love with a Black man and comes face to face with the realities of the bigotry and hatred during those times.
Both women love deeply and suffer great loss and their lives mysteriously are intertwined. Their stories are told and explained through alternating chapters. I have found this distracting in other books but due to the lovely writing style of the author and flow of the stories I didn't mind it.
Growing up during this era in the southern US I found the stories of segregation and violence true to life. It was a time of the Ku Klux Klan and the beliefs and actions of people was very disturbing. The author portrayed that life accurately and clearly. There are lessons to be learned from this book as well as mysteries to be solved.
I would recommend this book to anyone.

I read this book through my book club and it is the first book I have read by this author.

The story is told in two time lines. The 1960s and the 2010s. I was aware of some of the difficulties facing the black community in USA in the 1960s but this book illustrates just how hard a struggle it was for them to secure the vote. Difficult to believe how bad things were then. This is a well written book and I enjoyed it but it perfectly illustrated the racial problems of the time.

Well worth reading.

Two time lines ran throughout this book. They were clearly defined and worked together really well. This is a real page turner with a thought provoking story. It kept my interest until the very end. Recommended.

Connecting two different journeys in the 1960s and 2010, this book is a real thriller. Both journeys carry on with their own stories throughout the book, and eventually intertwine at the end. It’s a powerful page turner which I enjoyed to the very last word.

The 2010 main character, Kayla, loses her husband suddenly, but still moves into the house they designed and built together, with their young daughter. The house has some mysteries from its past that seem to interrupt Kayla’s peaceful enjoyment of the place. Time-travel back to the civil rights movement of the ‘60s and a young white girl, Ellie, becomes involved in the SCOPE project - helping disadvantaged and poverty stricken black people to enroll to vote. 

Parts of the book make for confronting reading, loosely based on racially motivated historical events. Sometimes the descriptions are a bit wordy, but overall the writing is sound and clips along at a good pace. Everything ties in at the end. Not necessarily a happy ending, but a satisfactory one. 

North Carolina in 1965 is an unsettled place to be. Prejudice against African Americans is rife and the Ku Klux Klan hold centre stage in rural communities, committing atrocities to which the police turn a blind eye. But plans are afoot to eliminate voter discrimination, legislation which is supported by Civil Rights activists. Ellie Hockley is a white student who is prepared to go out on a limb for what she believes in, despite being shunned by friends, family and her local community. Her actions have repercussions which reverberate down to future generations. In 2010 Kayla is recently widowed, with a 4-year old daughter and they are preparing to move into a new home that she and her husband designed. However disturbing things begin to happen and it becomes clear that she is being given a warning.

This book is written in dual time frames, chapters alternating between 1965 and 2010. It is a gripping story, with lots of historical fact intermingled with the fictional narrative. I found this very informative and I learnt a lot from it - I assume (hope) that the historical context was well-researched and largely accurate. The characters were well developed and Ellies’s story in particular raised some interesting ethical issues which I have still not yet resolved in my own mind. The writing style makes it easy to read.

The problem I had with the book was that it was a bit long-winded in places and had a tendency towards repetitiveness which made it drag.

I would recommend this book to a fairly wide audience. The prose is not challenging, yet there are some thought-provoking passages.

If I could give this book a gold star I would.
A brilliant novel, you feel moved by the central characters story, of what Ellie experiences in trying to do what she believes is right, the sadness that will go on to shape the rest of her life and how the present is still caught up in the horrific injustices of the past.
The book was totally believable and is based loosely on real events that happened and Diane Chamberlain has nailed the era ,the toxic atmosphere of this time and mixed it up with the present.