The Last Party

The Last Party (2024) is a psychological thriller by A. R. Torre. The Last Party tells the story of Perla Wultz, a wealthy Pasadena wife and mother who is harboring a dark secret. As Torre unravels Perla’s perfect façade, she explores The Deceptive Nature of Appearances, The Lasting Effects of Childhood Trauma, and The Danger of Control in Relationships.

A. R. Torre is the pen name of the New York Times best-selling author Alessandra Torre. She writes psychological thrillers and murder mysteries, and her work is noted for portraying the dark side of affluent communities and complex female antagonists. Torre is an advocate for self-publishing and the founder of authors.ai, a tool that uses artificial intelligence to provide manuscript critiques to aspiring novelists. She has published over 20 novels to date.

This guide refers to the 2024 Select Publishing e-book edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, death, child death, death by suicide, child sexual abuse, child abuse, emotional abuse, mental illness, animal death, addiction, substance use, and cursing.

Plot Summary

The Last Party alternates between several perspectives, with the main narrators being Perla Wultz, Leewood Folcrum, and Perla’s 11-year-old daughter, Sophie Wultz. Sophie’s chapters are stylized as journal entries. Perla’s and Leewood’s chapters often begin with a quotation from a minor character that foreshadows the novel’s eventual climax.

Perla is an apartment manager who lives with her data scientist husband, Grant, and their 11-year-old daughter, Sophie, in the affluent gated community of Brighton Estates in Pasadena, California. Though she blends in seamlessly with her upper-class neighbors, Perla grew up in poverty, raised by a single father after her mother’s death by suicide. Perla had a tumultuous relationship with her father, who had an alcohol addiction, often having to take care of him and herself. At age 12, after an unspecified incident, she was removed from his care by Child Protective Services and adopted by the wealthy Thomas family. The Thomases renamed her Perla and taught her to adapt to high society. Perla met Grant at a church event when she was 21, and the two entered a relationship shortly afterward.

While Perla’s life appears perfect from the outside, her internal monologue reveals cracks. Perla displays the symptoms of a personality disorder, as she is unable to feel remorse or sadness. She is also a manipulative and dishonest person and often lies to suit her own needs. Perla emotionally abuses Grant, whose affection and validation she craves, although she does not respect him. She is also a detached mother—Perla never wanted children and bitterly envies Sophie for “stealing” Grant’s attention. Intermittent entries from Sophie’s journal reveal that she recognizes and mimics her mother’s behavior.

Perla is obsessed with an infamous triple murder known as the Folcrum Party, which occurred 23 years prior. The perpetrator, Leewood Folcrum, is alleged to have stabbed his daughter, Jenny, and her two friends Kitty and Lucy during a sleepover party for Jenny’s 12th birthday. Perla is one of the only people who believes in Leewood’s innocence. She is attracted to him and wants to begin a relationship with him, resenting Grant and Sophie for standing in her way.

Perla begins plotting a recreation of the Folcrum Party. She plans to kill Sophie and two of her friends on the night of Sophie’s 12th birthday, leaving Grant to take the fall for the crime. Perla hopes to get her family out of the picture while casting doubt on Leewood’s guilt. She is thrilled by the idea of finally being with him, as well as the sympathy and attention she will receive from the public while playing the role of a grieving mother.

In the leadup to the party, Perla plants false leads intended to misdirect law enforcement. She regularly visits a therapist, alleging that Grant is violent and adulterous. Perla hires a nanny named Paige and intentionally stokes conflict between her and Sophie while staging an affair between Paige and Grant. She creates a burner email and contacts the hosts of a popular true crime podcast, Murder Unplugged, claiming to be the Folcrum Party killer and sharing unpublicized details about the crime.

Chapters written from Leewood’s perspective chronicle his time in prison. He has several pen pals, including Lucy’s brother, who writes regularly and seeks closure in the form of a confession. Eventually, the letter writer is revealed to be Grant, who was deeply traumatized by the brutal murder of his sister when he was only 17. Grant visits Leewood under the alias of Dr. Timothy “Tim” Valden, a doctoral student working on a criminology dissertation. He tries to coax a confession out of Leewood but is caught when he re-uses a phrase from one of his letters.

When Leewood discovers Grant’s identity, Leewood finally admits the truth: Perla is his daughter, Jenny Folcrum. He and Jenny had a dysfunctional relationship, as he prioritized alcohol and substances over caring for her as a child. Leewood is a predator who sexually abused many of Jenny’s friends. Though he did not abuse Jenny sexually, their relationship was emotionally incestuous. Jenny was violently jealous of any woman or girl whom Leewood showed attention to. She killed her mother via a lethal dose of sleeping pills and murdered her two friends on the night of the Folcrum Party because she was jealous of the “special relationships” that Leewood had with them. When Leewood discovered the crime, he tried to kill Jenny by slitting her throat, but Jenny survived. Leewood was imprisoned, and Jenny was adopted by the Thomases.

Reeling from the discovery, Grant returns home. He plans to leave with Sophie the following Monday, unaware of Perla’s (Jenny’s) plans for Sophie’s birthday party. On the night of the party, Grant intercepts Perla’s plan and helps Sophie and her friends escape. When Perla enters Sophie’s room carrying a knife, Grant confronts her and slits her throat, killing her. He tells law enforcement that she died by suicide.

In the aftermath of the murder, Perla’s false leads are discovered, and Grant is arrested for the Folcrum Party plot. He remains in jail until Sophie contacts Murder Unplugged and requests a live-streamed interview. During the interview, Sophie states that Perla tried to drown her in a bathtub when she was a child. Sophie’s admission clears Grant’s name, and he is released from prison. Grant is left conflicted because he knows what law enforcement and the public do not: The bathtub incident never occurred.

Grant sells the Brighton Estates house and takes Sophie on a road trip to look for their new home. Though grateful for his freedom, he is unsettled by Sophie’s capacity to lie and vows to teach her the value of humility, honesty, and kindness.