Editorial Content for The Last Invitation

Darby Kane hones her skills and experience as a trial attorney-turned-bestselling author in THE LAST INVITATION. Enlisting a suspenseful narrative of Illuminati-esque conspiracies and murders, an intimate story of how women and their abusers are treated in an imbalanced American legal system blooms. In an age when Johnny Depp enjoys martyrdom and Amber Heard is villainized as the lone aggressor, Kane cracks the notion of women unfairly prevailing in domestic cases.

Gabby Fielding enters the house of her ex-husband, Baines, to discuss visitation rights with their daughter. Instead, she finds him bloodied and dead in his office before she herself is attacked. His death is ruled a suicide, and her assault is dismissed by authorities. Jessa Hall is an attorney wrapped up in another ugly divorce representing the best interests of Darren and Ellie Bartholomew’s son, Curtis. Darren detests how his “incompetent” wife has a greater share of Curtis’ custody and promises that his affluent resources will make Jessa pay when she resists his prior, artificially cordial persuasions.

"Kane’s legal career, her research into the corporate world and her unique style add up to an exciting page-turner that any fan --- and believer --- of secret societies and the Illuminati will enjoy."

Within all of the book’s short chapters, a narrative and thematic ping-pong is at play. For instance, in the above action, there’s a theme of countering the “male oppression” stereotype in divorce settlements. Early in their marriage, Gabby used her law degree to bolster Baines’ company, then Baines used his wealthy connections to force Gabby into an unfair settlement. Ellie, equipped with her own wealth and connections, demonstrated to the courts Darren’s instability. Kane later connects the plot’s developments, contextualizing past chapters and bolstering future ones.

Jessa and Gabby’s stories finally intersect at Baines’ funeral. There’s bad blood between the former law school classmates. They once shared a bond, with their similar experiences of being weaponized by opposing sides in custody battles. But once Jessa and her law firm represented Baines in the divorce, any friendship between the two rotted. Jessa attempts to deny how close she and Gabby once were so she can sleep at night, highlighting Kane’s impressive ability to scribe internalized thought patterns. Throughout the novel, she employs a short narrative distance that reads like first-person narration when it is actually third person. The “psychological” element of this psychological thriller is most potent thanks to her stylistic choices, like conveying self-hatred and the internal conversation within a character’s mind.

Generally speaking, Gabby and Jessa’s involvement in divorces get them entangled in a powerful secret society. A reporter, who recently has been disgraced for spouting Alex Jones-like conspiracies, approaches Gabby after no one believes her claims of Baines’ murder and her attack. Before she can shoo him away, he tells her about the Sophie Foundation, a list of sudden and strange deaths among affluent men, and how her secrets will be exposed if she continues to doubt Baines’ suicide.

Meanwhile, Jessa pays the price for refusing to step down from the Bartholomew case. She is forcibly removed while being investigated for malpractice. On top of her career falling apart, her spineless boyfriend breaks up with her. Feeling alone, she meets up with her former professor, Loretta Swain, the senior judge of the Maryland court of appeals. Swain tells her about a secret society of women who take the law into their own hands, forcing justice upon abusers who weasel their freedom in a sexist legal system. Jessa is weary of the vigilantism, asking herself the question “whose justice?” But in desperate need of a sturdy support system, she tells Swain that she’s in.

Gabby ultimately mounts a one-woman crusade to expose this secret society, and when she discovers that Jessa is in the running for new membership, the two collide again. A long, intricate web of political and familial secrets unwinds in the novel’s falling action. Kane’s legal career, her research into the corporate world and her unique style add up to an exciting page-turner that any fan --- and believer --- of secret societies and the Illuminati will enjoy.