Review: Her Last Move by John Marrs

Print Length: 352 pages

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (November 08, 2018)

From Goodreads.com:  He hides in the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment. Each kill is calculated, planned and executed like clockwork.

Struggling to balance her personal and professional life, young DS Becca Vincent has landed the biggest case of her career – and she knows that it will make or break her. But how can she identify one face in a sea of thousands? With the help of Police Super Recogniser Joe Russell, she strives to catch a glimpse of the elusive murderer, but he’s watching her every move.

Time is not on their side. The body count is rising, and the attacks are striking closer and closer to home. Can Becca and Joe uncover the connection between the murders before the killer strikes the last name from his list?

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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

I have gone back and forth with my rating on this for a while now. Mainly because there are some things that I really enjoyed about this story, but then there were also some things that I absolutely HATED.

Let's begin with the characters. I liked Joe. I liked how he had demons he was trying to face. I liked how he had an underlying medical condition which I feel is partly why he pushes himself as hard as he does. I liked how he had a stable home life, and a husband that so obviously cared about him. Becca on the other hand? I couldn't stand her. On the job front; she comes across as someone who was willing to do the work, but with a giant chip on her shoulder. She lashes out at Joe for "undermining" her when it's her own fault she hadn't checked her email and wasn't up to date. She accuses him of not understanding just how difficult it is for her to be a cop as well as a single mother. Only guess what? She's not a single mother. Her own mother is living with her and doing the majority of the child-rearing (my guess would be so that Becca can work and provide for them). I could probably overlook that, except Becca's attitude towards her daughter (which isn't even her daughter, but her niece) is so abhorrent that I spent most of this story hoping she would get knocked down a peg or four. You see, Becca's "daughter"? Has down syndrome. But instead of that being a side note, it is a major contributing factor to why Becca feels a "disconnect" from her. In fact, several times we see Becca playing the "what if" game wondering if she would love Maise more if she didn't have special needs. What kind of "mother" does that? 

As for the story, I found that it flowed smoothly from one part to the next making it easy to understand not only what was going on, but from whose point of view we were experiencing things. The passages written from the killer's POV were obviously darker and more chilling than the others, but that worked to not only keep the reader guessing, but also to move the story along as we started to piece together how their mind worked. 

I will admit to having one strong "SON OF A B*TCH" moment when I pieced together something just moments ahead of the police force.

One thing I think it is important to mention is that one of the major plot twists at the end of this novel was something that was an extremely risky move on the author's part. I know there will be a lot of people who hated it, but for me, it added a different layer to an already complex story. And the very last line of this story? Man, it was a doozy.

I do think this will appeal to those who enjoy well-written police procedurals that have more than one surprising twist (and who can overlook the few things I mentioned above). I would read more from this author! 

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                               Her Last Move is available from Amazon.com