Her Last Walk Home

Detective Lottie Parker, Book 14

By: Patricia Gibney

Narrated by: Michele Moran

Length: 13 hrs

Publisher's summary

Her shoes pinched as she shivered in the cold night air. She just wanted to get home. A taxi slowed to a halt next to her, and as she buckled her seat belt, she noticed the child’s seat next to her and felt safe. But when she saw his eyes in the mirror, a shiver of terror shook her to her core…

When a young woman’s body is found on a patch of wet grass in the early hours of the morning, Detective Lottie Parker mourns the young life so brutally snatched away. Looking at the victim’s flimsy strappy top, damp from the dew and soaked with blood, it is clear that this young girl never came home from a night out. Lottie’s heart breaks as she thinks of the girl’s parents finding their daughter’s empty bed and she vows to catch the murderer.

The young woman is soon identified as Laura Nolan, and Lottie watches the blood drain from her mother Diana’s face when she tells her the terrible news. Diana reveals that Laura was on a date the night she was killed, but she doesn’t know who with… and Laura’s empty bedroom with make-up scattered across her dressing table offers no clues.

Lottie and her team rush to trace Laura’s last moments. But hope at a potential breakthrough turns to horror for Lottie when another young woman, Shannon Kenny is reported missing, last seen climbing into a taxi with a broken light, close to the same bar.

But then, Lottie discovers a connection between Laura and Shannon that totally overturns everything she thought she knew. The killer didn’t stalk these two young women at random. He knew exactly who they were and where they would be. But can Lottie stop him before he strikes again?

A completely compelling story from bestselling author Patricia Gibney. If you like Rachel McLean, Kendra Elliott and Robert Dugoni, Her Last Walk Home will have you hooked.

©2024 Patricia Gibney (P)2024 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.

Not as good as the last one

It took me awhile to really get onto this book. it gets better after about chapter 20. Family still dysfunctional and miserable. Storyline is good.

Lottie is annoying..again.

The main villain was very obvious, though the convoluted plot still has me scratching my head. I’ve been with Lottie through 14 books, and she is once again testing my patience. She is incredibly mean to Boyd, who apparently can’t or won’t stand up to her because she’s his boss. She’s coddling her adult children in a house that is falling down around her. Most horrifying is that Rose needs to go to a nursing facility but Lottie is too busy? selfish? in denial? to pull the trigger. Instead, she’s depending on another senior citizen and her children (though Katie doesn’t work to support her child, so there’s that) to care for a woman who needs 24/7 care. She expects witnesses to risk their livelihoods to answer her questions - with no legal justification- which I find abhorrent. She’s basically a bully at this point. Once again her actions left Boyd injured. I like Kirby, Amy, and Sean at this point. I like Boyd, but he needs to stop letting Lottie walk all over him. It’s sad. Unfortunately, these books are still better than 95 percent of the ones in this genre, so I will continue with the series.

awesome

this series never disappoints. always a good story with depth and lots of twisttwists and turns. i adore Lottie, Boyd and Kirby!

Complex and entertaining

Complex plotting makes this a compelling crime thriller.

This is the 14th installment in a long running series that should be read, from the beginning, in order. Because of the intense nature of all of the personal relationships and the changes the cohort has gone through over the years, the reader will want to be on the same page. I don’t feel this works as a standalone or a starting point.

That said, this is a complicated story with the usual characters in the Rugmullin police led by Inspector Lottie Parker. Her boyfriend and partner, Mark Boyd, along with their other colleagues face a diabolical villain. The narrative is told from multiple points of view with some time shifts that make it sometimes hard to keep it all straight. When the body of a young woman is found in a field by the local cinema, Lottie and her team begin an investigation that keeps them questioning suspects and families all over the area. There’s the usual personal drama between the teammates as well as more criminal activity. They examine the little evidence they have and attempt to find the truth even as another body is found and yet another woman goes missing. Things get quite twisty at the end.

This is one of the few series that I still follow and one of my favorites because of the characters. I listened to the audiobook while also following along in the e-book ARC, both provided by the publishers. The narrator did a great job of voicing the many different characters using different tones and varying accents to help relate their individual personalities. Listening while reading always enhances my enjoyment of the book.