Last Breath [Mass Market Paperback]

Just when I had given up all hope of reading another Body of Evidence book, I found Last Breath. I mourned the end of the series back in 2001 when Brain Trust was released, after I heard a rumour that the end of Jenna's freshman year was also slated to be the end of the series. But hope springs eternal...and on a random Amazon search for new Christopher Golden books, I found *trumpets flare* Last Breath. I honestly feel that this is the best book in the series...or at least tied with my previous favorites, Burning Bones and Soul Survivor (the more obesrvant among you may notice that these are Danny-heavy books). I am a huge Danny fan, and I will continue to root for Danny and Jenna despite all logic to the contrary...another reason why Last Breath fulfilled everything I was hoping for in a new Body of Evidence novel.

For those of you who have not read these books, I will paraphrase before I go ahead and spoil Last Breath with an excerpt that will have anyone who is a fan of the series thanking Amazon on their knees for that whole ships-in-24-hours thing...

Jenna Blake is a freshman at Somerset University just outside of Boston. She works as a path assistant to the Medical Examiner of Essex County, Dr. Slikowski (or 'Slick'), and wants to be an ME herself someday. In the course of her work as a 'diener,' she has become friends with two Somerset homicide detectives, Audrey Gaines and Danny Mariano, and has also risked her life by getting overinvolved in the cases of the corpses who come across her boss' autopsy table. Jenna loves puzzles, and to her, murder is the biggest puzzle of them all. Despite other cops treating her like a 'kid,' and her friends and potential crushes thinking she's more than a little strange, Jenna sticks with it.

Jenna and Danny have liked each other pretty much since the beginning, flirted, danced around each other, and tried to pretend they were 'just friends,' and despite having almost owned up to their feelings a couple of times when they discussed the age difference between them (a whopping thirteen years!), have never had 'the talk,' openly declaring their love....UNTIL NOW! (mwah-hah-hah!)

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

Here it is...what all the Jenna-and-Danny fans (I can't be the only one) have been waiting for...the day (and the book) when Danny finally says....

"I want to sleep with you. I'm pretty sure you feel the same. I love you as my friend, but I'm a little bit in love with you, too. Maybe more than a little. And I know the feeling's mutual."

About damn time, is all I have to say! I'm not gonna give you Jenna's reply, because this way is more fun...and also because the good people at Amazon would probably reach through the monitor and smack me if I did.

But of course, there is more to these books than romance...

A new killer called the Baptist is drowning criminals in swimming pools and then leaving them around the Boston area...'baptized in blood and water.' The killer is brilliant and eludes the Somerset cops over the course of the summer...but is 'the Baptist' the same person who is stalking Jenna?

Last Breath continues to have the same mind-blowing, gag-making scientific detail as previous novels, and I was impressed all over again at the realistic and fascinating way two men have written from a college girl's point of view...in a way that makes you want to be best friends with her as soon as you've finished the book...and not just so the adventure doesn't have to end. I also loved the sense of realism...that no one in the 'inner circle' of Jenna's world is safe...just because they're main characters, doesn't mean bad things can't happen to them...they can even die, like Melody (hint, hint).

I am awaiting Throat Culture with (ha-ha) bated breath....

Nineteen-year-old Jenna Blake thought that she would be spending a relaxing summer in Somerset, filled with quiet, and no studying. After all, with classes out for the summer, Somerset University's campus is something like a ghost town, completely deserted. However, the minute she gets involved in a new case at the medical examiner's office, her summer turns out to be anything but relaxing, for there is a crazed serial killer on the loose, and he/she is drowning various victims in some of Boston's most well-known public places. Everyone knows about the cases, yet no one has any leads as to who might be the murderer. Then Jenna puts her mind to it, and uncovers an important piece of evidence, that lands her smack dab in the middle of the murder investigation, and makes her a prime target for the murderer.

It has been many anguishing years since the last BODY OF EVIDENCE book was released, yet Christopher Golden and Rick Hautala's latest effort, LAST BREATH, was utterly amazing. As always, Jenna is a wonderfully entertaining character, who is beginning to show a bit of her wild side for once, and her quirky personality is as funny as ever. Filled with all of the characters that BODY OF EVIDENCE fans know and love, as well as the series' trademark mystery, this is an absolute must-have!

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

I have read all of the books in the Body of Evidence series, and I thought that after Brain Trust there wouldn't be anymore. But then came Last Breath. It really satisfies the expectations of fans of Christopher Golden and BOE. Like another reviewer, I am all rooting for Danny and Jenna despite their age difference, and this newest release in the series really plays with that aspect. Fans will not regret reading this. Can't wait till Throat Culture comes out in April.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 3 reviews  5.0 out of 5 stars