Her Last Breath by Linda Castillo

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Mystery
Content: Strong Language, Off page sex 


A rainy night, an Amish father returning home with his three children, a speeding car hurtling toward them out of nowhere.

What at first seems like a tragic, but routine car accident suddenly takes on a more sinister cast as evidence emerges that nothing about the crash is accidental. But who would want to kill an Amish deacon and two of his children?

First off I have to say that if you want to be surprised about anything in this book DO NOT read the book description! I added a very abbreviated one to my review because I was able to figure out the whole book easily after reading the whole description.

Going into this book we are introduced to an Amish family, a father and his three kids, who are on their way home. Of course from the small description I added to my review you can tell this doesn't end well. The author didn't pull any punches here, and it was brutal. After getting to know these adorable kids it was hard to read about their deaths, but it also made me keep reading.

This is the fifth book in the series and I'm slowly making my way through the books. It was nice to be back in Painter's Mill with Kate even though some of the things that happened in the book annoyed me. I seriously doubt anyone would still be able to rescue themselves from the situation Kate finds herself in near the end of this book. There were several things that happened that didn't seem very realistic, and after everything that happens I doubt Kate would be able to stand, much less everything else she manages to do.

I also really, really hope Kate stops doing stupidly reckless things. Imagine you are investigating a murder and you find evidence outside a house that you've just left. You realize this person may have done it and decide you need to investigate the out buildings at this house. This person has stated that they will be leaving the house in about 20 minutes or so. What would you do? My first thought was to leave. Then wait until the other person leaves and call backup. Then go check out the out buildings. That seems like the smart thing to do right? Well that is not what Kate does. I'm not going to go into what she does, you will have to read the book to find out, but I don't think it's very plausible that Kate became a police chief when she does these kinds of stupid things.

So that stuff almost ruined this book for me. What ended up saving it was Tomasetti. He has grown leaps and bounds as a character and I've come to like him more than Kate. I especially enjoyed that Tomasetti has bought himself a house and sets out to fix it up himself. And of course he is hoping Kate will approve. He makes great strides in his relationship with Kate, who is slower at coming around. I honestly wanted to knock some sense into Kate, but I'm happy with the way things end.

Besides the main mystery, this book also brings back into play the big secret from Kate's past that we learned about in book one, and she is left worrying that it will be exposed. There is no resolution there so I guess I'll be biting my nails waiting to find out how that ends up.