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?
Her Last Move by John Marrs Review
The Perfect Page Turner
John Marrs is no stranger to success, but like all things in life, nothing comes easy and John has more than worked for his reward.
His first three books were self-published, with The One (first published under the title ‘A Thousand Small Explosions’) catching the eye of one f Penguin’s publishing houses. Johns career took an upward trajectory and it wasn’t long before he was writing for not one, but two different publishers.
Late last year, the phenomenal success of The One bagged John a 10 episode deal with Netflix, something that all Marrs fans are over the moon about.
So imagine my elation when I heard that not long after the release of The Good Samaritan (yet another runaway success) came the hotly anticipated book Her Last Move.
However, I have to admit here that I was a little cautious. You see, not one to be complacent, John took on a monumental task of challenging himself to write within a new genre. His latest book would be his first time dipping his toes into the Police Procedural Crime genre. His thrillers have never failed to excite his audience, but writing procedural crime is an entirely new task.
Of course, I had no doubt that it would be a fabulous book, but I did wonder how Johns voice would fair walking away from slightly supernatural thrillers to something as strictly written and procedural.
I need not have worried.
Marrs challenges quite a few of the normal rules of writing with his latest book, pushes boundaries and shocks his audience… but in the end, it really works. This book has all the thrills and twists you expect of John but with a few added extras.
The thing I love most about Johns books is that the questions he leaves you with at the end of his books often lead to discussions that carry well into the morning hours. This time, I found myself chewing off my husband’s ear until 2am.
Most of John Marrs books draw me in from the first page for one reason, his characters are so incredibly well drawn. It is so easy to fall in love with his protagonists, they are written so well you can see and touch them. Personally, I am a very visual reader, so to really get invested in a book I have to be able to see the movie playing out in my head as I read. John Marrs does this so incredibly well. I really connect with his stories mainly because the characters are so well drawn.
But this book is different. Marrs has deliberately detached us from the characters. Although I’m still invested in them, I felt a deliberate distance from them that made me distrust each of their intentions at different points throughout the book.
With Her Last Move, Marrs has broken all the rules and managed to get away with it.
This book was so much more plot driven. For what felt like the first time since reading John Marrs’ books, the thing that kept me hooked was the plot, (that’s not to say I didn’t love the characters, but the detachment left me curious as to why, so I was pulled through the story in a different way.)
With Her Last Move, Marrs has broken all the rules and managed to get away with it.
He created unreliable narrators without it being 1st person which is genius.
A major twist before the end of the book left me utterly bereft and yet still hopelessly bound to the story!
He has created a storyline that had me feeling (at times) sorry for a character that I would never feel sorry for in real life, left me questioning his motives and my own sympathy for them all. At times he even had me questioning if the protagonist was somehow justified in his actions and then instantly angry that I could ever consider feeling sorry for someone like him!
I sat frustrated and angry with myself for a long time because I couldn’t judge me own feelings!
The research was well done and felt effortless. Detail of the job and relationship between a cop and super-recogniser was just spot on.
If you don’t know what a ‘super-recogniser’ is, rest assured you will want to know more about them by the time . you finish this novel. My husband always laughs at my ability to recognise anyone and everything, but these super-recognisers have me buzzing and I spent the next hour reading articles about them!
I believe Marrs achieved something I didn’t see coming, he managed to totally 180 his writing style and still keep me utterly hooked.
An easy 5 stars from me Mr. Marrs.
