A talented genetic analyst and a detective who’s haunted by an elusive cold case team up in the new standalone romantic suspense from New York Times bestselling author Laura Griffin.
Forensic genealogist Rowan Healy has made a name for herself by helping investigators trace the family trees of violent criminals who have eluded justice for years. But the pressure of police cases left her burned out, and she’s shifted her focus to helping adoptees find their biological parents.
Austin detective Jack Bruner has spent his career successfully tracking down vicious criminals–with the notable exception of the West Campus Rapist, a meticulous offender in Texas who has never been identified. When the latest two victims come to light, Jack sees his target is escalating his violent behavior–and only with Rowan’s help does he stand a chance of cracking this case.
Moved by Jack’s dedication and the brutal details of the attacks he lays out, Rowan agrees to help. When her ground-breaking DNA research sheds new light on the criminal’s background and helps them zero in on a search radius, Rowan and Jack must race against the clock to find a ruthless killer who’s growing bolder the longer he evades the law.
Review:
The Last Close Call is the latest standalone from author Laura Griffin. Her hero, detective Jack Bruner, is a man perhaps a little too obsessed with some of his older, colder cases for his colleagues’ tastes, but it’s that obsession that leads him to enlisting the help of genealogist Rowan Healy.
Rowan used to do police work, but it took a serious toll on her mental health, so she’s not at all interested in helping Jack. But he gives her just enough detail to pique her interest, and with her own personal unsolved-crime-adjacent past (which she takes waaaay to long to disclose to Jack–not that I really blame her), she reluctantly agrees to help him.
True crime readers and watchers will easily see the parallels to the way the Golden State Killer case was resolved (even the crimes are very similar, to a point), and I’m not at all mad about it. We get enough of a glimpse into Rowan’s process to keep it interesting without bogging us down with details, and then get to see what Jack and his coworkers do with the information on the other side.
Stakeouts are hella boring. But stakeouts where a momentary distraction leads to the person of interest no longer being in their car? Stressful AF.
Jack and Rowan’s relationship is very push-and-pull, and I wasn’t too mad about that either. Rowan’s been in a relationship with a detective before, and it didn’t go well. Jack’s got his own history of running from relationships–or being more interested in his job than putting the work in to his personal life–so they both had their own personal issues to deal with before they could think about an HEA. Ms Griffin did a great job of showing the development of their relationship without dragging it out too long, of keeping them focused on the case but still believably moving their personal story along at the same time.
This one felt like it deviated somewhat from Griffin’s usual formula in that it was a more secondary character who was most in danger toward the book’s climax, and from an antagonist who isn’t the book’s main one. In fact, the WCR is actually apprehended earlier in the book than her villains usually are, and that left me feeling a bit unbalanced. I didn’t hate the tension that came after that point, but resolving it satisfactorily it did seem to depend a bit more heavily on chance than her climaxes usually do.
But that sneak peek into the next Texas Murder Files book? HELL YES, I’m ready for Nicole’s book! Is it May yet?
Rating: 4 stars / A-
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.