One Last Kill by Robert Dugoni - Book Review

Series: Tracy Crosswhite #10

Publication Date: 03rd Oct 2023

Genre: Contemporary Police Procedural, Mystery 

4 Stars 

One Liner: A solid read 

Chief Webber asks Tracy Crosswhite to reopen the Seattle’s Route 99 serial killer case. Tracy is expected to bring closure to the thirteen victims’ families almost twenty-five years later. When she has to work with Johnny Nolasco, Tracy knows it will be an uphill battle. 

Nolasco was the lead detective working on the case back then, and somehow, he and Tracy manage to work together in the present time. However, Tracy follows her intuition, which yet again leads her to high-level corruption, cover-ups, and people in power who will do anything to prevent the news from coming out. Still, Tracy will not give up without a fight, especially when the killer strikes again. 

The story comes in Tracy’s third-person POV, with a few chapters in the past timeline from Nolasco’s POV. 

My Thoughts: 

I haven’t read books 1 to 8 in the series but enjoyed the ninth installment. I even read #8.5, The Last Line (short story), which ties up with #9. This helped get a better picture of the context, as there are quite a few references to both in this one.

Tracy solves cold cases (by reopening the investigation and through DNA comparison). After being successful in three such cases, Chief Webber assigns her to another serial killer case. Tracy is a smart, capable, and efficient detective. She is thorough and knows when to follow her hunches. 

Though this one doesn’t have much of Del and Faz, they do appear from time to time. Nolasco has a major role, given he was the chief of the investigation back then. I don’t know much about his animosity with Tracy, though there are enough hints to get an idea. Providing his POV from the past helped me consider things from his perspective. This made it easier to understand his actions and motivations. 

The pacing is steady, neither slow nor fast. It may seem like not much happens in the first 50-60%, but that’s the thing with reopening cold cases. There is already enough information to go through before finding more. I like how Tracy uses different bits of information and various perspectives to bring everything together. Be it DNA advancement and profiling, she doesn’t ignore things that don’t align with her ideas. Instead, she thinks about how these perspectives can help her solve the case. 

I’m waiting for Webber to get her due. Looks like I need to wait longer, and more names are being added to this list. Realistic endings are good, but I don’t mind if a touch of it is compromised to make the readers happy (we know it is not likely to happen in the real world; why not give us the satisfaction on-page). Still, I’m hopeful that justice will be served, one way or another. There will be more books in the series, so we’ll get to it (hopefully). 

This should read well as a standalone. However, it will work better if you read at least the previous installment. Even the author calls books 8.5, 9, and 10 a sort of trilogy within the series. 

To summarize, One Last Kill is a solid police procedural with relatively less action but a lot of problem-solving. There are enough twists to engage the reader. Looking forward to the next case! 

Thank you, NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer, for the eARC.  

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