Her Last Wish by Blake Pierce

For most authors, I like to give three strikes and then I’m done with that writer. This is strike two out of two for this author. And I’m in no hurry to read a third. This FBI thriller, so it’s subtitled, is about justice. In a way, the killer’s motivation is vengeance, though I struggled with the motivation as being enough to go on a killing spree. No redemption. By the end of the story, I really disliked the main character, Rachel Gift.

This happens in the first few pages, so not really a spoiler. FBI agent Rachel Gift collapses during a training exercise and finds out later she has a brain tumor. Half of the book is her battling herself over this tumor and whether she should tell anyone about it. She is sent on assignment to Baltimore where two women have been brutally murdered.

The book is short. Less than 250 pages. The case is intriguing and has potential for an interesting story. However, I have a list of issues with the book. The first one is more a personal taste than a flaw. I’m not a fan of having a few chapters from the point of view of the killer. Most of the book is from Rachel’s point of view. I’d prefer them all to be from her, so the reader discovers who the killer is as the protagonist does.

Fiction doesn’t have to be accurate, in my opinion. But it needs to be believable. But for many mystery, thriller, and suspense readers, accuracy is also important. In both those points this book fails. If an FBI agent did find out she had a brain tumor and she continued working and the FBI found out, lots of bad things would happen. Rachel by not telling her partner puts herself, her partner, and innocent civilians at risk. And she doesn’t tell her husband, either. Pierce paints the picture of an incredibly self-centered and selfish character.

As for accuracy, the FBI procedures are terrible. The way they treat potential suspects would earn lawsuits and is not how suspects are approached. The discovery and subsequent diagnosis of the brain tumor is inaccurate. Spoiler – they don’t even do a biopsy but conclude it is a malignant Glioblastoma multiforme. No way that diagnosis is given without more than a CT scan. There were many more smaller things that pulled me out of story screaming, “no way!”.

The book has some profanity. No on page sex. The violence is not over the top, though brutal. There are a number of typos, but that’s probably something that bothers writers who read than non-writers. This one goes to the bottom of the list for this year. Hopefully, I’ll not read one worse than it. BookBub’s ranking system says it best – a two – which means disappointing. That’s what this book was, disappointing.

1. The Last Exchange by Charles Martin
2. Weapons of Remorse by Chevron Ross
3. Relentless by Ed Gorman
4. Framed by James Scott Bell
5. The Big Empty by Robert Crais
6. After Her Deceit by Steve Rush
7. Water Grave by Mitchell S. Karnes
8. The Book of Answers by Darrow Woods
9. My Brother’s New Wife by Matt McGregor
10. Deadly Silence by Erik Carter
11. Neon Prey by John Sandford
12. A Tan and Sandy Silence by John D. MacDonald
13. Perfect Daughter by Ion Esimai
14. Her Last Wish by Blake Pierce

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