Readers following the Detective Amanda Steele series must remember the tension between Steele and the interim Lieutenant Graves, over the case involving Logan, Amanda’s one-night stand in the pervious book of the series. Things seem to haven’t improved much since then, as in the 7th book of the series, “Her Final Breath”, Steele and Graves are once again engaged in their battle of control over another case.

The story opens with Steele and her partner Trent Stenson being called in, when a mother and her daughter are found murdered in a shallow grave. They show signs of captivity, indicating that they were being kept by the killer for a while before he killed them and the kid has been buried holding a stuffed toy. When Steele and Trent’s investigation leads them to the husband Roy, both off them believe that he has abused his wife physically for long and suspect he is the killer.

But when another pair of mother and daughter turn up dead a small distance away from the original dump site, they begin to suspect that something else might be at play here. The discovery that the second woman also has a abusive partner leads their investigation onto a different avenue, with them finding that another woman and her child, may be the newest victims of the killer, and are currently being held captive.

Who is the killer and why is he targeting women who come from abusive households? What is his purpose in keeping them? Will the detectives be able to find the killer before another mother-daughter duo is murdered?

This is the 7th book in the series and author Carolyn Arnold has still managed to hold the reader’s engagement with her characters.
There are a lot undercurrents happening in the relationships between various people in the department and also a lot of friendships developing, which make the reader connect with the characters very well. Though I didn’t care for the interim chief Graves in the previous book, Arnold has given a great story-line for her in this book that humanises her.

The narration was crisp and the flow of the story completely engaging. I didn’t feel like keeping the book down at all. Arnold has made the story travel seamlessly between the various avenues of investigation which made sure that the story doesn’t slow down at all. The way the relationship between Amanda and Leo progresses was a treat to read. Arnold has imbued Amanda’s character with so many complicated layers and these complexities make this book series different from a regular run-of-the-mill police procedural thriller. Can’t wait to see where Amanda’s story goes further!

This book gets 5 out of 5 stars.