As part of her job, Brooke and a coworker Mia are showing a house at 10 o’clock at night. They arrive to wait for the prospective buyer, and when it is obvious he is a no-show, they decide to head back. The younger Mia asks to drive Brooke’s car is killed by a rifle bullet fired from a distance. It does not escape the police that Mia is a look alike to Brooke, and this becomes important when they realize that her stepfather Zach has escaped from prison and was thought to be headed to Charleston. This immediately sparks the theory that he was on his way to seek his revenge.

At the time of her mother’s death, Brooke was almost placed in the care of Detective Sam Lockhart’s family. Her memories of him are fond and through happenstance he and his son Vincent become embroiled in Brooke’s life again. Vincent is visiting his father, trying to decide how to combat the incipient Alzheimer’s disease his father is experiencing. Vince had been at school when Brooke’s mother was murdered. Now a best selling author, he initially views Brooke with the usual mistrust and suspicion.

Sam’s old partner has been assigned the case, which grows incredibly complicated when an old boy friend is murdered with a letter opener that had been missing from her mother’s possessions. Tension escalates as a spray of acid on her back in a crowd hurts Brooke again. Notes arrive threatening her and Vincent becomes her protector as more violence ensues. Also seeking to protect her is her neighbor Stacey Corrigan. Stacy is noteworthy instantly because she is hard to like, being pushy and abrasive.

The principal characters are well drawn and a lot of effort is spent fleshing out the secondary characters, although the reader may have met these archetypes before in many novels. The price the author pays is a book that moves very slowly. Hovering throughout the novel is the possible romantic interest of Brooke and Vince but it is sacrificed to the intricacies of a plot that features many red herrings.

The ending may be a surprise to many but the subtle foreshadowing will direct the true mystery buff to the right perpetrator. Readers who appreciate well developed characters will enjoy Last Whisper.

--Thea Davis