Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Last To Die - Book Review


This book is part of a series involving the main character Jack Swytek. If you love mystery and intricately woven plots, you will enjoy this book. This is a classic, "who done it" kind of book and it left me guessing until the end.

The story unfolds with the story of a woman (Sally) who loses her daughter in a brutal murder. She is also attacked. Years later, fate and a rich inheritance, allows her to take matters into her own hands to find the murderer of her daughter and in order to do that, she has herself killed. The tale slowly unfolds as the puzzle pieces come together as Sally names the people who have hurt her the most as heirs to her 46 million dollar inheritance. But there's a catch - only the last person alive can inherit Sally's money.

Jack Swyntek is a lawyer who represents one of the "murder" suspects. The suspect is a contract killer with a shady past that everyone warns Jack about. He is also the brother of Jack's best friend, Theo. To thicken the plot, this suspect is also named as an heir to Sally's millions. Tatum (Theo's brother and Jack's client) claims his innocence and Jack takes on the case to represent Tatum.  Soon one by one, the heirs start to die. 

The story is fast paced and Grippando does an excellent job keeping the story fluid and believable. He develops his characters very well and the ending has several climaxes as all is finally tied together. I will definitely be reading more of his books!

I recommend this book to the classic mystery lover.

You can buy this book by clicking here. 

To the Christian: This book is of this world. There is no mention of God unless the author is making the reader aware than the character doesn't believe in Him. Several times throughout the book people swear. The lawyers are greedy, the main character is selfish and the women are all "hot" and "beautiful".  (I am always surprised by the lack of ugly women in some novels.) There are sexual innuendos but nothing graphic.There are some graphic murder scenes. There is some interesting over-seas humanitarian work that is mentioned quite extensively.

This book allowed me to see life outside my little Christian world. I, like many other Christians, have Christians friends, usually read Christian material, listen to sermons and Christian music and mostly interact with my family or others from my church. So it is always a bit shocking when I read secular books of fiction. As I read, I am constantly thinking, "he needs to pray, I can't believe he didn't call out to God to help him, they are worth more than that, I hope she makes it to Heaven, why doesn't she seek God, etc). My Christian life is not the norm and it's not supposed to be (Matt. 7:13-14), but books of fiction have allowed me to remove my "blinders" to see "normal" people, acting and behaving "normally" as the world would behave. It sounds a bit silly, but these kinds of books have helped me understand people better and hopefully help me in better serve my fellow man and bring glory to my God some way.