The Last Breath
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
For fans of John D. MacDonald and his coastal Florida mysteries, The Last Breath by Danny Lopez will rekindle the flame.
Unemployed newspaper reporter Dexter Vega is hired to investigate the drowning of Liam Fleming, the son of a wealthy real estate investor in Siesta Key.
Vega's search for clues takes him from one end of this picturesque barrier island off the coast of Sarasota to the other. But nothing adds up. Liam was young, an experienced swimmer, apparently healthy—and drowned in four feet of water. And why was Liam living in a beach shack? Why was he buying properties and not selling them?
The police are getting nowhere as they identify every beach bum on Siesta Key as a suspect. But Vega narrows his investigation to two—one who disappears, and the other he's falling in love with. Beach bums and hippies go missing, while greed, beachfront property, and drugs swirl in vicious loops—and when they converge, Vega puts his life on the line to find the truth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in Sarasota, Fla., Lopez's so-so sequel to 2017's The Last Girl finds self-pitying unemployed reporter Dexter Vega in desperate need of a job. At the suggestion of a newspaper editor acquaintance, Dexter gets in touch with Bob Fleming, a retired hedge fund manager who's unhappy with the police investigation of the death of his 27-year-old son, Liam. A fit athlete, Liam supposedly drowned while kayaking in the calm Intracoastal Waterway, and Bob wants someone to find out what really happened. Besides learning that Liam lived like a beach bum, but was using his father's money to buy real estate that he never sold, Dexter uncovers holes in the report of the police detective involved in the case. The odd behavior of Bob's trophy wife, Brandy, raises his suspicions, but often he follows the wrong scent. More through luck than skill, Dexter bumbles his way toward unraveling the mystery of Liam's death. Smooth prose compensates only in part for a familiar plot.
