Last Words by Mariah Stewart

The next in the "Last..." trilogy, this one is drawn even more tightly than Last Look. Highly suspenseful and emotional, I was pulled into the story of Mia and Beck from the get-go. Another of the Shields FBI siblings, Mia definitely has issues with her brother having killed her cousin. Stewart has written another strong, capable, yet vulnerable heroine, along with another flawed, yet thoughtful and thoroughly wonderful hero.

This storyline is definitely not for the squeamish, as Stewart gets more graphic in her descriptions than she has in quite some time, I think. I, personally, loved it, freak that I am *g*. Her descriptive text is flawless, her characterizations are deep and appropriate, and her sense of suspense is terrific. This is one of those books where you think to yourself with each new character introduced – "Is he the one?"

I loved Beck, the Police Chief – loved the way he was so protective of Mia, yet completely allowed her to do her job in a professional manner. And Mia was so human – able to be so professional, yet teetering on the verge of a drinking problem brought on by her brother’s actions a year earlier. Once again, we see Connor, the last Shields sibling, and Anne Marie McCall, the FBI profiler who was to have married the murdered Shields cousin. Although Connor plays a very tiny role in this book (perhaps a total of 10 pages altogether?), Stewart definitely whetted my appetite for his book, Last Breath, which comes out in August. Woot!