LAST LIGHT is book # 3 in the Detective Lucy Harwin series, a riveting serial killer fiction by Helen Phifer. Having loved her debut detective novel, THE LOST CHILDREN (DARK HOUSE), a police procedural series set in the coastal town of Brooklyn Bay featuring DI Lucy Harwin, and her second book, DYING BREATH, I couldn’t wait to read book 3. I found myself totally absorbed in the believable characters and the story. Another winner for Bookouture and this talented writer! This is the review of Last Light.

The Books in the Detective Lucy Harwin Series Include:
1. Dark House aka The Lost Children (2017)
2. Dying Breath (2017)
3. Last Light (2018)

DI Lucy Harwin, in charge of a new team arrives at the crime scene for the discovery of a woman’s body in an abandoned church. The dead body was hanging upside down on a handmade crucifix and had been discovered by some young teens that had gone ghost hunting in a church.

Lucy has her hands full being recently separated and the mother of a teenage daughter, Ellie…juggling work and home life hasn’t been easy. Also, Lucy's regular partner, Detective Sergeant Matthew Jackson (Mattie) is taking off on a pre-scheduled vacation, leaving her with a new partner with whom she has little confidence.

With no leads except the crudely-fashioned crucifix the victim was displayed on, Lucy is at a complete loss. That is, until another body turns up: an elderly woman, her bosses’ mother, whose body was found at the back of a retirement home, hung upside down with her throat slit. This victim had devoted her life to the church.

There were no clues nor evidence pointing to a motive.

Both murders have connections to the church where her own teenage daughter volunteers.

She must catch this monster before there is another killing.

This was an addictive and unputdownable crime thriller.

Many thanks to the author, Bookouture and Net Galley for my digital copy.

In a bid to get caught up I thought I would do some shorter reviews, just share the blurb and my thoughts – rather than provide my usual oversight on some of the themes and threads before capturing my overall thoughts on a book. Still with me? Great. Books I didn’t enjoy don’t appear on the blog so I don’t want you to presume I am doing shorter reviews because I was underwhelmed or unhappy…that’s not how we roll here.

After reading Last Light I discovered that Helen Phifer had penned several horror stories which explained why a police procedrual had some pretty brutal murder scenes. The story spends time with the investigating officer (Lucy Harwin) and we also get an insight into the killer as the narrative jumps back to the killer’s childhood and we get to see how they grow into the fully fledged murderer that Lucy needs to track down.

The most intruging element of Last Light was that I felt nobody was safe in this story. Possibly this is another consequnce of the author’s horror writing? I feel the best horror tales can make anyone a victim at any time. Lucy and her colleagues felt at risk during this story, too many police stories have untouchable heroes but Last Light didn’t give that feeling and the story benefits from the feeling of peril.

This was a pretty decent read, the payoff comes at the end when the various threads come together but I felt it took me a while to reach that point. Currently on Kindle for under £2 which makes it cheaper than a latte – buy the book not the coffee.

another great book by Helen love all the twist and turn the plot gripping your pull into the story characters are good u going thought the story with them so easy to read a page turner

Story starts off with a murder, and sets the tone for a brilliant novel by a very talented author. Lucy has to investigate the murder of a person found murdered in a very peculiar way. Nothing is as it seems, and there is twists and turns throughout. By the use of flashbacks the reader gets to know the killer and why they did what they felt they had to, but that still doesn't spoil the eventual discovery of the killer's identity. Ms Phifer can be regarded on the same level as authors like Kimberley Chambers, Carol Wyer and such. Highly recommended!
TB

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this amazing book

this author is fast becoming one of my all time favourites...

this book is full on action, murder and red herrings... a priest a prostitute and a murderer what more can one ask for...

some pretty gruesome murders and a few funny moment add up to one interesting and hard to put down book...one i would recommend

I last read a Helen Phifer book back in November 2017 when I took part in the blog blast for the second book in this series. Last Light came out in November 2018 and I’ve been remiss in not reading it until now!

One important point to note, although it’s the third book in the series Last Light is actually the first chronologically. There were a few references to the fact this was the first case Lucy has investigated as a DI and it was confusing as I’d already read two books where she was investigating as a DI, it wasn’t until I reached the end and saw the author’s note that I saw any mention of it being a prequel.

Now that that minor moan is out of the way on to the good bits, and there were plenty of good bits! The story starts with a rather grim discovery of a woman with her throat slit hanging upside down on a makeshift crucifix. Pressure mounts on Lucy to discover the killer as another body is found and things begin to hit a little bit close to home…

This story had me hooked from this grim start until the very end, the plot is well paced, there is plenty of information in the story to not feel cheated by the outcome, but the book feels neither rushed or as though it drags on. One of my favourite parts of the story was the inclusion of the throwback chapters telling the story of a young boy growing up in an abusive home. You just know he’s the killer, the challenge is trying to work out which of the present day characters you meet is that little boy! I’ve read a couple of books recently that have used this technique and I really like it. Perhaps it’s the psychology student in me, but I like discovering what has happened to make a person act in the way they do, and crime novels like this which tell the story of the murderer as well as the police investigation to find them fascinate me.

In both the previous books I really enjoyed Lucy’s character and although this was stepping back in time it was no different, I like that she’s committed to her job, even if sometimes this leads her to making some questionable decisions. I must admit I did miss DS Mattie Jackson, I grew fond of him in the first two books and he spends most of this one on holiday, that said DS Browning features more heavily in this story and he definitely grew on me!


Final Thoughts
I do think the book would have benefitted from making it clearer from the outset that this was a prequel, although if you’re brand new to the Lucy Harwin series this wouldn’t be an issue. That said I really enjoyed the story and read it in under 24 hours, I always enjoy following Lucy through a case so I’m hoping this isn’t the last of the Lucy books from Helen, although I know she has a new series due out this summer which I’m looking forward to.

Well this series is just going from strength to strength. From the the very first page I was hooked. The things I like about this series is there seems to be some actual detective work going on rather than huge leaps of intuition, the dynamic between Lucy and Mattie (but not enough of them together again!) and the fact Lucy is a pretty normal person who happens to be a detective. There isn't any over reliance on her 'dark damaged past!" Dont get me wrong - some of my favourite female detectives are properly messed up but we have enough of those now. Lucy stands out by been....well ordinary. She culpable and human, likeable and very believable. A thrilling must read for any crime fan.

Okay so it was hard reviewing this novel as I am a HUGE fan of Helen Phifer's novels, I think I have read all of them! With this book, I did battle to get into the storyline but I think only because perhaps the subject matter of the killings wasn't one that I particularly enjoy? I do not want to spoil it for everyone else so in all honesty if you have not read her books - PLEASE READ THEM! She truly is a fantastic gripping writer!

From my blog: Always With a Book:

This is the third book in Helen Phifer's Detective Lucy Harwin series and I really like this series. I find these books to be gritty and dark, yet they keep you engaged and invested the entire time!

This book is actually a prequel to the series...I'm not entirely sure why it's just being published now, but it was fun to go back and see how Lucy came to be in charge of her team and how they all end up working together. This is the first case that Lucy works on as Senior Investigating Officer and it was quite the grisly, gruesome case.

This is a fast-moving procedural and there are quite a few twists and turns to keep things from getting stale. I liked that while most of the book is told from Lucy's point of view, there are a few chapters told from the killer's past - I always find these to be so chilling and eye-opening. You just never know what it is that is going to be a breaking point in someone's life to turn them into a cold-blooded killer!

While I usually recommend reading a series in order, in this case it wouldn't be the end of the world if this was the first book you picked up. I have to admit, it took me a while to work out that this was a prequel and that some of the character development that I already knew to have taken place from the other two books didn't yet occur in this book. So, if you are worried about that confusing you, read this one first.

I definitely recommend this series if you haven't already starting read it. It's got fantastic characters, a great plot in each book and especially if you like dark, gripping mysteries - this series is for you! I cannot wait to see what is in store next for Lucy and her team!

Enjoyed this book a lot. Lucy is a good main character and the flashbacks to the past were intriguing but didn't give a lot away until towards the end. Plenty of suspense as the body count racks up. Highly recommended!

A great new thriller featuring Lucy Harwin in a murder case that's becoming a real threat to her and might end in total devastation. I was hooked from the beginning and the book was a real page turner with a conclusion that made me cry and did not disappoint. Highly recommended!
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture!

Brilliantly written, a great heroine, with personal ties to the case she is investigating. A really thoroughly enjoyable read!

Having read & enjoyed the previous two books in the Lucy Harwin series I was delighted to get my hands on the latest tale & it was every bit as good as those that went before.

A woman is found with her throat cut so badly she is nearly decapitated & strung up on an inverted cross. This is a shocking scene even for those used to such things. Before the investigation has begun another body is found in similar circumstances only this one is close to home. The victim is the chief's mother and with him taken out of the case she worries if he is really up to the challenge of leadership.

Throughout the book there are sections narrated by an obviously deeply disturbed individual. Following him from his dreadful abusive childhood the reader can see what fuels his hatred & where he might be looking to next.

Lucy has her suspicions about a local minister but hadn't factored in his very scary wife! Following her leads she is fearful there will be more bodies before the culprit is caught.

This was a terrific read-for once I did guess whodunnit! I'm eagerly awaiting the next one! Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

I really like Helen Phifer and her Lucy Harwin series and so when I saw that there was a new one coming out I knew that I had to read it.

I was happily reading Last Light but I have to admit that I was getting a bit confused, some of what Lucy was saying just wasn't making sense and I was worrying that my memory was failing me. After a few more times of this happening I decided to read the blurb, something that I rarely do before I read a book. It was then that I realised that this was, in fact, a prequel. Once I knew that I got right back into the book and it all made sense.

So if you have read the previous books in the Lucy Harwin series then you will love this book. If you haven't read any then you will also love this book but perhaps you should read it before you read the other books in the series.

I really like Lucy Harwin, she isn't perfect, far from it, but she's real and she isn't a hugely amazingly talented detective that manages to solve crimes that would stump any other detective, as can often be the case in detective books. She's real, she struggles, she has self doubt and she really, really cares.

The author also has a great way of coming up with crimes that are really rather unpleasant, which adds to the story and the tension and the urgency. With this one, I worked out who the killer was very early on but that didn't impact the read for me at all as I often doubted what I'd thought. I really liked how we got the back story of the killer so we understood why he was killing those that he was, and a kind of understanding of how he became a killer.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Last Light by Helen Phifer, if you like your female detective series then this is a great series for you to try!

Thank you to Bookouture for a copy of Last Light by Helen Phifer. I was under no obligation to review the book and all thoughts are my own.

Last Light (A Detective Lucy Harwin Novel)
by Helen Phifer

Bookouture


Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date 16 Nov 2018


I am reviewing a copy of Last Light through Bookouture and Netgalley:


Detective Lucy Harwin is in charge of the team called out to attend to a woman's body found in an abandoned church that's falling apart, and finds herself drawn into a case that will test her leadership skills in a way they have never been tested before.


There are no leads except for the crudely fashioned crucifix the victim was displayed on, Lucy is at a complete loss, but when another body is found more leads open this time an elderly woman who devoted her life to the church.



Lucy finds herself with the realization that a killer is stalking her small coastal town. Lucy's first case quickly turns a nightmare.


Lucy soon links the killer to the church her teenage daughter volunteers out, bringing the danger far to close to home.


I give Last Light five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

Thankyou to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author, Helen Phifer, for the opportunity to read a digital copy of Last Light in exchange for an honest, unbiased opinion.
What a plot! The storyline was well written and kept me on the edge of my chair until the very end. Full of unpredictable twists and turns which I really love.
Definitely well worth a read for fans of the genre.

I absolutely love the series featuring Detective Inspector Lucy Harwin. There are currently three books in the series and the most recent one called ‘Last Light’ was released on 16th November. I couldn’t wait to read it and boy I was not to be disappointed. I absolutely loved ‘Last Light’ and for me it is easily the best book of the series so far but more about that in a bit.
I love DI Lucy Harwin and I have great admiration for her. She is a career police officer, who is very understanding and compassionate. She can be as hard as nails when she has to be but she is also a very caring woman and in ‘Last Light’ she promises the initial murder victim that she will find out who killed her and why. Harwin can be extremely diplomatic, very tactful, very firm and very strong when she has to be. This case challenges her like no other that she has come across before. At the same time, Harwin has personal issues bubbling. She has broken up with the father of her child, only the child isn’t taking the split too well. Her daughter has hit the tricky teenage years and she is testing the boundaries somewhat. Not only that but she is also playing her mother off against her father. Will her personal problems overshadow and have any effect on the case? Will Harwin and her team solve the murder case? Who is the murderer and what is their motivation? Well for the answers to those questions and more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.
Oh my golly gosh ‘Last Night’ was one hell of a fast paced, thrilling and shocking read. The story opens with a scene that will stay fresh in my memory for a long time to come and it certainly grabbed my attention. The author’s writing style is such that you can’t fail to be drawn in and bam before you know it you are hooked on the book and you simply can’t bear to be parted from it. That’s what happened to me anyway. I binge read the book over the space of a couple of days which worked well in this case because it gave me a real sense of how intense the police investigation was. The author uses such powerful and detailed descriptions that I really did feel as though I was part of Lucy’s team. I found that I began interacting with the book in the sense that I was ‘living’ the story. I find that if the story is well plotted, convincing and well written then I tend to ‘live’ it and believe that it is real. The book is written well and in different time periods. This way of telling the story works in that the chapters interlink and the story flows seamlessly. Reading ‘Last Light’ was much like being on an extremely scary and unpredictable rollercoaster with not much of an idea in which direction the ride/ read will take you next. There were also twists and turns aplenty- some of which I was expecting and others crept up on me and left me stunned and breathless.
In short I absolutely loved reading ‘Last Light’ and I would definitely recommend it to other readers. I can’t wait to read more from Helen Phifer. Here’s hoping we don’t have too long to wait. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

Helen Phifer books are all hard to put down, as was this one. The third book to feature Lucy Harwin and it kept me enthralled to the end. Good character development, a cracking plot and a calculating evil killer. An easy 4* from me. Thanks to Net Galley for my copy. reviews on Goodreads, Amazon and Facebook.

This is a fantastic series with a great lead character. I’ve read all the books so far and was very excited to receive an ARC from net galley. This booked had me hooked from the first page.

Gruesome descriptions and great atmospheric writing . A tough case for Lucy – in charge of new faces at work and with problems at home with her personal life . It’s fast moving with lots of twists and keeps you guessing as to the identity of the killer with lots of flashbacks to their earlier life and the experiences that have led them to this point of killing.

The first thing I will say is that it is not necessary to read the first few books in this series to enjoy this title as I didn’t! The second thing I will say is that this book will hook you in very early on and keep you gripping on to it until the very end. The book starts with a gruesome discovery of a woman in a church and continues along the path of trying to work out who could possibly do such a thing. It’s addictive, fast-paced and interesting as different POVs intersect and collide throughout. It is everything I love about reading detective novels and I know that I’ll be reading the first two novels now too!

One of the things I rather enjoyed about this book was the multiple POVs. This was really well plotted out as it had you guessing about who the murderer is from the get go, as well as trying to work out who was the POV of the past – as it’s left quite anonymous! I enjoyed trying to work out who I thought had done the crimes and how they all tied together but mostly I really liked the characters that we met. They were all strong, interesting characters that worked and just gelled really well together. I am definitely attached enough to want to read more books with Detective Lucy Harwin in.

Overall the book was an entertaining one that had my curiousity piqued from early on. I found myself speeding through the book to try and work out who the villain was and what their true motives were. I was enraptured by the novel and thought it was a great way to spend my spare time. I will warn you though, it was fairly graphic in some instances so if you’re not a fan of graphic descriptions, you may want to go in prepared to skip those bits! But, if you’re a fan of good detective novels, make sure you give this book a read.