This was a DNF for me. I found myself skimming pages and it was not engaging at all. Two stars as while I didn’t enjoy it I’m sure others will.

The last girl by Danny Lopez.
Dexter Vega Mystery Book 1.
After being laid off from his job as a newspaper reporter in a coastal Florida town, Dexter Vega meets a wealthy retiree who hires him to find his daughter who is supposed to be attending the local college. When Vega visits his client to inform him that his daughter is in Mexico, he discovers the man has been murdered. And Vega’s prints are all over the murder weapon.As the police build a case against him, Vega flies to Mexico City to locate his client’s daughter, hoping she will help him find the murderer and thus clear his name. But when he finds the woman, she tells him a very different story—nothing is as it seems. Beaten by thugs and ordered to leave Mexico, Vega returns home to find himself immersed in a web of blackmail, greed, and revenge. Still pursued by the cops, but now a target of evil predators.
This one surprised me. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I'm looking forward to the next book. 5*.

This Novel Had Potential, But There Were Too Many Problems

The novel begins with Dexter Vega, a professional journalist recently let go, sitting in a bar. A rough looking man walked into the bar and started to talk and then shout at an old man there. He started to assault him in the bar. He then took the old man out to the parking lot and continued the assault. Dexter tried to break up the assault, but it was the owner with a baseball bat that convinced the man to leave. Dexter offered a ride home. Home turned out to be very expensive home on the bay. The old man, Nick Zavala, was rich. He had made his fortune in the sex accessories retail business. Nick, upon learning the identity of Dexter as a newspaper journalist, asked if Dexter would find his daughter with whom he recently lost contact. The next day, $10,000 convinces Dexter to take the job. He quickly learns that this daughter had left to join an expedition near Mexico City looking for a salamander believed to be extinct. On returning to Nick’s house the next day, the police are everywhere. Nick Zavala was murdered. Dexter becomes the prime suspect when his prints were discovered on the murder weapon. The story proceeds from here with twists, turns, and misdirections that kept my interest throughout the entire novel.

The B-story, and more specifically, the character of Dexter is where I had the most problems with this novel. His basic attributes were drinking, sleeping with every woman, except one lesbian, with whom he was close, and listening to his vinyl record collection. The major problem I had with this character was that he was an eleven-year newspaper journalist, but his use of the English language was not what I would expect from a professional journalist. He used “me” as the subject of a sentence, “good” as an adverb, and uses “got” instead of a proper verb in sentences. Second, he uses a laptop to write and collect information for his articles, but tells one person that he doesn’t do Facebook. He later sends a friend request. In several situations, the use of the Internet to find some information would have made several of his searches for people, much easier and quicker. Lastly, one of his interviews with a college professor read more like a Sam Spade in a Deshell Hammett novel than a modern day conversation.

As a reader beware, there is some use of vulgar language, and while there is not a detailed sex scenes there is plenty of sexual activity. For me, this was a very minor issue, but I know for some this can be a major issue.

As I put in the title of this review, this novel had potential, but just had too many problems. While the novel did hold my interest to the end, the problems described above really would not allow me to give this work more than a two-star rating. I could not recommend reading this novel.

Thank you to netgalley the publisher and the author the opportunity to read this book in return for my honest opinion.

This is a good book. The story Caught my attention right away, I really enjoyed the character of Dexter Vega. Dexter is drowning his sorrows, and ends up in quite a mystery, trying to help find a man’s missing daughter.

The next thing Dexter know, the man who he’s working for has been murdered and it looks like Dexter might be a suspect. So now he has to find his daughter just to exonerate himself .

There was lots of action, I enjoyed the story, it was a pretty quick read I liked the ending as well, which wasn’t what I thought it would be.

I would definitely check out more books by this author.

The Last Girl is an easy-to-read quick read by a fairly new author. It takes the reader from Sarasota, Florida to Mexico City and involves a missing college student, murder, extinct Aztecan lizards, conspiracy, sex paraphernalia, and more. While it is a fairly easy read, it is written by an author who is still developing his narrative voice and thus lacks some of the color, rhythm, and layers that might make it more complex and interesting.

Dexter Vega has been laid off from the newspaper in the Florida town where he lives. Being at loose ends takes a job for Nick Zavala a retired wealthy man who has lost track of his daughter. She is a local college student who he finds has gone to Mexico City on a study program. Nick is killed and there are fingerprints belonging to Dex on the murder weapon. This encourages him to go to Mexico City looking for the missing daughter. But all is not as it seems. Who can Dex trust and who is telling him the truth. The more characters involved the more suspects. The story moves along at a good rate and keeps you wondering.

This is a thriller from the very first page. The various secrets in the plot emerge slowly as the layers of an onion might. The characters are richly developed, but are never what they seem. Violence and sex play a large role, being handled with great delicacy while still getting the point across and creating mental images. While many wrongdoings are uncovered,, the identity of the killer is not revealed until the very end, and then indirectly. The story touches on much depravity, but also stirs up hope for humanity. I probably wouldn't have picked it up based on the title. I am glad netgalley recommended it. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Dexter Vega meets a wealthy retiree who hires him to find his daughter who is supposed to be attending a local college. When Vega returns to tell his daughter is in Mexico, he finds the man has been murdered and Vega's prints are all over the murder weapon. As the police case builds against him, Vega flies ti Mexico City to find his client's daughter, hoping she will help him find the nurderer.

There are not a lot of characters in this book but even though, I was still guessing till nearly the end. It's full of suspense and the pace is steady. I found Vega to be both contradicting and a little bit confusing at times. It's not the best mystery I've read but there was something about this book that made me want to finish it.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Oceanview Publishing and the author Danny Lopez for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I did not finish this book. I got through the first 4 chapters or so, and couldn't push through. It's no reflection of the authors writing ability, the book just wasn't grabbing me like I'd hoped. Maybe the next one will be for me. Thanks for the opportunity. :)

Brilliant book with lots of mystery. Would love to have a series with Dexter.

Sarasota, Florida. Dexter Vega is a journalist who has been let go from his job. While having a drink at a bar, he witnesses an old man being beaten up and goes to help. He takes the old man home and finds that the man is a wealthy ex sex-trade entrepreneur.

The man, Nick Zavala, asks Vega to find his daughter, Maya, who has gone missing and offers him a fee of $10,000. With nothing better to do and no main income, Vega accepts the offer and sets off to find Maya.

Vega is on his way to report back to Nick. When he nears the house, he sees a posse of police vehicles and finds that Nick has been murdered. His fingerprints are on items in the house and he has left phone messages for Nick. One guess as to who is going to be a prime suspect...

The story is told by Vega so everything we read is from his perspective. At first, I found it very easy to identify with him. His remit from Nick was to find his daughter and Vega pursued this goal. He had been paid and felt he had to earn his money. He soon discovers that he is rising to the top of the police wanted list. He finds that Maya has gone to Mexico and so follows her there.

As the story unwinds, I found Vega's personality to be both confusing and contradictory. "I was pissed off but also reassured" he mutters at one time. He seems to be chasing rainbows, doing 180 degree turns and blaming everybody and anybody. My sympathy waned, fast.

There is also a profusion of profanity in this book. Maybe it's a symptom of our modern society that language has descended to the profane, but its use in "literature" is superfluous and adds nothing to the storyline, in my opinion.

This was an ok book. By no means a must-read, but in the words of Magnus Magnusson "I’ve started so I'll finish", right to the bitter end.

Mr Bumblebee

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

I love mysteries/thrillers so I am always up for trying an author I haven't read before. I've been pleasantly surprised by most of the books that I've read from Oceanview Publishing. This book was just average for me. I would alternate between getting drawn in and getting bored. The writing itself was simple and straightforward. I didn't just fall in love with the main character, Dexter Vega, but I didn't hate him either. Lots of twists and turns in the plot and I didn't guess the ending as quickly as I expected. All in all, a decent book.

Dexter Vega, former "superstar investigative reporter", has found himself at age thirty-nine to be unemployed and seemingly obsolete. The days of the serious print journalist seem to be over replaced by bloggers, tweeters, and citizen reporters. It sucks to be Dexter - just ask him.

So, while out drowning his sorrows one night Dex meets wealthy, enigmatic Nick Zavala. An old man who made a fortune with a chain of adult sex-toy shops. Nick offers Dexter a job. A well paying job. No, a VERY well paying job. Nick's daughter, Maya, is missing. She's supposed to be away at college but she's disappeared.

Dexter needs the money but he's no private detective... just as well, as Nick has already approached three different private investigators and they all turned down the job. Nick's offering alot of money, Dexter really needs the money, he agrees to track her down.

And, of course, everything goes completely wrong from there.

Before it's all over there is a murder, a mysterious young girl who may or may not be connected to the murder, an extended trip to Mexico City, Mexico (where Dexter's guide is a rogue Scottish reporter who likes to drink even more than Dex does), and a beautiful scientist who probably knows more than she's saying.

A good story with some unexpected twists. It's a fun, fast read that moves along at a fairly steady pace.

I particularly liked the parts that took place in Mexico City, that's when the book really came alive for me. The author managed to convey a sense of mystery and exotic intrigue as Dexter moved through an unfamiliar, foreign land with all these people that he could never be quite sure of... good stuff!

While I liked the story well enough I wasn't as taken with the character of Dexter Vega. He never seemed to come alive, to be a full dimensional presence. He was just sort of drifting through the narrative. It could have been intentional on the part of the author, Dexter as a man-child who takes on no responsibility is a theme that comes up several times, but it just seemed to me that he wasn't a very strong character to anchor a book on.

As I said, I enjoyed the book, I thought it was plotted out very well and I would absolutely be open to reading more books about this character or by this author.

If you enjoy a good mystery with a few unpredictable moments then you might like The Last Girl.

***Big thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Just not my cup of tea. I lost interst very early on.

The characters were very detailed and I cared what would happen to them through out the book. I was kept reading even when I needed to put down the book and complete some house work. Thank you for a great read.

This was a well written novel with complex plot and characters. I liked the hero and his buddy Rachel. Unfortunately, most of the remaining characters were not likeable and hard to relate to. I liked the writing style and would read more by this author.

Dexter Vega is a newspaper reporter ... at least he was until he was laid off. Now he's slumming, mostly hitting a bar here and there. Meeting a wealthy man at one of these bars, the man offers him a job. He wants Vega to find his daughter. She's supposed to be in college, but he hasn't heard from her in months. The police won't help because she is an adult.

Not being able to refuse the payment offered, Vega investigates and finds that she is somewhere in Mexico. Returning to her father, Vega learns that he has been murdered and Vega is the prime suspect.

As the police build a case against him, Vega goes to Mexico to find the daughter. And once found, her story is totally different from the one her father told. Actually, he was not even her father.

And to his surprise, there are other people who are looking for her ..... and they think Vega has her. Beaten by thugs and told to leave Mexico. he returns home. His house has been trashed, he's threatened with blackmail and chased by both cops and other predators.

It's going to take more than a news article for Vega to come out of this without going to prison or being killed.

I wasn't overly enthusiastic about this book. Characters were okay, but they came across as rather bland. The premise waS okay, but again, didn't manage to get my heart racing with excitement. It is a mystery, but little suspense. This one just didn't do it for me.

My thanks to the author / Oceanview Publishing / Netgalley for the advance digital copy of THE LAST GIRL. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Danny Lopez gives us a well planned novel about one man's sinking to the bottom and finding the wherewithal to get the strength to rise up again. The book's opening finds Dexter Vega laid off from a reporting job he holds at a newspaper on the west coast of Florida. Other than an assignment from a magazine to write two short pieces there is nothing for him in a news world dominated by the internet.
Vega meets a wealthy retiree who hires him to locate his daughter who is attending a local college but cannot be found. He finds that she is in Mexico, but when going to report this to the man that has hired him he finds that his employer has been murdered. Due to his initial meeting at the man's house Vega's fingerprints are all over the place and the police have him as a suspect. There is nothing to do but go to Mexico, find the daughter and have her help him find the murderer. Problem is nothing is as was originally told to him by his employer, and Maya the daughter, tells him a different story entirely.
In the course of looking for the daughter Vega is beaten by thugs and ordered to leave Mexico. Returning to Florida he finds himself in a morass of blackmail, double dealing and revenge. His drinking increases, a girl he thought himself in love with has other ideas entirely and he still is a person of interest by the police for the murder. How Dexter handles all these problems and comes back to a productive life is described by Mr Lopez quite thoroughly making the book a very interesting read leading to a logical and satisfying ending.

I didn't enjoy this book. I found it to be slow, poor plot and character development. I tried to read but part way through I abandonded book.

3,5 stars rounded up.

I got this book from NetGalley a while ago, and when I decided at last to read it and checked the rating, I was...totally shocked. You know how it is: a book that gets a bad first review/rating could deserve it, but sometimes it is just a bad luck. A book that gets more than one bad review/rating is doomed to fail. One reader can be wrong, but more than one? In this case, I normally trust other readers and I would have most likely skipped it, if I had not made a positive experience with the publisher. I enjoyed those few books I got from Oceanview Publishing, they were always different and they were always good, so I decided to give it a go.

I started to read it late in the evening, and it was a big mistake, because the story grabbed my attention immediately. You might blame the author for many things, but not for the lack of suspense.

The plot:

Dexter Vega, a former star reporter and now an unemployed journalist, with many problems, among others his financial situation, becomes an accidental witness of a bad fight while drinking in a bar (his other big problem). Because of his innate sense of justice, Dexter cannot look away and takes the side of an older man who seems not be able to protect himself. It came out that Nick Zavala, a wealthy retiree, knows who Dexter is. As a thank-you he invites Dexter for a drink in his villa and offers him a job – to find his missing daughter. Dexter is suspicious. The whole story sounds not quite kosher, and Dexter instinct smells something foul, but the job is well paid and he needs money. The things get complicated when the very next day his new employer is brutally murdered in his villa, and Dexter fingerprints are over the place. He has to find the mysterious daughter not because he owes it, but because it is the only way to find out who is the real murder...


It was a quick read for me, not that the novel is short, but I finished it within 2 days, because I read every minute I got during my working day. The story kept my attention from the very beginning to the very end. There are not a huge amount of characters, it is why the number of suspects is manageable, but I was undecided almost up to the very end. Every time when puzzle pieces seemed finally to come together, the case collapsed on the next page and everything started over again.

The writing is very simple, and I MEAN it –short sentences, not overloaded with adjectives and metaphors. Normally I prefer another style, but it suits the story line and its quick pace perfectly.
And the ending positively surprised me. Not your usual mystery ending, but a very satisfying one.

All in all, I really enjoyed this mystery novel. The Last Girl is not a literary masterpiece - I doubt it was the author's goal - but it is a very entertaining read, and for sure much better than its rating at the very moment, and I'm glad I gave it a chance.

Recommended for all mystery's fans.