Breathe Your Last (Detective Josie Quinn, #10)

by Lisa Regan

Josie presses her hands into the center of the drowned girl’s chest and pumps, counting off compressions. She takes in the girl’s beautiful face, her brown eyes glassy. The memory of a champion swimmer on the podium with her teammates—a red swim cap on, her head thrown back in laughter—a stark contrast to the cold, still body before her. Breathe. Just breathe...

The body of a young girl lying face down in a swimming pool—white tennis shoes still on her feet, chestnut hair fanned out like a halo—is the last thing Detective Josie Quinn expects to find on an early morning visit to see her brother before class at Denton University. But when she recognizes the girl’s face as she drags her limp body from the water, there’s only one question racing through Josie’s mind: how does a champion swimmer accidentally drown?

Nysa Somers’ family is distraught. She was a model student, beloved daughter and everybody’s friend. There’s no way she would do anything reckless enough to put her scholarship at risk, let alone her life. It’s up to Josie and her team to piece together what happened in the hours leading up to Nysa’s death, and that begins with finding her missing backpack.

But the bag, discarded in the woods on the nearby campus, contains nothing more than empty food wrappers, Nysa’s phone and a cryptic calendar entry telling her to be a mermaid.

The next day, a terrible housefire envelops the nearby home of a retired fireman, nearly killing his two granddaughters. The last words the little girls heard him mutter before he set the blaze were, be a match.

As the body count rises, it’s only Josie who can see the deadly pattern forming. Can she convince her team that the wrapper found in Nysa’s bag that everyone overlooked is the crucial link they’re missing? Not while her partner, Noah, is avoiding her calls and acting so coldly towards her. Josie knows she must go it alone if she’s going to stop this silent and calculated serial killer before any more precious lives are taken.

But with the killer finally in her sights, Josie takes a deadly risk and finds herself hanging onto life by her fingernails. Can she trust her team to save her, and before it’s too late?

An unputdownable and totally gripping crime thriller from an Amazon, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Robert Dugoni and Rachel Caine.

• ASIN: B08JM9BQH8
• Publish Date: 9 December 2020
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Bookouture
• Format: eBook (Kindle)
• Language: English

Reviews

[Emma (SCR)]

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Lisa Regan are you trying to kill me! OMG I have just been on the biggest rollercoaster reading this book. I'm not even sure where to start with this review.

Josie is as ever kick ass! Josie is gutsy, she follows her instincts and she's very rarely wrong. Josie knew that there was a case when Nysa drowned herself but no one else thought so. Being the typical Josie she pushed and dug until she proved her point. The problem was the evidence. This case really got under my skin. It was something new and you know most other detectives wouldn't have even thought there was a case there.

Josie's team as ever were there for her backing her up all the way. Each character has developed so much over the 10 books in this series. You do not need to have read them all to enjoy this book but if you have then you will have much stronger feels on what Lisa makes her characters go through in this book.

The book was very fast-paced and difficult to put down. Lisa had me on the edge for the whole book. From the first chapter to the very last I was engaged and enthralled by the story. I can't wait for more!

[zooloo1983]

I know I am a broken record but this is by far the best one in the series. It was a chilling, so chilling and intense ride, and a story where tears leaked.

For me, the backstory of the person doing the heinous crime didn’t interest me. This was because the way these awful acts were carried out, was so inventive but so chilling, it was the forefront of the whole book. I was fascinated with how the events unfurled. I was gazumped with how these people were dying and behaving the way they were.

This is definitely going to be a book that goes in my top books for the year. I was so worried about Josie and the team, the family, no one was safe. Breath Your Last packed such a punch, I need a break from reading. My emotions are all over the place, Lisa has created a unit you care about and bloody worry about and here it’s no different. My jaw was dropping and I was completely fearful for the everyone involved. It is hard to explain why without spoiling it. But what I will say, if someone can harm you, without anyone suspecting anything, at any time, how can it not be terrifying.

The title of this book has way too many meaning that I really don’t want to explore. On reflection, its chilling but its perfect and its a sign of things to come.

With one of Lisa’s books, you just can’t get enough of her storytelling nor Denton and the world she is building there. Each book we discover a new area, we meet new well-crafted characters, she adds new layers of fear and man these killers are not ones you want to cross paths with. Do we dare delve in Lisa’s dark dark mind?

Things are never as they seem, initial thoughts are never quite right and always expected the unexpected. I am never disappointed when I read a Josie Quinn book, there is always action, thrills and death-defying rescues, but maybe nothing too elaborate next time? Just a thought.