THE LAST PLACE by Laura Lippman

Tess Monaghan is not the most talented fictional private investigator.  In this case she has a lot of help from a former Toll Facilities cop named Carl Dewitt, who had the misfortune of discovering a head without a body in the middle of a highway bridge.  Carl then became obsessed with the murder of Lucy Fancher.  Tess is actually investigating five cold murder cases, including Lucy Fancher’s.  She has no inkling that these cases are anything but random.  However, as a reader, I thought the first two cases seemed eerily similar, even if Tess didn’t pick up on that fact until quite a bit later in the book.  This was a fast and enjoyable read but certainly not special.  It has the usual twists and turns and red herrings, but I thought Carl was a much more compelling character than Tess.  Tess may be tenacious, but she is not in Carl’s league in that department.  Also, with five more or less disparate victims, I thought the connections between the cases were a bit contrived.  The author does intersperse throughout the novel a few pages devoted to the musings and activities of the killer, so that we know he has his eye on Tess.  Does he intend for her to be his next victim?  No doubt.  I found these interruptions, distinguished by a different typeface so that I could groan each time I encountered one, to be annoying and not really that informative, other than, of course, his focus on Tess.  I found her to be a bit elusive, and her investigating skills seemed mediocre at best.  This book does build on some events from previous novels in the series, but this is the first one I’ve read.  Perhaps The Last Place is not the ideal starting place.