The Last Word by Gerri Lewis

Available: February 20, 2024

Rating: 5 obituaries

Obituary writer, Winter Snow, gets a phone call from a local charity benefactor wanting an obituary written... for herself... with a deadline just a few days away. Why does this woman want her obituary written so quickly? Mrs. Arlington won't say. It seems the woman has been keeping a lot of secrets for a very long time. Secrets someone doesn't want her to tell.

Let me start by saying I believe Gerri Lewis is a pseudonym for another author. I'm not sure who, but I can say with a pretty high level of confidence that a book like this can't be a debut. It's very polished and really seems like something that was written by a veteran author.

I really enjoyed the characters in this book. Winter is a very interesting character with a backstory we haven't even begun to delve into. Her uncle Richard and neighbor Horace are great characters, especially Horace who is a charming man in his 80's who isn't afraid to volunteer his services for anything. There's a love interest in police officer Kip Michaels and his partner Tom is quite the character as well. I really look forward to vicariously drinking a beer on the deck overlooking the lake with this cast again.

The investigation was well-done. Winter does a lot of poking around and takes some risks but doesn't verge over the TDTL line but maybe once or twice (seriously, who goes to a crime scene and leaves their keys on the dashboard of their car?) There were lots of clues and several crimes that have a pretty clever resolution, a unique twist that I didn't see coming.

Overall, this is a solid "debut" (still not buying that) and I look forward to reading more in the series!

Thank you to the author (whoever he/she may be), the publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.