The Last Woman in the Forest

I raced through this gripping tale in two sittings, only pausing to admire the stunning views of the snowy wilderness. Beautifully paced and twisty.

Meh. It was ok. The 3star rating is kind of generous because if I could have given it 2.5stars, I would have. I almost DNF’ed it at the 15% point and then again at the 30% and then again at the 60% and then again……yada, yada, yada. You getting the picture. Anyway, I knew who the killer was pretty early in and the ending was actually kind of anti-climatic.

The primary reason that kept me going were the passages where the author was describing the environments and locals that the story took place. For a SoCal, LA gal it was interesting hearing about all the different wildlife areas. Also, as a life long dog mama, I enjoyed the passages where the author described the handlers training the dog teams.

I do want to add that I do understand how difficult this story may have been for the author to write based on her personal experiences. It was probably pretty cathartic for her, maybe even gave her some closure.

This one has been on my TBR shelf for a long time, but I’m glad I finally dug into it. The Last Woman in the Forest is not an action-packed thriller by any means, however, the writing – specifically the vivid imagery – was outstanding. Diane Les Becquets is a new author to me, but I feel certain I will read more from her given the opportunity in the future. I loved Marion and was honestly jealous of her career, I just wish there would have been a bit more action and fewer facts about the job, environment, wildlife, etc. That part was interesting, but I felt it slowed things down too much. If not for that, this would have been a five-star read for me.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for providing this review copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Marian Engström has found her true calling as a field technician. It doesn’t pay much, and she must ravel from assignment to assignment, but she loves training rescue dogs to help track endangered or threatened wildlife. It’s a profession not for the faint-hearted or out of shape. The conditions are brutal, the physical demands extreme.

Marian joins a conservation study in northern Alberta where she is trained to be a dog handler by the handsome and ruggedly charming Tate Mathias. He professes love, talks about their future together, and even gives her a ring. Marian soon realizes that she has fallen for Tate and envisions the two of them forging a life together than combines their commitment to each other with their love of the wilderness and the dogs they train and handle.

Tragically, after Tate leaves on another assignment, Marian is advised that he has been killed by a bear.

Brokenhearted and grieving, Marian finds herself questioning what she thought she knew about Tate in light of inconsistencies between what Tate told her about his background and life experiences, and some of the information Marian learns from Tate’s sister.

Four young women have been brutally murdered over the course of six years. When Marian begins to suspect that Tate could have been the killer, she reaches out to a retired forensic profiler, Nick Shepard, providing him with information Tate provided her. She also launches her own investigation into Tate’s whereabouts on the dates of the killings and other details, including the real nature of Tate’s relationship with coworker Jenness who has a connection to one of the murdered women.

As Marian inches closer to the truth, she is naively unaware that she is being stalked, her every move and thought known to the killer. Can she solve the mystery in time to save herself?

The Last Woman in the Forest is a unique, creative tale that for author Diane Les Becquets proved to be “absorbing, at times personal, and immensely rewarding . . . ” It was inspired by the murders of six women along the Connecticut River Valley in the 1980’s. The killer was never found. She was assisted in her research by and dedicated the book to John Philpin, a renowned independent criminal profiler. Both Les Becquets and her mother have been assaulted by men, and those experiences informed her writing, as well. She describes the book as her “attempt to address the fear and vulnerability too many women live with every day, and to encourage women to pay attention when something doesn’t feel right, to heed that small voice inside themselves.”

The result is an absolutely chilling tale of a young woman who falls for a man she does not really know anything about under circumstances that leave her highly vulnerable. After all, Marian and Tate are in the wilderness, Marian is attempting to make a good impression in order to advance in her career, and the very nature of their work takes them on a daily basis into remote regions where they are isolated and must depend upon each other and the dogs that accompany them for their very survival.

Les Becquets weaves the stories of the four victims into the narrative, describing in detail how they met their killer and made the fatal mistake of trusting him. The Last Woman in the Forest is a complexly layered mystery in which Les Becquets takes readers along with Marian as she uncovers, detail by detail, the truth about Tate Mathias and his actions. Marian and Nick are each, in their own right, sympathetic and endearing characters, which adds to the story’s tension as the pace escalates to a terrifying level.

With The Last Woman in the Forest, Les Becquets succeeds spectacularly at telling a gripping, contemporary story of a woman who fails to heed that small voice inside, and may have blindly but willingly placed her trust in the wrong man. Will she pay for that mistake with her life? That is the question compelling the story forward to its jaw-dropping conclusion.

Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader’s Copy of the book.

A taut, well-crafted thriller that pulls readers in from the very first page and keeps them guessing until the very last. All this, while also illuminating universal truths about intuition, trust, and love.

I received this ARC from a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for my honest opinion.

I loved this book! The author kept my interest through the whole book, and I enjoyed it all. I recommend this book to you if you like a good suspense novel.