Title: Last Witness
Series: Robin Lyons #3
Author: Lucie Whitehouse
Publisher: Orion
Synopsis:
One murder, three families destroyed
And a detective guilty of a crime of her ownWhen 18-year-old Ben Renshaw is found dead in city woodland, DCI Robin Lyons is plunged into one of Birmingham’s most controversial cases.
Months earlier, Ben and his best friend gave testimony that sent a former classmate, Alistair Heywood, to prison for a vicious sexual assault. Before the trial, the boys and their families endured months of brutal witness intimidation, for which the Heywoods, a privileged and influential local family, faced no legal repercussions. Instead, they vowed revenge.
Is Ben’s murder the fulfilment of that vow, the beginning of a bloody new chapter that will go on claim lives on all sides? Or is the truth – as the Heywoods claim – something entirely different?
To solve the case, Robin has to negotiate the city’s networks of power while walking a dangerous line: her own daughter, Lennie, has a secret that could threaten her liberty – and, if it comes out, Robin’s, too. Before long, Robin comes to question whether she knows what justice is at all.
My review:
Last Witness is another great release from Lucie Whitehouse – this time, we’re following DCI Robin Lyons as she tries to crack a case of a murdered teenage boy, Ben, who – along with his best friend Theo, helped put a rapist in prison with their witness testimony. Unfortunately, the person now jailed is part of a powerful, shady family with links to organized crime, and they have allegedly made Ben and Theo’s lives since the trial hell – and now Ben is dead. There’s a lot at stake here, and the pressure is on for Robin and the team.
Alongside that, we follow on from the last book as Robin continues to worry about her daughter Lennie and the fallout from that fateful day at a protest – will Robin’s brother keep their secret? His trial is approaching, and this heightened tension builds as the book continues. The fact that the previous book was released years before this one didn’t seem to be an issue for me – it all came flooding back as soon as I started this novel, which is great as I often have a terrible memory when it comes to books I’ve read!
The two main plots featured here are absorbing and, along with Robin’s lingering feelings about one of her colleagues, means we get a good mix of police procedural and mystery with some further character development of Robin and her family which I really enjoyed. I thought the case with Ben was intriguing and developed well, and the themes – which were often quite shocking – were handled sensitively.
Definitely recommended – Last Witness could be read as a standalone, but if you can, start from book one (Critical Incidents) to really get a feel for Robin as a character!
My rating: 4/5
Many thanks to the publisher, for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest review.