She Treads Softly: The Last Word

Monday, April 24, 2023

The Last Word

The Last Word by Taylor Adams
4/25/23; 352 pages
William Morrow

The Last Word by Taylor Adams is a highly recommended thriller about repercussions over a one star book review.

Trying to forget a terrible event from five months earlier, Emma Carpenter and her golden retriever Laika, are staying in an old home on Strand Beach off the Washington coast. She is spending her time reading inexpensive e-books and occasionally taking walks. There is some contact from a distant with the old man next door, Deek. It is Deek who suggests she reads Murder Mountain, a serial killer novel by H.G. Kane. This turns out to be a horrendous book which Emma gives a one star review, after which the author quickly asks her to take to review down. The two counter back and forth, with Emma refusing to take down the bad review. This is followed by what seems to be the author targeting her as his next murder victim and inspiration for a new novel.

It is best to jump into this fictional world with few expectations and keep reading past the beginning, even when you are silently thinking, "Really, Really?" It gets better. All your predictions and expectations are going to fall around your feet like confetti. The structure of The Last Word totally switches up all expectations.

The pace begins quick and careens to a breakneck speed. Facts change and actions are swift in this deadly game of cat and mouse. But who is who? Yes, it is tense, dangerous, and suspenseful, but there is also some real entertainment and, dare I say it, fun in this fight for her life, or his life.

Wildly entertaining, over-the-top at times, ridiculous, and heart-stopping. Throw all expectations out the window while reading and simply enjoy the roller coast.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of William Morrow.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.