The Last Place : A Novel

When New York Times bestselling author Laura Lippmans Tess Monaghan investigates five cold case murders, she doesnt expect the investigation tobecome personal

Tess Monaghan agrees to look into a series of unsolved homicides that date back over the past six years despite the fact that the assignment originates from a troubling source: wealthy Baltimore benefactor Luisa ONeal, who was both instrumental in launching Tesss present career and intimately connected with the murder of Tesss former boyfriend.

Apart from the suspicion that each death was the result of domestic violence, nothing else seems to connect them. Five livesfour women, one manended in various ways. The only thing the five cases seem to have is that they are now ice cold. Tess search for the connecting threads takes her beyond the Charm City limits and into dangerously unfamiliar territory. With the help of a police officer obsessed with bringing a murderer down, she follows scant leads into the remotest corners of Maryland, where a psychopath can hide as easily in the fabric of a tiny, rough-hewn fishing community as in the alleys and shadows of bustling Baltimore.

As she strays far from everything thats familiar and safe in her life, Tess is suddenly cast into a terrifying cat-and-mouse game with an ingenious slayer who changes identities as often and effortlessly as clothing. But at last, a single link to the murders emerges. Unfortunately, its Tess.