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In this fifth novel in the series, Diane is still her prickly, irritating self, Ben still in thrall to his father's memory. Their relationship has changed less than we might have expected it to on the basis of the previous novel as they still approach one another with some wariness. But now they must track down a murderer newly-released from jail after completing his sentence, one Mansell Quinn, who swears his innocence and may be bent on revenge. Someone is certainly killing just about everyone involved in the original case, and since Ben's father was the first officer on the scene, Ben himself may be at risk. However the reader may feel about the two principals, they make a distinctive pair, difficult either to forget or ignore. Each is insecure about his or her position, though for different reasons, and this makes each of them behave in ways that are destructive to themselves and, in Diane's case, at least, to those around her. But the most compelling character this time out is one that has nothing to prove -- the geography of the Peak District itself, an area that in Booth's hands combines a superficial touristy attractiveness with a fundamental strangeness and menace that is impervious to time and tourism. There are the caves, in one shaft of which the body of a young man still stands upright, entombed for almost 50 years where he slowly died. The old miners swore that a enormous serpent inhabits these depths and prowls the shafts in search of something warm to eat. Tourist kitsch and natural oddity come together in the petrifaction well, where household objects may be turned to stone, not to speak of the stalagmite and stalactite, growing toward each other but at a rate that will keep them separated by centimetres for another millennium, rather like Ben and Diane, one fears. ONE LAST BREATH is not a perfect crime novel, by any means, but it is an interesting one and one that does not take an easy route to the reader's heart. Though I wish it were somewhat shorter, I am afraid that what I liked the best about it might have fallen to the editor's pencil, so I'll take it as it is. Highly recommended.
Reviewed by Yvonne Klein, July 2004
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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