The Last Woman in the Forest by Diane Les Becquets

After requesting and downloading this book I learned of a trigger warning that, had I known about it earlier, would have kept me from requesting. My mental health cannot tolerate any kind of animal cruelty or injury, so I will not be reading this book. I do appreciate the opportunity.

Diane Les Becquets was a new author for me but I’ll be looking at her other books in the near future.

I thought this was an excellent thriller in a fresh setting. Even though I had a few things figured out this book had great twists and my family definitely got shushed when it was down to the nitty gritty!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

A solid thriller with a refreshingly different setting. A recommended purchase for collections where the genre is popular.

The Last Woman in the Forest was a great read! It was enjoyable and kept your attention throughout the entire book. With her friend and mentor dead, Marian begins to uncover more about him and the possibility that her friend was a killer. She works to uncover the truth, and find answers for herself.

Good weekend read!

The Last Woman in the Forest Diane Les Becquets is a 2019 Berkley publication.

A beautifully written, purely intellectual, psychological thriller!

Marian Engström works with rescue dogs to help protect endangered species. Stationed in Alberta, she falls in love with Tate, her mentor. However, her happiness is short-lived when Tate dies tragically.

Her grief soon turns to fear, as evidence surfaces that suggests Tate could be a serial killer. Torn between needing to know the truth and needing to believe Tate is the man she thought him to be, she seeks advice from retired Forensic Profiler, Nick Shepard.

Is it possible the man she loved was a murderer? Was Tate guilty?

I found the book to be very suspenseful, just not in the traditional way most thrillers are designed. In many ways this plot device reminded me of ‘The Pilot’s Wife’, where after a significant other becomes a possible suspect, scenes from the past suddenly develop new connotations. Memories surface in which the clues one should have picked up on, are either explained away, ignored, or passed by unnoticed. It’s an effective approach, if done with careful planning and in moderation.

Marian is looking back over her relationship with Tate, seeing things through a different lens, that of hindsight. No, this is not an action- packed nail biter, with loads of plot twists. It’s more subtle, cerebral, and psychological. Marian and Nick are both analyzing Tate- but from different angles. Nick is experienced, clinical, and is not as emotionally invested in the findings the way Marian is.

Marian, however, is relying on her personal experiences with Tate, looking at possible alternate suspects, while questioning her own judgment.

Adding to the story is the atmosphere that the landscape and vivid scenery provide. It’s invigorating, but very dangerous, and makes the perfect backdrop for this story. I was able to put myself in this environment, which helped me experience things the ways Marian did.

It was quite unnerving, to be honest. I couldn’t imagine being in her shoes, thinking I had been close to such a cunning, cold blooded murderer, and might have narrowly escaped the same fate as Tate's alledged victims. I’d also want to find some evidence that my suspicions were wrong, because the alternative is too horrible to contemplate.

As Nick’s insights penetrate, so do questions about Nick, his health, his past, and his ability to read Tate. His findings are interesting, and as Marian's awakening slowly mounts, so does the suspense.

While I was busy thinking and rethinking all the angles, a huge turn of events in the last few chapters of the book took me completely off guard!!!

Once I finished the book and my pulse returned to normal, I had one more surprise in store, via the author’s note at the end. Be sure to read that note because it explains some things in the book, once again causing one to reflect on things in hindsight.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. While I wouldn’t want ALL of my books to use this format, it was a nice change of pace.

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.

I listened to this book on audio and thoroughly enjoyed it. I found it very interesting how the author incorporated some factual information about the processes and tracking of wildlife. The characters were very well thought out and sincere.

My heart hurt for Marian and Nick. I liked there usually friendship. This was a fun read.

This was a good suspenseful book while reading unfortunately, after you finish it isn't very memorable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this suspense novel. The remote and wild setting was very unique from any others that I have read and included well researched information about the land and the studies that the main character was doing. I will definitely handsell this to suspense fans looking for something out of the ordinary!

DNF @ 21%.

The prologue to this book was fantastic; it hit me hard, and I thought there was going to be a fast-paced story for me here. But that wasn't the case. There is way too much focus on the technicalities of the job Marian is performing, and it's really slowing the pace down for me. To be honest, I don't find this thrilling, and the story isn't interesting enough for me to want to continue.

What an emotional ride this was! Marion has her dream job of working with and training dogs in finding and helping to preserve endangered species. She falls in love with Tate, her mentor and trainer. Everything seems perfect...but what about those four women who were found murdered around the area where The Den--their home base--is? Could it possibly be Tate who committed the murders? But then Tate ends up dead, mauled and partially eaten by a bear, so how could be the murderer? Marion goes on a mission of trying to prove Tate's innocence with the help of a retired forensic profiler. Her journey to find the truth leads her on an emotional experience, where she begins to realize that not everything was what it seems. I read this in less than two days because I was hooked right from the very beginning. I even flip=flopped between different characters trying to figure out who the killer actually was. Loved it!

Good premise because how well do you truly no someone. Loved the ending although some may not. I did not see the twist coming because I was certain I knew who the "bad guy" was.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of The Last Woman in the Forest by Diane Les Becquets. Unfortunately, this book landed on my "Did Not Finish" list. I'm not even sure why I couldn't get into this one, but it fell really flat for me and I didn't get more than 20 minutes into the book before I gave up. This is another book that I may return to at a later date because it really seems like something I'd normally love, but for now it just wasn't for me!

A dark, twisting tale of a woman who is unsure if her boyfriend is friend or foe. Tate is seemingly the perfect man. But all is not what it seems when the layers are peeled away.

I could not finish this book. The mystery was rather intriguing -- a serial killer in rural Montana, a retired detective, and the possibility that a boyfriend was somehow connected to the murders. But there were just too many interminable passages about training dogs and the work of gathering and analyzing scat in the wilderness to keep me interested. In addition, the book jumps back and forth in time and place so often that I lost track of the story. I finally gave up at about 60% finished.

This book ended up just being an okay read. I was listening to the audiobook at work and while it was entertaining enough, I was overly excited to read it. I was not gripped by this story and didn't necessarily find anything compelling about it the story of the characters. It was an interesting story and concept but nothing that wowed me and made the story memorable for me.

I wanted to read this book for entirely superficial reasons.

I loved the dog on the cover.

I know, I know, you can barely see the dog but I know it’s a husky and I have a husky so as a husky lover, I couldn’t pass this book up based on that alone. That and in the summary it sounded like said dog was going to be part of the book, as the main character worked with rescue dogs.

So that’s what roped me in initially, but then I read the description and I liked the sound of the thriller/suspense genre mixed with a romance aspect of the book, so I decided to give it a try.

Summary

Marian Engström has found her true calling: working with rescue dogs to help protect endangered wildlife. Her first assignment takes her to northern Alberta, where she falls in love with her mentor, the daring and brilliant Tate. When they’re separated on another assignment, she’s shattered to learn of his tragic death. Before long, Marian discovers disturbing inconsistencies about Tate’s life, and begins to wonder if the man she loved could have been responsible for the unsolved murders of at least four women.

Hoping to clear Tate’s name, Marian reaches out to a retired forensic profiler who’s haunted by the open cases. But as Marian relives her relationship with Tate and circles ever closer to the truth, evil stalks her every move (summary from Goodreads).

Review

So this booked a bit of an identity crisis. It wasn’t bad—not at all. But I think it was a little misrepresented in some ways. The cover screams thriller to me with the summary supporting it. Though the summary suggests maybe more suspense than thriller but that’s neither here nor there.. As I was reading, I felt like this book was a little more about the romance.

It’s told between two alternating timelines with the main character, Marian, questioning everything she knew about the man she loved, Tate. There was a lot of time devoted to their relationship which made me feel like there was an awful lot of romance in this book that was supposed to be a thriller. Now don’t get me wrong, there was a darker mystery here, but there is quite a bit of relationship bits sprinkled throughout this book which is what made me wonder if it was having an identity crisis.

Normally I love books with alternating story timelines, but at times this one felt like some of the aspects of the timeline moved slowly. There was a lot of information and sometimes I felt that it was unnecessary the the greater story. I did love how vividly the author describes the scenery and setting. It felt very rugged and atmospheric. It was also evident that the author did lot of research about rescue dogs. I loved the dogs and hearing about their work.

The plot/mystery itself was interesting and I liked seeing how the pieces fit together in the larger story. Though the story didn’t really become ‘fast paced’ for me until much later. I think this is a good book, but it just wasn’t as quick of a read as I was expecting. In the end I went with 3 stars, good but not great.

Book Info and Rating

Kindle Edition, 351 pages
Published March 5th 2019 by Berkley
ASIN B07DMZ4P68
Free review copy provided by, Berkley Publishing, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced.
Rating: 3 stars
Genre: mystery, suspense, thriller

To be honest, when I first started this book I read a few chapters and promptly put it down. I was not interested and was ready to quit the book. Yet, after a while, I came back to it and decided to give it another chance. I started over and something clicked this time around. I was more in tune with what I was reading.

Marian was fine as was the other characters. Although, the characters were just middle of the road with their personalities. It was the pacing of the storyline that really did it for me with this book. It moved so slow. There was not a lot that happened. It is like the long Alaskan nights. I want to say that the last third of the story makes up for the pacing but it does not. While, I was not a fan of this book, I would give this author another try.

A suspenseful story with a surprise ending. The way the mystery of who was the serial killer was handled very well, will recommend this to our patrons.

A chilling journey coupled with suspense and a cold, desolate setting. Marian is a conservationist who is working with rescue dogs in research set in remote, very isolated settings. Her boyfriend and coworker, Tate, is killed on assignment and Marian begins to rethink everything she thought she knew about him. Is Tate the one behind the unsolved murders of women in the area? The isolated setting of the story coupled with the slow burn of the investigation make for a beautiful thriller.