“It was a beautiful spot, the river wide enough to let in a nice expanse of sunlight. Tate had chosen this location, had sat on the rocky outcrop a few feet from where Marian stood now, had pressed the river rock against her palm and asked her to remember. That was before the story Marian had believed in, the one she was certain had been written for her, had begun to change, like a kaleidoscope. Turn the cylinder one way, and the pieces shift, and a new image appears, as if each of her memories were a shard that could be rearranged to fit whichever story she chose to believe, and she wondered if truth existed at all. The only thing she was certain of was that each day forward would carry the past.”....

Marian is living her dream job, and working ouoors with rescue dogs used to protect wildlife, “K-9’s for Conservation.” Her job sends her to the wilds of Alberta, Canada. There she finds herself falling for a man named Tate. Believing him to be her one true love, they continue working together on special assignments. Happiness won’t last.

When tragedy strikes, Marian will be left to question everything she thought she knew about Tate. Discovering the news of the unsolved murders of four women in the forest will leave her wondering if she ever really knew Tate at all. Is he a killer? Can she prove it one way or another? Marian contacts a man that may be able to help her. Nick Shepard is a retired forensic profiler. Perhaps he can help her uncover the truth. While they’re looking to prove one way or another if Tate is responsible, someone is watching Marian’s every move.

An exciting mystery read. I loved the outdoor back drop to this story. I also liked that the author gave names and faces to the victims. Often in crime stories little more than a name is given. Here the women are made real, they are more than victims of a serial killer. Descriptive and eerily entertaining. Will Marian uncover the facts about these dead women? How will it leave her feeling about Tate? If she’s uncovering the truth, it may put her in danger. You’ll have to read for yourself and find the answers.

Thank you Diane Les Becquets, Berkeley Publishing, and Netgalley.

First and foremost, a large thank you to NetGalley, Diane Les Becquets, and Berkley Publishing Group for providing me with a copy of this publication, which allows me to provide you with an unbiased review.

Diane Les Becquets presents readers with an interesting thriller that straddles two timelines to potentially track a serial killer’s path. Marian Engström loves working with tracking dogs and has been employed on a number of sites to locate movement patters of a number of animals. While on a site in Northern Alberta, Marian meets Tate, one of the coordinators. Their connection is strong and they grow closer at a rapid pace. During one of their post-coital chats, Tate reveals that he’s seen a dead body while on the job, one of the victims of the Stillwater Killer, a serial murderer who has been targeting women across the western United States. In a flash forward segment, Marian approaches one of the long-time investigators of the Stillwater Killer, Nick Shepard, to reveal this information. In a constant flip-flop between the present day and months ago, the reader discovers the ongoing closeness that Marian and Tate find, as well as the current investigations that Nick uncovers as he pokes around this Tate revelation. What follows is a series of coincidences that neither Marian and Nick can ignore, especially as they relate to Tate’s whereabouts during four concentrated killings over the past few years. When Nick delivers some of his chilling news, Marian can only wonder if she really knew the man she came to love and what her role might have been in the larger web Tate wove for himself. A chilling tale that keeps the reader wondering until the pieces all begin to fit together. A decent read, recommended to those who like criminal thrillers with a nature flavouring.

Having never read Diane Les Becquets before, I was not sure what I might expect, though the dustcover blurb did pull me in quickly. The premise of the story worked for me and I felt a strong connection to the characters throughout. Marian proves to be an interesting protagonist, whose passion for dogs and nature seeps from her in many ways. The reader is able to learn much about her through the actions she takes in camp and the conversations she has with others. That she has struggled of late is not lost on the attentive reader, though there is much to be said for her passion to do right by those around her, human and canine alike. Others within the story offer interesting flavours, particularly Tate and Nick, pushing the story in interesting directions to keep the reader wondering what is going on. I can only surmise that Les Becquets was trying to offer up an eerie sentiment with her writing, which succeeded as she spun a wonderful tale for all to discover. While the story was strong, it seemed somewhat disordered. I understand the concept of flashbacks and revelations, but there seemed a jilted ‘ping-pong’ effect, bouncing the reader through trying to keep information straight. I found it somewhat confusing to continue the flip-flop, especially as the revelations could have been revealed in ‘real time’ and then a few small remembrances used to refresh the reader’s memory. Les Becquets does offer something interesting when speaking of the stories related to the murder victims, drawn loosely on some of her own experiences. While the preface was the tale of one such young woman, there are summary chapters to give the reader a better understanding of how the other women met their demise and what choices they might have made. Quite effective on the writer’s part and it keeps the reader connected throughout. A decent piece whose only downfall is what I felt to be a lack of smoothness in its narrative delivery based on chronology.

Kudos, Madam Les Becquets, for your great piece that really gets to the core of a chilling tale. I would like to try some more of your work to see if it is as intriguing.

I was really excited about this title but after 35% I still couldn't slip into the story. Maybe it was the past, present and alternating perspectives or heck maybe it was just me. Thank you for the chance to review. I do not rate books I have not finished, but NetGalley forces me to add a star.

Nature is an important part of this novel as the characters live and work in the wild areas of the world, this particular novel taking place primarily in Montana and Canada. The plot is heartfelt, based on true life experiences of the author and her mother which certainly make the story more powerful. It is a quick and enjoyable read with the mystery solvable long before the ending. In some ways I wanted the story to end several pages earlier as it was not important that every loose end be tied.

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for ARC to read and review.

She's finally found a job that fits her. She works with dogs to find scat and get knowledge about the animals that live in the area they examining. She really enjoys working with the dogs. When they assign her to Tate, she discovers she might have a romantic interest, too. Life is good. But it doesn't stay that way...

Berkley and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published March 5th.

The story begins with her learning her new job, training her assigned dog, and working with Tate. Eventually she falls in love with Tate and sleeps with him. But when she finds out about the murders done near their base of operations, she looks into the local cases. She notices Tate can be charming and nice and he can be brash and odd, too. But she loves him and tries to work around it. Then she finds out that Tate has been attacked by a bear and killed. She grieves him but she also wonders if he might have had something to do with the murders.

When she asks a former investigator to help her sort out her suspicions, he agrees. The first thing he discovers is that Tate isn't who he said he was. After she shares conversations with him, he finds Tate knows things that only the murderer would.

Marian checks on his work schedule and finds he wasn't around when the women died, so she thinks she was mistaken. Then she checks further and finds out he lied about where he was. Suddenly it could be possible...

This is a tale of those that died earlier, just how manipulative Tate could be, and even more about him. She's trying to prove it but she might not live long enough to do so. Tate has more surprises for her.

This is a thriller with a batch of horror mixed in. It keeps you reading.

The Last Woman in the Forest is the story of Marian, a dog handler, nomad, and wilderness adventurer who falls in love with a man who is not what he appears to be. Marian lives an unconventional life, taking temporary jobs in places documenting wildlife. She finds herself taking a job in a remote part of Montana, where she loves handling the dogs, and is part of a research team looking for elusive American caribou. She works with another handler name Tate, and she falls in love with him quickly. Different chapters come from different points of view, and the reader is introduced to victims of the Stillwater Killer. Each of the female victims bears a resemblance in appearance and personality to Marian. After her boyfriend Tate is killed working on a research project by a grizzly bear, she becomes consumed with researching the murders, and trying to see if Tate had been responsible. She finds an ally in retired investigator Nick - who helps her see through the web of Tate's lies. Of course through the book you will find yourself wondering "Is Tate really dead" "Is Marian safe" who is responsible for the killings? Read and find out! I received an e-book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Great psychological thriller! Les Becquets weaves together a scary, many faceted story of a serial killer from a perspective that keeps you guessing all the way through.

Extremely good book! Extremely terrifying but also full of love.. The story bounces back and forth between past and present. Not a typical thriller but just what I didn’t know I wanted or needed to read

Marian Engström finds her perfect job as a field technician for K9s for Conservation, working with rescue dogs on various projects out West. She also finds the perfect man there in Tate, but starts to suspect him of some involvement in the death of four young women in Montana and enlists the help of Nick Shepherd, a former forensic profiler, now a counselor in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. Together they piece together the evidence and arrive at a shocking conclusion. A unique setting and a puzzling mystery along with a message to women to pay attention when something doesn’t feel right.

I thought this book got off to a slow start and almost put it down but I'm so glad I didn't. It is suspenseful thriller that hooked me. As a dog lover and trainer, I was pleasantly surprised by the detail and accuracy of working with dogs. The author did her homework. This book was a good read. I will recommend it.

What would you do if you suspected the person you loved was a sociopath? Not really a question we encounter often in our lives, but Diane Les Becquets does a masterful job of imagining how that might go. She has written a suspenseful and surprising story that starts out with a kick-in-the-gut scene that is every woman’s worst nightmare - when your car breaks down on a lonely road in the middle of the night and you have a bad feeling about the handsome guy who stops to help. I admit, though, that the tense and horrifying prologue set me up to expect that same tension all the way through the book. That didn’t happen in quite the way I expected. It’s a little like the difference between “Criminal Minds” and “Murder She Wrote” - the beginning is raw and physical, while most of the rest of the book is more cerebral, kind of like a Sandra Bullock thriller. However, all that thinking and worrying, and doubting evaporates with a big twist towards the end. Recommended for fans of Lee Child.

Interesting premise of a woman trying to determine if her deceased boyfriend was a serial killer. Told with flashbacks and present day timeline the transition is at times clunky. I did have to skim several times so the book could do with a bit more editing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for giving me an ARC of this book in return for a review.

This book follows Marian who appears to be struggling to figure out her life and a career. She loves dogs and nature which leads her to a position with a conservation crew studying wildlife in Montana.
She learns a lot from the other people on her team and begins to form a relationship with her mentor Tate. After his tragic death, questions start to arise about him that Marian can't answer. There are too many connections between Tate and a string of women that have been killed. She turns to retired forensic profiler Nick Shepard, who is fighting his own demons, to try to clear Tate's name if only in her own heart. Will he help her prove the man she loved blameless or make her never be able to trust her instinct again? The book jumps around a lot and is fairly predictable but a decent read.

So, after reading the author's note in the afterword, I feel really bad giving this book a less than stellar review, because oh boy... this author has been through a lot in her life. To come through what she has experienced and to process it all through a novel is a beautiful thing, and she has my complete respect. However, I have to be honest and say this book fell totally flat for me. In fact, the afterword was a heck of a lot more interesting than the actual book.

Quick synopsis. Marian is an independent strong woman who has taken a low-paying job in the wilderness looking for animal scat that can be used for conservationist research. She loves dogs, and in this microcosm of a social unit. the dog handlers are highly respected. She meets Tate, one of the handlers, and falls in love with him. But a bunch of women have gone missing in the area in the past few years. And as their relationship progresses, he starts to act kind of weird. When something horrible happens to Tate, Marian starts to wonder if maybe he was the killer...

Marian. I just don't get her. I get what she was SUPPOSED to be, but her character isn't well-developed enough to pull that off. Nick, the detective who is working the case, is the most interesting character. He's fighting a losing battle with a glioblastoma, but his work on earth isn't done until he can name this killer. I would have loved to have had less info about dogs and wild animal poop, and more about Nick.

There is a kind of fun little twist at the end, but it's not really all that shocking. I just kept hoping the pace would pick up, but this one didn't work for me.

The setting of a book is a big important thing to me especially if outdoors such as Alaska or Montana. Even Mountain climbing or river rafting or tracking a lost hiker like this book so long as action happens then I am captivated. This author's last book Breaking Wild was very much worth rereading because it was awesome. The woman in the Forest is already up on my best book for 2019 list. If you like nature books along with suspense and edge of your seat excitement try both of these books. You will not be able to put them down! Thanks for reading my review.

Although flagged as a suspense thriller, there was not a lot of suspense. To me, it read more like women’s fiction. I loved that I learned quite a bit about conservation work.

The first couple of chapters were interesting but I could not get past that. This is a psychological thriller but not written in a manner that is very suspenseful. The writing is nice and the scenery is described very well but just wasn’t my cup of tea.

I would like to thank NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

"It’s a terrible thing to have loved someone and not know the extent to which you have been deceived… " (Marian Engström)

Marian Engström scanned the seasonal conservation job listings for her next position. Her latest job had taken her to South Padre Island, Texas to rescue sea turtles but the contract ended and time to move along.

As a dog lover, she was pleased to find a position with Conservation Canines through the University of Washington. The study would be in the bitter sub-zero cold of the snowy mountains near Alberta where oil exploration in oil sands was taking place. The team of dog handlers and trip orienteers would be based out of Whitefish, Montana in a place the group called “The Den”.

Marian, and the other orienteers, would assist the dog handlers setting up trip navigation in designated zones locating wolf, caribou and moose scat, bagging each detected specimen, and charting the waypoints. The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of the oil drilling on the wildlife in the area. This aspect of the novel is well researched and reads a little bit clinical but very interesting.

The book opens with the vividly described murder of a trusting young woman charmed by someone she perceived to be a good Samaritan. Labeling the murdered girl, (Stillwater) Victim #1, alerts the reader to watch for clues. One of the primary or secondary characters is a serial killer!

We meet Marian six months after she has moved to the Whitefish base camp. She is wading into Bull Creek sprinkling the ashes of her boyfriend and dog handler, Tate, and watching them flow downstream. The accident that caused his death unknown to the reader.

"It was a beautiful spot…Tate had chosen this location…had pressed the river rock against her palm and asked her to remember."

Marian stands in the cold stream reflecting on their brief relationship with its sweet and sour tones. Heading back to camp, she’s left with an edgy feeling that something was off. Did he really loved her as much as she loved him? Where to begin to unravel her contradictory feelings?

Tate would share life stories with her making her cry in sympathy for him. One tear-jerker described a stray dog he adopted as a child that died after falling into a swift stream. Another time, out of the blue, he tells her he found the body of one of the four Stillwater murders. She decides to confirm the accuracy of this story to ease her mind.

She contacts Nick Shepard, a retired forensic profiler, known to be intimately involved in the Stillwater murder investigations. Although he is dying of cancer, a fact he tries to keep from her, he agrees to help confirm or dispel the facts of Tate’s story.

With Marian and Nick narrating, the story gymnastically flips back and forth in time beginning when Tate picked her up at the airport and ultimately reach present day where we learn about Tate’s fate. Juxtaposed between Marian and Nick’s chapters are vivid tales of the other three unsolved Stillwater murders that may be a bit disturbing to some people. The final chapters pull together loose threads leading to a dramatic conclusion.

The isolation and loneliness were palpable. Survival was not so much the result of luck as it was of skill and training. The overarching themes of observation and situational awareness crisscrossed Marian’s job as well as her personal life. Was she as gullible as it seemed or was she out maneuvered by mastermind of evil? Surrounded by macho mountain men with personalities like Jeremiah Johnson, was it easy for a young woman to be drawn to a man seemly devoted to her? Did Nick find peace for the families of the murdered girls?

A good solid book worthy of a read. There’s something for everyone -love, friendship, trust and distrust, murder, dogs, freezing cold and stark wilderness settings.

Good story with lots of twists.
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This book is written in a different manner than what we see in a typical suspense thriller or murder mystery. This book reads more as a women’s fiction story that evolves into something much more sinister.

Written in short sentences with a timeline that bounces back-and-forth between the present and the past, you have to be on your toes when reading this novel.

The author sneaks in tiny drips of clues and information. Just enough to make you doubt your gut feelings and wonder where the story is actually going.

Interesting and very unique, we get a birds-eye view of the job that those in conservation work truly do. The wonder of nature and the studies of animals and wildlife in their natural habitat is a huge part of the story.

But then you begin to wonder if everyone is as they truly seem to be. Women are dying and one woman in particular is very suspicious. Doubts sneak in as the man she truly loves seems to be the one responsible, or is it someone that she works with?

The story is written with deep subtlety that forces you to pay attention and keeps you completely engaged, wondering what’s next.

While the timeline bouncing back-and-forth does get to you and can frustrate you, it also heightens the suspense and brings in those chilling feelings and tell-tale creepy feels as the story winds up.

The author created a remarkable novel that is one of a kind tale of psychotic personalities that can completely consume you. Definitely not a book you will soon forget.

I had not anticipated the suspense of this title, which in hindsight, I should have expected. I read the prologue and found myself disturbed and did not read the remainder of the title. It is strictly a personal preference and no reflection of the author or substance of the work. I will recommend it to fellow readers who enjoy a hair-raising tale, but it simply was not right for me.