The writing in this story is a little contrived but the premise is interesting. The end saved the book from getting only two stars. It made me want to read the next one in the series.

This is the first of Dornbush's Dr. Emily Hartford stories I've read, but now I feel the need to go back and read the first two. Fortunately, there is just enough information trickled in to understand what's going on in this book even without reading the prior books. The hook is great: on her 30th birthday, Solange McClelland discovers she's inherited almost $4 million and the house where her father murdered her mother and twin brother before killing himself 12 years earlier. Now she seeks Emily's help proving her father's innocence by proving that the coroner report was wrong. The problem? Emily's father, meticulous and never wrong, was the coroner. Emily, who has become co-owner of a troubled surgical practice, must leave Chicago and return to Michigan to help Solange and find the truth.

The medical facts are accurate and diligently researched, helping to suspend disbelief. Emily is a likable character, and her quest for her ideal career path make for an engaging story. Some of the side stories feel out of place in this book, however, as they don't further the main plot. Emily's search for the truth about what happened to her presumed dead lover Nick, for example, is a bit distracting, though it's clearly intended to set up the next book and create tension between Emily and her current on-again, off-again boyfriend. The part with Emily's half-sister who appears, kids in tow, to stay at the family home, on the other hand, feels like filler.

While I thoroughly enjoyed Emily's character, Solange was a bit of a weaker link. Her actions feel forced, especially in the final chapters. And I'm not sure why the narrator gave her a Southern twang, when she grew up in Michigan. One little nit also: Solange and her twin brother are described as being identical, but by definition male/female twins are fraternal (dizygotic).

Despite these nits, Last One Alive is a gripping read and well worth the time. Overall, I also enjoyed Sophie Amoss's narration. Thank you to the author, Blackstone, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

🔍 𝙈𝙮 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 🔎
This book features Dr. Emily Hartford, who is finishing her surgical residency in Chicago when she is contacted by Solange McClelland, who is the lone survivor of a triple homicide of her family over a decade ago. This case peaks Emily’s interest because it is one of the few cases left unsolved by her deceased father, who was her hometowns medical examiner.

Solange is left something mysterious in a safe deposit box when she turns 30, that leads her to want to re-examine the case of her family’s triple homicide. Emily finds it hard to believe her father would have made a mistake in his cases so she decides to take a look.

Solange seems to want to go to the extremes to get to the bottom of who murdered her family all those years ago. Emily is level headed but doesn’t really know what she wants out of life. When she returns to her hometown to help Solange, she doesn’t seem to want anything to do with her life in Chicago.

This series should have more books to it because we were left with a cliffhanger! Which I do look forward to reading more of Emily’s life and adventures and how things play out for her!

🎧 𝙉𝙖𝙧𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 🎧
Sophie Amoss voices both POVs in this book very well. Emily has a more serious tone to her voice and Solange has a different accent, grit, and determination laced into the tone of her words. These characters were easily distinguishable when listening, which is great when one person narrates more than one POV!

🎧 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙞𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚:
🤍 Cold Case Mysteries
🤍 Dual POV
🤍 Strong Female MCs
🤍 Doctor/Medical Examiner Stories

I'm going to be straight up honest and say this audiobook was too damn long. I know it's only 320 pages as a hardcover, but that's also too long. I can't imagine having to read this one because I wanted to dnf at about 50%.

I held on and finished this book purely out of spite because I enjoyed the action scenes and still wanted to learn who the killer was. You get to finally see the killer at about 80% so I was like why the hell do we still have 20% left...that's about 90-120 minutes left of an audiobook (crazy to me). After that I could see someone just quitting the book because now they have pretty much all the answers.

Outside of the length, I also couldn't stand Emily's character. She was extremely flighty and is waiting around for her lost-love Nick, but then an ex-boyfriend comes in the picture and she gets back with him even though he's kind of a douche, AND THEN she finds out Nick might be alive so she ditches this guy to fly to China to find him. It's just a lot and added nothing to the story.

I would have loved for this one to just not have any romance built in. This could have been a great crime detective story if we would have removed the romance aspect.

Last One Alive
Jennifer Graeser Dornbush
This a great read and one you won’t want to miss.
The main character is Dr. Emily Hartford. She is very likable. Unfortunately, she wants to please someone else, namely Brandon, rather than do what is best for her. Emily’s father was the corner in the town, Freeport, she grew up in. Solange McClelland turned to Emily for help. Over 10 years ago Solange’s mother, father and twin brother were murdered. Solange found their bodies and went into hiding. The murders were ruled murdered, suicide. Emily agreed to look at her deceased father’s records of the autopsy. Several things jumped out at Emily causing her to question the autopsy results, along with things Solange could share with her peaked Emily’s interest. Solange now lives in Detroit with her husband; they own a successful construction company. On her 30th birthday Solange discovers she has inherited quite a bit of cash stored in a safety deposit box. The investigation put both Solange and Emily in danger.
I enjoyed getting to know more about Emily and her personal life. It was so obvious that she was still in love with Nic. This is the third book in the Coroner’s Daughter series. I have not read the first two books although I would like to. This book does stand well alone. I am curious about the two men in Emily’s past, Brandon and Nic. This book ends with a cliffhanger, I hope there is another book in this series.
Thank you NetGalley for providing me with a review copy. My reviews are always my unbiased opinions.

First of all I loved the narration. It was beautiful.
This could maybe be read as a stand alone novel, which is good because I didn't realize it was a series when I snagged it.
I was a little lost but I am often lost when I read detective or cop type novels, which this is. So this is on me. I need to be sure I am prepared before I read these.
This was good. It was okay.
It just wasn't my type and that is fine.

Dr Emily Hartford has return to Chicago ready to finish her surgical residency. Then she’s contacted by a woman who is the only survivor of a 10 year old triple homicide. She’s intrigued because this is one of the few cases that her father never solved. The survivor, Solange, meanwhile, opens a safe deposit box, expecting to find a few happy memories of her childhood, but instead she finds several million dollars. She doesn’t know where the money came from, but it does give her the funding to try to find her families killers. She reaches out to Emily because Emily’s father, the former Chicago, medical examiner, may have had some knowledge about the clearly botched or falsified death certificates filed after her family’s homicide.