The Last Voice You Hear [Hardcover]

Mick Herron (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 13, 2004

Zoë Boehm doesn’t do death. It’s a rule. Yet here she is—in this new ambitious detective novel from the sure-footed Mick Herron—worried by three of them. Zoë herself has killed a man, and self-defense or not, it cripples her emotions still. She also remembers Wez, a twelve-year-old kid afraid of heights, who tumbled to his death from the top of a tower block; she knew him when he was nine and snatching purses from middle-aged ladies. Then, there’s Caroline Daniels. They’re saying that Caroline’s death was accidental: that she fell off the crowded underground platform and died beneath the wheels of an oncoming train. Nonetheless, Caroline’s employer, Amory Grayling, is disturbed. Caroline, it seems, had recently acquired a lover who remains mysteriously faceless and nameless. So it is that Zoë begins searching for a man whom no one knows by attempting to uncover the secrets locked in the heart of a woman she has never met. Though the questions outnumber Zoë’s answers, she is certain that Caroline did not fall accidentally to death. Nor did Wez, she comes to realize, and soon finds herself dangerously pursuing two murderers, though one of them may find her first.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This tight, literary, cliché-free novel, the second in British author Herron's Zoë Boehm series (after Down Cemetery Road) but the first to be published in the U.S., finds the Oxford private detective investigating three mysteries: a 12-year-old purse snatcher's plunge from the roof of a seedy London high-rise and the separate murders of two middle-aged women. Boehm suspects the women's deaths are linked to their dating Alan Talmadge, a Motown-humming Bluebeard who preys on women whose age is edging them out of the singles scene. Boehm believes Talmadge pushed the two women to their deaths, into a subway track and a ditch of water, respectively. Herron's writing includes some fine images: "when she coughed, it racked through her like she was a wardrobe full of empty coathangers." The hunter becomes the hunted as Boehm seeks refuge deep in the country, with a friend who keeps ostriches, of all things. This plot is intriguing from opening to denouement. Point-of-view switches could confuse some readers, and the capture of one perpetrator is postponed for a sequel, but this doesn't dim Herron's gift for action, dialogue and, most of all, psychology and setting.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Those who believe actions speak louder than words may not appreciate this extremely wordy novel whose action is limited to the last 50 or so pages. What saves the story--and indeed makes it thoroughly worth reading--is its complex and fascinating heroine, Zoe Boehm. Reluctantly leaving Oxford for London, private investigator Zoe meets with Amory Grayling, who asks her to look into the death of his assistant, Caroline. Although Caroline's death initially seems to be an accident, her mysterious boyfriend is not present at the funeral, raising Amory's eyebrows. Zoe knows that finding Alan Talmadge is the key to finding the truth about Caroline. Meanwhile, Zoe struggles to find some joy in life after shooting a man to death (in self-defense) and finding a lump in her breast. If future books find Herron letting Zoe's voice dominate rather than his own, this could become the fine series its central character deserves. Give it a chance. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (August 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786714670
• ISBN-13: 978-0786714674
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,135,673 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful, Well Crafted Thriller (3.5 stars), January 22, 2006

By 

A Discerning Reader (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Voice You Hear (Hardcover)

Herron's second installment in the Zoe Boehm series is a thoughtful, slow-paced story of police officers and the justice system gone bad. Zoe is a forty-something private detective who's hired to find the elusive boyfriend who made Caroline Daniels' final weeks happy. Ms. Daniels fell in front of an oncoming Tube train--or was she pushed? Two other mysteries are carefully braided into this first storyline; and together, they add up to a satisfying story of revenge and ultimate justice.

Much of the story, at least the first half of the book, has very little mystery to it. It concerns Zoe's apathy and depression. Many authors in this genre disappoint by not offering some details about the main character/detective and what makes her/his mind work. Herron probably goes a little too far with Zoe's negativity and skepticism, and the pacing falls pretty flat for the first half of the novel.

On the whole, however, it is a well written story with believable characters, motives, and conclusion. The Last Voice You Hear is a fine novel and makes the reader know Herron is an author we'd better keep an eye on.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Female Detective Debut, August 16, 2005

By 

Christopher Ring (Wimbledon, London, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Voice You Hear (Hardcover)

I gather that in the US this is Mick Herron's first novel. That's fine, because the book stands proudly by itself as a psychological, noirish crime novel that deals in the issues of love, possession and ageing. Zoe Boehm his detective is a street-smart 40-something private eye based in Oxford, England. The plot kept me guessing and I guessed wrong most of the time. It is a slow-burner but the atmosphere more than compensates.

If you are lucky enough to pick up on this novel, then I urge you to obtain on the net the real first novel written a year earlier, Down Cemetery Road. In it Zoe is dragged reluctantly into the private hell of another woman (Sarah Tucker) and together they have to deal with a crazily-mounting series of threats from the Secret Services. Apart from leaving you totally gripped (no lack of plot in this one, if anything it is a bit over-plotted) it will give you the background that formed the characters that we meet again, a few years on and scarred in their different ways, in The Last Voice You Hear.

I have just finished Last Voice on vacation, and I want the next one now, please, Mr Herron.....

If there is any justice this will in time become a classic TV detective series.

5.0 out of 5 stars Deep waters, artfully illuminated, December 21, 2010

By 

P. Jackson - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Last Voice You Hear (Kindle Edition)

I read this after Down Cemetery Road, which is good, since it's a sequel of sorts. Same muscular writing and serious insight into characters and motivation. The kind of book you don't want to hurry in case you miss something fabulous. I took many weeks to read Cemetery, but read this in just two days. Purely a circumstantial thing, but both experiences worked. These are both books I would consider rereading.

This book is partly about the nature of love and trust, and what happens when you either try to live without these things or give in to the sirens' call. From the clever opening to the not fully resolved ending, this book keeps you guessing about the central character's fate and future emotional state, while also being action-packed. It was very satisfying, and I'm looking forward to reading the next Mick Herron opus!