Customer Reviews

Last Witness

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

To enjoy this book to its utmost, you first must read its prequel, Retribution. In the first book, State Attorney CJ Townsend sends a totally vile mass murderer and torturer, William Bantling, to prison to await his proscribed death sentence. Unfortunately for her, Bantling's arrest was dependent on a not completely lawful car search, and even though there is no doubt that he is guilty, the unlawful stopping of his car could wreck the prosecutions defence. In this follow up book, CJ is having trouble reconciling her conscience with the knowledge that the search was illegal, and with not being able to confide her fears to her lover. The only other people who had first hand knowledge of the unlawful capture of this dangerous murderer are the police involved and when, over a short period, each of them is killed in a sickening fashion, she realises that she is probably next on the list, even though Bantling is still safely behind bars. It's a book that you CANNOT put down, so be prepared to read into the small hours.

If you haven't read Retribution, I strongly encourage you to do so before reading this book. You will enjoy that novel, and you will enjoy this one even more.

Seldom has a sequel taken a fine first book to such exciting heights of story-telling. Even if you haven't read Retribution, you will be able to fill yourself in on the plot because Ms. Hoffman does such a good job of filling in the back story.

C.J. Townsend survived prosecuting the Cupid killer in Retribution . . . but just barely. In Last Witness, she faces up the unpleasant consequences of that case . . . in which she railroaded an apparently guilty man, William Bantling, towards Death Row through perjured testimony to "fix" an illegal stop and search. She's haunted by the memory of having put the ends over the means . . . and the memory of Bantling's rape of her many years earlier.

Soon, she has more to worry about when bent members of the Cupid investigation who know about her illegal act begin to turn up dead . . . but only after being gruesomely murdered and mutilated by an obscure drug-cartel method. Where will the killings stop? Who's the killer? It can't be Bantling. He's on Death Row.

Before the book ends, she has to face up to her worst fears, and the love of her life, Dominick Falconetti, special agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, must make a difficult decision.

Both Townsend and Falconetti are deliciously complex characters whom you will get to know much better throughout the novel. Bantling is an above-average villain, and you will enjoy thinking about the problems that someone like him presents to society.

Ms. Hoffman has a great talent for building suspense . . . and terror. In this book, there's a rising crescendo of action, conflict and crisis that will leave you virtually breathless. You'll have a hard time putting this book down.

She is even more talented at putting her characters into morally ambiguous situations and making you feel like you are faced with the same choice. So you have two ways to squirm.

Enjoy!

LAST WITNESS is a wonderful follow up to the author's debut novel RETRIBUTION. Her attention to detail and her experience as an assistant state attorney have helped her craft and amazingly intricate and suspenseful second novel. As with the previous reviewer, I agree that it is essential to read RETRIBUTION before tackling this one.

LAST WITNESS is one of those books that require you to pay attention. So much is going on that it is impossible to skip over passages without loosing the flow of the story. Hoffman has created excellent characters in C.J. Townsend and Dominick Falconetti. She has written intelligent, likable, 3-dimensional characters that make you believe they really exist. The book is not bogged down with their romantic relationship. Instead it lies below the surface, never drawing the reader away from the main focus of the story. It has a suburb ending that sets the stage for the next book. I highly recommend this excellent novel.

I was really anticipating Hoffman's next novel, and was excited to see that it was a sequel to Retribution, which was awesome. I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't as good as Retribution. I thought it dragged out a bit longer than necessary and the story STILL isn't over. The ending left me with the impression that Hoffman's 3rd novel will pick up where this one left off. I'd like to see her end the CJ/Bantling story and move on to another plot.

Before I even really get into the meat of the review, I just want to caution anybody who did not read Retribution to do so before reading this book. Even though Hoffman tries valiantly to update the new reader on the characters and situations from the previous book, I can imagine just how confusing it would be for a new reader. I would even go so far as to warn you to not reading any reviews so that the whole Retribution novel isn't given away to you.

To continue, in this follow up, we see that CJ and Dominick are engaged, but CJ is still grappling with her old demons when a new twisted serial killer arises, known as Black Jacket. This killer starts murdering CJ's co-conspirators from the previous novel. Because of the gruesome way in which they are killed, the task force assigned to these murders immediately suspects a Columbian cartel connection, but CJ is not convinced. In fact, she starts wondering if maybe there were two Cupid killers and the other one is still at large hunting down anybody who knows information that could lead to the release of Bill Bantling, the man who raped CJ and who in retribution, CJ pinned the Cupid murders on despite his innocence.

Needless to say, the plot is once again filled with many twists and turns. One of the excellent things about Hoffman's writing is its realism. As a former attorney, she understands the legal machinations of a prosecutor and successfully incorporates them in her book to add credence to the story line. She is also much more comfortable in her writing with this follow up, and the book flourishes because of it. However, there is hardly any new information given about any of the characters, which I find disappointing. We do learn a little more about Dominick, but I felt with this book, she maybe could have brought out more of each character's history. The ending leaves room for another follow up, and I hope it is as good as this one! Grade: A- (4.5 stars)

Audio book aficionados will remember with pleasure Kathe Mazur's sterling readings of "Retribution" and "Bushworld." She brings the same eloquence and sharp narrative skills to this tension driven tale focusing on the brutal murders of policemen.

Set in Miami, we again meet C.J. Townsend, Assistant State Attorney, who is repulsed and livid when she sees the mutilated dead body of Victor Chavez, a cop who was killed as he patrolled the streets. She's the one to be called in when a serial killer is suspected, as she's responsible for the recent conviction of just such a madman.

However, murder comes close to home when she soon begins receiving midnight phone calls. Her fiancé, Special Agent Dominick Falconetti, has been named to head a team to investigate the killings.

In Miami, the thought is often the drug world is to blame but this doesn't seem to be true in this case. What begins to emerge is a scenario even more terrifying than any even the sickest of mobsters could devise.

As a former Assistant State Attorney in Miami, author Hoffman knows mean streets and psychopathic killers - she brings all to frightening life.

- Gail Cooke

I really enjoyed Hoffman's first book, Retribution, but like other readers, I found the repetition of that story to be annoying. Having said that, it was necessary to bring first time readers into the plot from the first book. What bothered me more was the big reveal at the end of who the second Cupid murderer was. I thought the link between the two killers was poorly developed and didn't make much sense to me. Plus at some point, and I find this with so many of these thrillers, you start to wonder - how many evil murderers will target this one DA or policeman? The suspense over whether or not C.J. Townsend is going to survive another attack is very minimal, since we know she is the heroine and this is a suspense series. I tend to enjoy the stand alone books, because they can kill off characters more easily and therefore create more suspense.

Also, the sheer number of times now that C.J. Townsend has compromised her legal integrity and withheld information makes me dislike her. Sure, Bantling is worse and needs to remain in prison, but in my mind she is far from sympathetic. Her responses are also becoming predictable. I can already predict the third installment - C.J. keeps Dominick at a distance during the re-trial of Bantling, has bags under her eyes from all the stress, guilt for her legal indiscretions...In the third installment, I wish Hoffman would mix it up a little!

Although I thought both this book and the first one, Retribution, were very well-written and suspenseful, the very last line in this book left me extremely disappointed and NOT looking forward to a third book.

==SPOILER=== Hoffman should absolutely not ended the book with the 'new trial' line, but with an execution, and then moved her two primary characters off to a new plotline in a new locale. I so would not want to read and endure another Bantling scenario regardless of its conclusion: that conclusion should have come HERE and not in the manner it was.

I would have given the book 4 stars if this had not been the case.

Hoffman's 2nd book featuring CJ Townsend is a step down in quality from her initial outing, but is still a strong thriller. There are fewer courtroom scenes, and the plot itself seems highly contrived, but Hoffman's use of short chapters and her style of cutting back and forth between differing POV's serves the novel well and keeps the pages turning.

I enjoyed this book, but did not enjoy the contrivances.

I was on the edge of my seat throughout this incredibly taut thriller about state attorney CJ Townsend, who years ago put away a horrendous serial killer, only to find, suddenly, everybody involved with the case being murdered one by one--in the most horrible ways imaginable.

That's bad enough, but CJ has a secret. The serial killer had also been her torture-rapist years ago, and CJ bent the rules a bit to make sure he was convicted and sent to Death Row, even though were was some very small evidence that may have proved him innocent. There were only a handful of people on the case who knew about this--and they are dying horrible, slow deaths at the hands of a crazed killer we cannot identify.

There is a series of very confusing subplots about a drug cartel and possible gang involvement, none of which made much sense, and much of which was entirely confusing, especially the introduction of a main drug cartel character so far along in the book that I had to go back many chapters to figure out who he was. But no matter. The plot itself, and the pace of the book, more than made up for this flaw.

A quick, scary read for beach, pool, anywhere.