Official Review: Last Seen by J L Doucette

[sztjane]

Thank you for a great review klbradley on Last Seen. The mystery thriller sounds interesting, a mystery that keeps guessing what happened will be a first, I usually figure it out before the story tells you. Thanks to the author.

[ladycraic]

Thanks for the review! I haven't read a hardcore suspenseful book in a while but this book seems very interesting and it's free! Hopefully the heavier stuff in the book is not dissected for the readers.

[Sallylydia]

I love mystery books and this one seems very intriguing, can't wait to read it! Thank you so much for your review it was very well written. The name Dr. Pepper Hunt makes me laugh so I'm hoping there might be some humor in the book as well, even if it is a mystery, guess I'll find out when I read it.

[Sindhu Srinath]

Seems like a very interesting plot with a lot of twists and turns. Sure to keep you on your toes the whole time. I may not like the crimes involved but it sounds like a great story overall. Congrats on the review.

[tamdlyte]

As one of the other commentors said,"What's up with the name?" (Dr. Pepper Hunt...just kinda funny...lol) Anyways, I'm sure there's gonna be all kinds of mental turmoil in this one as long as the juggling of perspectives is done well. I'd hate to be Dr. Hunt having been the last one to see Kimi. Talk about guilt!

[RogueReader]

Thank you for such a descriptive review. I was already looking forward to reading this book; your review has increased my anticipation even more so!

[mratdegraff91]

This sounds like an interesting story. There seems to be a good plot and supporting characters. I do love some of the names used such as Dr. Pepper Hunt and Detective Antelope. I find them a bit humorous which actually increases my interest in reading this novel. I am also curious to find out what happened to Kimi. Great review and thank you for sharing.

[Shaat]

A personally don't like such kind of books with murder crimes etc. But it seems to be a good book. I will might be read it. Thanks for your review.

[Fierce Angel]

Having gone through your review, I felt like couldn't wait reading it.
Should be a right start.

[tmazonga]

Last Seen by J.L. Doucette

Last Seen: A Pepper Hunt Mystery is a crime and detective novel about a rogue and sex offender, a mistress who cannot stop telling lies and a missing local wife, Kimi Benally, who has to be looked for and found at all cost. To find her the services of a psychologist, Dr. Pepper Hunt are sought and she finds herself working with a detective called Beau Antelope. Yet, intriguingly, the missing woman is one of the psychologist`s patients. It is the Sheriff who announces the disappearance of the woman to Dr. Pepper Hunt, referred to as “the psychologist doctor”: “I`m here about one of your patients (…) Kimi Benally (...) She was reported missing this morning (…) She hasn`t been at work since Thursday”


There are unmistakable parallels between the life of Dr. Pepper Hunt the psychologist and that of Benally, the patient of hers whose investigation she is made to investigate. That is why the author says at one point during the investigation: “Pepper sat still as a stone. She seemed to be shutting down, trying to escape this replay of her own story. The scene had all the elements of what had happened to her in Massachusetts: betrayal, infidelity, jealous rage and murder”


From the very beginning, I was hooked on to the characters, rather than the story. This is perhaps so because I am a psycho-astrologer, an activity which enables me to follow up characters naturally and to relate to the author, J.L. Doucette who does not only hold a doctorate degree in counselling psychology, but also practices psychology. I can therefore not wait to read her next novel in the series, entitled On a Quiet Street.


The macabre and grim nature of the plot is reflected on the very cover of Last Seen. This is because the cover features a lone woman walking a large and lonely street. She is walking away from the onlooker into the long and distant unknown destination where the sky and the earth seem to merge as one at the horizon. Is this a portrayal of the world of blizzard that is described in the thriller? More importantly, she appears to be walking away with a secret, yet, already too far away for anyone to catch up with her, let alone find out what her secret is. All of this is spiced up by the inclusion on the three-stanza poem, apparently borrowed from Duke Ellington, Eddie DeLange, and Irving Mills that opens with the lamentation “ In my solitude, you hunt me” and ends with the supplication to God, “Dear Lord above, send back my love”.


While reading the novel, I could not help thinking about the several adventures of the American film detective, lieutenant Columbo, except that the latter was characteristically repetitive in that he always wore the same jacket, rode the same old car and smoked a cigar. I also could not help thinking of some of Agatha Christie`s murder, mystery and suspense novels such as Murder on the Orient Express, The Murder of Roger Akroyd, and The ABC Murders, to name a few.


It is not surprising that as a detective story, Doucette`s book is well written. This is because the author has carefully and intelligently transposed her life of a psychologist into that of the protagonist of the story, Dr. Pepper Hunt, who is also a psychologist. From that perspective, I cannot say that the inclusion of psychological details in the novel was too much. I believe it was just in the right dose. From that standpoint, one can affirm that J.L Doucette has written about a subject she knows best, which is just as well, because it means she is starting with the known and then moving on to the unknown.


I particularly love Doucette`s chosen terrain because it looks so much like familiar territory to me, some kind of “déjà vu”, if you like. It is precisely that aspect of the book that makes the story some kind of all-inclusive community into which one steps and no longer wants to leave because one has become so steeped in it and so immersed in its way of life. Although I have never been to Wyoming, when I read Doucette`s account of it, it is so true-to-life that I feel I am actually there and seeing what she is seeing. I particularly like the atmosphere of fear of the unknown, doubt, self blame and recrimination that sets in when different characters realize that the woman has disappeared. One sees people who show that they care for someone in trouble, to the extent of blaming themselves for having not devoted enough time to her, which is why as if by some divine act, they must now pay the price for their neglect. Read the book and find out what happened to the missing woman in the end.


On the negative side, one feels that although there are times when the two characters of the doctor and the detective complement each other, there are also times when they appear incompatible with each other. At such a point, I wonder whether the novel could not have been more successful if Doucette had allowed the psychologist to conduct the search alone without bringing in the detective. I also feel the author has not treated Dr. Pepper Hunt fairly because she arrives newly in a town as a way of drowning her own personal tragedy when she is almost immediately saddled with the task of tacking down and bringing back a missing person.


Even so, I like the book and would recommend it to anyone who wants an action-packed story. I personally found it difficult to put down the book once I started reading it. What`s more, it`s easy to read, which is much to the author`s credit. Although it is written in 54 chapters, the action is so face-paced that one does not feel the length of the publication. As if to lesson further the burden the author compresses the entire story into in little under a year, starting on a Monday December 20 and ending on a Saturday January 15.


I give this book a 4.5 rating, just because there is always room for improvement.

[jennyd2003]

Great review. This is definitely my kind of book. I love a good mystery. I can't wait to find out if Kimi left on her own or is she a victim as well.

[tmazonga]

jennyd2003. In other words, you want to know whether she was pushed or she jumped by herself, so to speak? I can`t agree with you more!

[AA1495]

I'm glad that you liked the book. Congrats to the author on the 4/4 review.

[tmazonga]

It really is a book worth reading because one feels as though one is actually part of the action.

[Scerakor]

For lovers of the mystery, crime, and detective genres, this one seems to be a veritable diamond in the rough. I'm looking forward to checking this one out.