The Last Woman in the Forest

October 15, 2018

Marian Engström is just as passionate about mentor Tate as she is about her new work with rescue dogs to protect endangered wildlife in Alberta. But emerging inconsistencies about his life make her suspect that he's a serial killer. From the author of the award-winning Breaking Wild, a nationwide U.S. best seller.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2018
A woman loses her first love only to realize he might have been a psychopath all along in Les Becquets' (Breaking Wild, 2016, etc.) latest.Marian Engström is a free spirit whose passion for animals has led her all over the west. When she arrives in northern Alberta, Canada, to join a conservation study, she meets Tate, who slowly works his way into her heart. But several months later, Tate is mauled by a bear, and Marian is overwhelmed by grief. After Tate's death, though, Marian began to feel "something wasn't right with [him]," and she reaches out to Nick Shepard, a retired forensic profiler, to ask whether he thinks Tate could have been a serial killer responsible for the murders of at least four young women. She's been remembering certain behaviors, certain details about their relationship that now seem like red flags. Nick had worked the original case and has always had a deep connection to the victims, all innocent do-gooders like Marian. As they investigate, Marian begins to feel like someone is watching her. Or maybe it's just paranoia....Les Becquets is a beautiful writer of place; every scene is imbued with sensory description but not with panoramic, postcardlike awe. Instead she brings to life the smells and sounds of these remote forests and deserts, and the settings help us understand these reserved characters through their love for the world around them. The level of detail, however, can sometimes make the writing seem clinical and emotionless: "The map included a geological information system with radio telemetry data of existing caribou that had been collared, and habitat model layers. The habitat model layers estimated where there might be lichen-rich resources, an important staple in the caribou's diet." Ultimately, the characters, and the novel, suffer from their failure to express their emotions. While the writing may very well symbolize the characters' repression and isolation, it also makes for a fairly dry mystery.A slow-burn novel that fails to catch fire.

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2019
Les Becquets (Breaking Wild, 2016) gets inside the minds of two determined but broken characters: Marian Engstr�m, an insecure young woman who tracks wildlife in the frozen expanses of northern Alberta, and Nick Shepard, an ailing investigator who's obsessed with finding a serial killer who prowls the region where Marian spends her days. Marian comes to suspect that someone close to her is the killer, and the intricately woven, atmospheric story will keep readers wondering until the end. The frozen landscape is prominent here, providing somber framing for Marian's emotionally driven work with tracking dogs and her experience adoring a man who can never love her enough. This melancholy but engaging tale is a great winter recommendation; try it with fans of other landscape-driven works, such as William Shaw's The Birdwatcher.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)