This is another well written and compelling read from Sibel Hodge.

Detective Inspector Warren Carter returns from retirement to head up an investigation into a fire at an 'abandoned' hospital where the bodies of six women are found dead. This is a complex story which weaves two stories together to create a well paced and intriguing read that had me guessing all the way through it.

Although it is the third book to feature D.I. Carter but it can be read as a standalone with no problem.

Their Last Breath is a well written police procedural set in Southern England by a new author to me, but one whose name I was familiar with. It is mainly told from the perspective of detective Warren Carter, but other chapters follow DS Becky Harris - both of the characters have appeared in earlier books but confusingly this was not billed as a series.

When the bodies of six women are found in an isolated abandoned hospital, and a force warrant card is found on site, the Caroline Barker, chief of the Professional Standards Department (who investigate suspected police corruption cases) asks Carter to come out of retirement to help. Grieving for his wife, and guilt-ridden over his secret role in a previous case, he agrees, but as he discovers what happened to the victims he is determined to seek justice for them. Meanwhile his former colleague Becky risks her marriage to the increasingly impatient Ian, when she investigates the murder of a man at home, with a woman who is not his wife, in identical circumstances to a previous case, but something tells her this is not a serial killer her new boss insists.

The plot raises the plight of Syrian refugees trapped in massive camps in Jordan who have lost everything and will do anything to escape, leaving them completely vulnerable to despicable exploitation. We meet Hayat, a young woman whose whole family are dead, telling her story to a journalist as she dreams of working as a hotel maid in the UK. Quite a lot of harrowing information is woven in without becoming preachy or detracting from the story. 
The author is clearly knowledgeable on this subject and has written other books about it. While we hear a lot generally about people trafficking, the particularly sinister fate of these women was something new to me, but felt plausible.

I liked Carter as a hero but found the repeated mentions if his previous case frustrating, as had I known that there was a previous book (Into the Darkness) I would’ve made time to read that first, but by the time I got to it my review was already overdue; I don’t like reading series out of order although do plan to read the earlier one as I’m intrigued by the Vigilante character. Similarly Becky’s situation would’ve made more sense if I’d read her prior book, The Disappeared. This story does stand alone but I still think they should be labelled properly.

This wasn’t so much of a mystery and there are no major twists - the identity of the baddies was heavily signposted from early on with some attempts at obfuscation but the suspense was mostly around how they would be caught and who would survive. I liked the ending but felt some minor characters’ fates were left unresolved, like Gillian. I assume we will meet Becky and Carter again so will eventually find out whether she told her grumpy husband to get lost.

While it has dark themes, there was little overt violence and minimal swearing, and while terrible things have happened to the victims, we hear about it only in hindsight so it’s not as gruesome as you might think from the blurb. The story was well-paced and the characters interesting. Overall I enjoyed it and would be keen to read more from this author. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc which allowed me to give an honest review, and apologies that it is a few days late. Their Last Breath is available now.

Their Last Breath, Sibel Hodge

There are three main strands in this book. The investigation into a crime, and the life of the Officer who investigates it, and the life story of a victim.
 
The Crime, is one of the most hideous there can be, people trafficking. But this is only discovered after a fire in a building, a fire that leaves six women dead.

The fire was accidental but the circumstances the women are found in is anything but accidental. They are all chained up, in different rooms, they are all unidentifiable because there is no record of them, they are illegal immigrants, but why have they been brought to the country.

The Officer, Detective Carter, recently retired and suffering the death of his wife, he responds to a call for help from his old colleague. Staffing is short due to the cut backs and the Police are running short of experienced detectives. 

Carter is lured back and starts to investigate the death of the women in the fire, what he discovers will shock the core of the Force.

The victim, a strong woman, a refugee, a woman so desperate she allows herself to be conned into being smuggled to Britain in the back of a Lorry. From escaping her own horrors in her own country to being trapped in a burning building, this could have been a book on its own.

This is a great story. It is the latest in a series. I haven’t read any of the previous books featuring Detective Carter, but I’m going to track them down and read them.

Books that make me think, as well as entertain me, are always my favourite. Without giving the plot away there was a couple of things that sent me to the internet, and my knowledge is better for it.

Pages: 376
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Available now on Amazon

A tense and gripping police thriller from the brilliant crime writer, Sibel Hodge.  We see the return of detectives we have met before, retired DI Warren Carter and Becky Harris in this fast paced and dark story with two seeming separate police investigations.  A warehouse fire holds a macabre discovery, the burnt corpses of 6 unidentified women chained up and a brutal double murder.  In a story of police corruption, human trafficking, the heartbreaking narrative is suspenseful and twisted.  This is an action paced, complex and fast paced read, well written and well plotted, which had me glued to the pages from beginning to the thrilling end.  Can't wait to see what Sibel Hodge comes up with next.  Great read.  Many thanks to Amazon Publishing for an ARC.

# Their Last Breath # Netgalley 
Wow wow and triple wow. I was so engrossed in this book I completely lost time. I blocked everything around me out. Sible Hodge is one of the beast creative writers I have ever read. She literally brings her books to life.. I can not praise this woman enough. Once again another knockout book. With more twist and turns than a bobbing of cotton. They go on and on. Absolutely superb. You can not help be hooked on the book with the first chapter. This you must read.. you don’t just read her books you become part of them. Absolutely brilliant, superb.

EXCERPT: I smile as I take in the room. There is a bed in the centre. A doorway to a small bathroom to my right. There are curtains at the window, which are closed.

And then...I am confused. There is a chain attached to the wall with a cuff on one end.

I turn to look at him, my eyes wide. 'What is-'

But I do not get to finish. He pushes me roughly forwards. I stumble and stagger until I fall face forward onto the bed. His weight is on top of me, and I think he will rape me.

I scream, but my voice is muffled between the mattress and the sheets. I feel his body jerking. Then I feel something cold and hard wrapped around my wrist. When his weight lifts away I look at the cuff on my arm.

'What? No!' I cry.

But he is already backing out of the room.

'No!' I twist around on the bed and look at him, tears in my eyes, my stomach as cold as the winter desert winds. 'Please come back!'

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Detective Carter knows all about torture – but he’s never known a case as dark as this one.

The Six…

An abandoned building goes up in flames. Six women are chained inside and left to die – the truth is left to burn with them. Only one piece of evidence remains, but will it be enough to find their killer?

The Detective…

Retired detective Warren Carter has been suffocated by grief for his wife and is looking for a new start. But when he gets a call that cuts to the heart of the force, investigating a corrupt police officer, he has to accept. This time, though, he’s going to have to face his demons and work out who to trust when the truth is guarded by his own colleagues.

The Bad Cop…

It was supposed to be the perfect crime: they knew the system well enough to beat it and get away with murder. But they didn’t know Detective Carter, and how far a man will go when he has nothing left to lose…

MY THOUGHTS: Sibel Hodge has written another winner.

Despite a bit of a slow start, I was soon immersed in this multi-faceted story that kept me off balance right to the end.

The story is told mainly from the point of view of Detective Warren Carter, brought out of retirement to run an investigation for Professional Standards. His methods of working are definitely unorthodox to the point where, should some of his procedures be discovered, he would be out of a job. He fights for what is right, 'and bugger the politics and consequences '.

Hodge has written in the past about human trafficking, and it is something she does very well. This time she combines the refugee crisis with another, the increasingly common problem of infertility.

This is a topical and engaging piece of fiction that has strong roots in reality.

#TheirLastBreath #NetGalley

💙💚💛🧡.5

THE AUTHOR: Sibel Hodge is the author of the #1 Bestsellers Look Behind You, Untouchable, and Duplicity. Her books have sold over one million copies and are international bestsellers in the UK, USA, Australia, France, Canada and Germany. She writes in an eclectic mix of genres, and is a passionate human and animal rights advocate.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Amazon Publishing UK via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Their Last Breath by Sibel Hodge for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system, please refer to my Goodreads.com profile, or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others is also published on Twitter, Amazon and my webpage https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...

Their Last Breathe
By Sibel Hodge

4 stars. 

A classic murder mystery that hooks the reader from the first page. 

With the exposure of corruption within the police force linking two unseemingly connected murders. 

Plot flows well with tension and action building throughout the story. The characters leap off the page as you progress. 

I found that once I started it was hard to put the book down until the dying pages.

Retired detective Warren Carter has been suffocated by grief for his wife and is looking for a new start. But when he gets a call that cuts to the heart of the force, investigating a corrupt police officer, he has to accept. This time, though, he’s going to have to face his demons and work out who to trust when the truth is guarded by his own colleagues.

It was supposed to be the perfect crime: they knew the system well enough to beat it and get away with murder. But they didn’t know Detective Carter, and how far a man will go when he has nothing left to lose…

This title has been reviewed by www.books-reviewed.weebly.com 

This title was provided by Netgalley and the publisher in return for an open and honest review.

#TheirLastBreathe       #NetGalley

This is a thriller ideal for days where you want to sit and read, speeding through the book to find out what happens next... Or even days where you weren't intending to but got sucked in to the plot!

Detectives Warren Carter and Becky Harris find their cases beginning to overlap - one a double murder (with an intended victim surviving), and the other an arson case which caused the deaths of six women mysteriously chained up in the building... It is a race to identify the murdered women, and work out how their case may or may not relate to a murder, and not all the participants want it to be won.

I enjoyed how the book made use of various narrators to keep you guessing what was happening, as well as who could be responsible. The plot was also entertaining and thought-provoking at times, especially the  <spoiler>human trafficking being the</spoiler> reason behind the deaths of the characters. Both primary narrators (Warren and Becky) had voices which carried through to the reader and felt authentic.

I deducted a star because I felt at times the plot could be a little too predictable, which did detract at times from my enjoyment of the book.

Overall - definitely one worth reading for those who love anything crime, mystery, or thriller.

The story has two detectives investigating two different crimes which are brought together two thirds of the way through. The status of refugees in war torn countries is brought out well and is moving. The ending where justice prevails is very good. Engrossing read.

Their Last Breath is an engrossing British police procedural where nothing is as you expect.

Gillian Lane is running for her life down a quiet English lane from a masked assailant when she is hit by a taxi and taken to hospital. When the police investigate, they find her husband and another woman tortured and strangled in her kitchen.

Meanwhile, retired detective Warren is called back to duty to investigate a mass death scene that appears to implicate one of the police’s own. An abandoned hospital is the site of a horrific fire where six women are found chained to their room’s wall. Five are dead when the firefighters arrive but one is clinging precariously to life. Could the name scratched on the floor, Hayat, be the same woman telling her tale of being a Syrian refugee in alternate chapters?

It doesn’t take a Mensa ID to figure out the dead woman is the refugee. But how the cases are connected and especially the thrilling twist at the end makes Their Last Breath a great read for police procedural fans. 4 stars!

Thanks to Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Wow! I am now convinced that Sibel Hodge can do no wrong. Her new title, The Last Breath, is a fast-paced, entertaining page-turner.

There are two parallel story lines. In one story, detectives make a gruesome discovery. Six women burnt alive in an old hospital. All six were in chains. In the second story-line, an attack occurs in the middle of the night leaving one witness who didn’t really see much. I knew there had to be a connection between the two stories but just couldn’t guess what it was. My jaw dropped when the dots started connecting.

This was a tense, gripping story with so many twists and turns.

I loved everything about the case. The Lead Detectives were so easy to root for and I also enjoyed reading about the other characters.

The investigation was well detailed and I love how the authors led me to the twists while making it hard for me to guess them beforehand.

For fans of crime thrillers/police procedural, this is one not to miss. Well-written, captivating and twisty, Their Last Breath by Sibel Hodge had everything that makes me enjoy this genre so much.

Overall, this is a very interesting and captivating police procedural, and it even has a little action thrown in. The plot and characters are very good, but there are some things I don't like. First is the changing POV that makes no sense, especially as there are two different first persons in between third person POVs. Second is the unnecessary descriptions of things that are already clear.

Thank you to NetGalley, Sibel Hodge and Amazon Publishing UK for the free e-book in exchange for the free e-book.

I was so interested in this novel and I was flying through the first 60% just needing to know what was happening and how these cases were all tied together. But then my husband and I went through a terrible loss and this was the book I was reading when I found out. This left me unable to finish reading this one – I tried multiple times but I felt like I had a little PTSD and this book was totally wasted because of the circumstances. I definitely still recommend it even though I can’t finish it, but I can tell you that the lead up made me feel like I could still recommend reading it! Which really should tell you a lot. Someday maybe I will be able to finish it and find out what happens in the end.

Out now!

This author always tells a fantastic story. The plot is slow going at the start but soon picks up to be a story of police corruption and human trafficking, A topic that’s hard to swallow but brilliantly written by the author. Great returning characters but definitely a stand alone read.

I really liked the way this book started. Six women are found in an abandoned building after the building has burned down. No one seems to know who these women are or why they were there. Retired Detective Warren Carter works closely with the police department to see if it is somehow an inside job. What transpires shocks everyone.

The premise behind the book is excellent. There is a bit of science involved as well as some bright characters. The book seemed to drag on for such a long time before anything really comes to light though and it lost my interest midway. I had to put the book down and continue through the boring middle of the book until the shocking ending was finally revealed.

Thank you to Netgalley, Sibel Hodge, and Amazon Publishing UK for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a great crime thriller. 
When Warren Carter receives a call asking him to come out of retirement and take on the role of acting Detective Inspector in PSD, he accepts.  
He knows a few of the team and soon gets stuck into the case. 
There has been six bodies found in an old hospital and they have been badly burned in a fire. A warrant card is found on site, hence the involvement of PSD. 
Becky is working on a double murder and bumps into to Carter and discusses her concerns about her new team and soon this opens a huge can of worms. 
This is quite a complex crime thriller and is not a straight forward ‘who-dunnit’ and I liked trying to work out who was behind everything. 
This is a real page turner and I loved the way the story ended. 
Thanks to Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

This is the second book that i have read by Sibel Hodge and once again, i have really enjoyed.  I love a book that has so many twists and turns and 'Their Last Breath' certainly had quite a few.  A well written book and one that i can highly recommend.  

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy.

I got very excited when I saw Sibel Hodge had a new book out, I couldn’t wait to get my teeth into it…. What an absolute shocker of a read, trafficking, police corruption to name but a few…. When retired Detective Warren Carter is asked by Professional Standards Anti Corruption Unit to attend a scene of a fire where 6 women, all contained in their own rooms, shackled to a wall have perished in a fire, although the fire appears to have been started accidentally, clearly the women did not chain themselves to the wall… the reason Carter is called is that the remnants of a police badge is discovered in one of the rooms and he needs to figure out what happened to these women, why and who in the police force is corrupt at the same time… he has a job on his hands.

A gripping dark read with twists at each turn, one woman’s wish for freedom and the lengths someone would go to secure it…. I found myself wishing and hoping against hope that Carter would discover the identities of these women to at least give them a name, that they did not die and be forgotten and unnamed…. 

Highly recommend this, you will not want to put it down, so make some room in your diary, as once you turn the first page…. You’re hooked and in it for the long haul… Enjoy

Retired Detective Carter is still in mourning for his wife wondering what to do with all the spare time he now has when he gets a phone  all from his old boss. He's asked to help investigate the deaths of six women who were chained to the wall of a building that had went up in flames. A police officers warrant card had  been found at the scene. Then they realise another Detective working on a separate case, could be connected.

The characters are complex in this well written, fast paced police procedural that I found hard to put down. I just needed to know what had happened. A story of human trafficking and corruption in the police force. The two crime stories are woven beautifully together seamlessly. The story is told mainly from Carter and Harris's point of view, but we also get told a heartbreaking story from a woman called Hay. I did figure out some of the story but this never spoils it for me.with plenty of twists, this story had me on the edge of my seat. I could not read it quickly enough.

I would like to thank Netgalley, Amazon Publishing Uk and the author Sibel Hodge for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a steady, paced crime procedural. 
My husband was reading ‘Duplicity’ by the same author and about the same detective, Warren Carter, at the same time as I was reading this. He was enthralled and stayed up way past bedtime to get it finished. I said to him that this one wouldn’t keep him up all night. However, this isn’t always a negative as this book was still captivating but in a more regular fashion. It keeps a constant rhythm going throughout the book to still leave you sated, interested and intrigued.
There is such a lot going on, and to begin with, I thought there were two separate stories. We have Acting Detective Inspector Warren Carter. He has been brought out of retirement to investigate a horrific crime where six unidentified women have been found dead. The only lead is a police officer’s warrant card.
Detective Sergeant Becky Harris, on the other hand, rushes to a crime scene where a man and a woman have been brutally murdered. 
We follow each investigation independently, wondering how they could be related, as they must be. The author does a fantastic job of interweaving the stories, the evidence, the secrets and the lies together. It is hard to keep up, so much is going on, but not in an ‘I have no idea what is going on’ way, more ‘my head is spinning’ way!
ADI Carter is such a grumpy old man that he is lovable; he is thorough and good at his job. He is enjoyable to read about. You feel as if you are along for the ride with the investigations as you are discovering things at the same time as the characters and I like that. You feel a part of the story.
Overall, a really enjoyable read and now I need to go back and read the keep-me-up-till-all-hours ‘Duplicity’ so that I have Carter’s full story!