The Last Breath continues Danny Lopez’s Dexter Vega Mystery series with the follow up to his debut novel, The Last Girl. Bob Fleming hires out-of-work reporter Dexter Vega to look into the death of his son, Liam. Liam drowned while kayaking the calm waters of the Intracoastal Waterway. The circumstances of his death are suspicious, as he’s a young, athletic man, an excellent swimmer, and an experienced kayaker ... Lopez also leans toward simple prose ... While The Last Breath is the second in a series, it can be read as a standalone. Lopez includes enough information to link to the earlier novel, without making new readers feel left out ... Fans of a low-key, amateur sleuth mystery may want to give The Last Breath a try.
Set in Sarasota, Fla., Lopez’s so-so sequel to 2017’s The Last Girl finds self-pitying unemployed reporter Dexter Vega in desperate need of a job. At the suggestion of a newspaper editor acquaintance, Dexter gets in touch with Bob Fleming...who’s unhappy with the police investigation of the death of his 27-year-old son, Liam ... More through luck than skill, Dexter bumbles his way toward unraveling the mystery of Liam’s death. Smooth prose compensates only in part for a familiar plot.
