Final Truth

by: Mariah Stewart

Published by: Ballantine

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann, Chanhassen (MN) Librarian

By the author of Cold Truth, Hard Truth, and Dark Truth, Final Truth is the story of true-crime author Regan Landry, who is the daughter of the famous true-crime author Josh Landry, recently murdered by one of his serial killer contacts.

Regan is getting over her father's murder, and sorting through his notes and files at his remote New Jersey farmhouse. She discovers some report cards and other memorabilia from an Eddie Kroll, and she wants to know why her father kept these papers. Was this Eddie a criminal? While she is traveling to Chicago to try and meet with Eddie's family and learn more about him, she hears of a case in Florida, where a DNA evidence lab had falsified results, lost samples, and put people in prison solely on suspect DNA evidence.

Regan is drawn to one case:questionable convicted murderer Lester Ray Barnes, who is on death row. She meets with Lester Ray and his lawyer Roland Booth in prison, against the advice of Mitch Peyton, her FBI agent-boyfriend. When Lester gets off due to the DNA mistakes, he leaves the court a free man. He immediately takes off on an extended vacation, and bodies of young women are left in his wake, killed just like his first victim--or are they? Mitch and the FBI use Regan's possible book contract to lure the killer (or is it killers?--out into the open.

Armchair Interviews says: This suspenseful thriller will keep you guessing right up until the end. The shocking identity of Eddie Kroll will surprise you as well.