Book Review: The Last Track

The Last Track

By:  Sam Hilliard

Publisher:  Buddhapuss Ink LLC

Publish Date:  February 2010

Genre:  Mystery/Thriller

Format:  Paperback, 272 pages

Series:  Book 1 of A Mike Brody Novel

Recommendation:  If you are a mystery reader this is a mystery read with a few twists while searching for a lost child.


Book Synopsis:
Mike Brody - The man you want, when the one you love is missing.

More than just a master tracker, Mike is a former Special Forces operative, smoke jumper, and now extreme adventure tour guide who can tap into the memory and emotional state of those he pursues.

In The Last Track, Mike is recruited to find an asthmatic boy lost in the dense woods surrounding a dude ranch in Montana.  An unwitting murder witness, the boy burrows ever deeper into the rugged terrain, fearful of being found by the killer.

While Mike tracks the boy, his ex-wife, a journalist, uses her contacts to unravel the truth behind the murder.  Her discoveries threaten to snare them all in a treacherous conspiracy...

First Sentence:
Sean Jackson counted to four and exhaled.

My Review and Summary:
Mike is on a vacation at a modern-day dude ranch with his ex-wife and eight year old son, as promised some time ago (before divorce) - the family vacation.  When they arrive at the ranch something is going on, with all the red and blue flashing lights around.  Detective Lisbeth MaCarthy recognizes Mike and tells him she would like to talk to him after he has checked in.  Mike has a record of being able to find lost people.  His special ability is what makes him an amazing tracker for lost loved ones.  And there is a boy missing from the ranch, now lost in the woods.  Mike who can't pass on helping lost people agrees to track the boy, even at the disappointment and hurt of his own family.

I found myself liking this read.  I don't normally go out of my reading genre very often as I am afraid I will not like the books.  This book was a good mystery read for me.  It did take me about eighty pages to figure out what had happened and what was going on, but once on the right track liked the read.  I found myself liking the characters and even when questioning the characters as to why they acted the way they did, I thought at the same time - I could see people actually saying these things to their family members or each other.

The book did have a few twists in it I was not expecting, in the end of the book when the truth played out.  But, through the mystery and the hints dropped I found I figured out most of the mystery.  What helps give you all the clues is the story telling is from different view points.  You get a section of the read from the lost boy, from Mike, from Jessica (Mike's ex-wife), and even from the killer.

I did find at times the story started to drag for me.  In this meaning, I remember one part where we are being explained the way Homeland Security has surveillance on all the computers phones and knows everything everyone is doing at all times, yet there is one computer that does not have the surveillance on it.  I started to stray with all the details of the surveillance in Homeland Security.  I understand the author is sharing the details to let us know the setup and how that person had to do things to get around being seen, but I just started to lose interest with all the details.  There were just a few areas with the same issue for me.

But, over all I enjoyed the read and had to see what the author had in store for me in the end.  After I read the ending and who was who I thought back to all the clues that where dropped through the book, yes the clues where all there for me.


I received this book as a winning from Good Reads.