The Last Word by Kathy Herman

When Vanessa Jessup returns home from her sophomore year of college, her mother, Sophie Trace Police Chief Brill Jessup, is stunned to see that she's pregnant-by one of her professors. While Brill is glad her middle daughter rejected the father's abortion ultimatum, she's also hurt that Vanessa ignored her upbringing and angry that the professor has disappeared without so much as a nickel of child support.

But that's not all Brill's got on her plate. One of her detectives has been killed, and the attacker has threatened to come for her next. When a second cop is wounded, public criticism mounts as Brill attempts to stay alive long enough to catch the perp. And she's trying to find that deadbeat dad, while Vanessa struggles to make decisions about her future.

My Review:
Thank you to The B & B Media Group, Inc. for my copy of this Christian fiction novel. This is the second installment of the Sophie Trace Trilogy series, and can be read without having read the first as the author nicely fills in all gaps.

The character of Brill is one I connected with in the first book. She's the first female police chief in the town's history. Working in a high pressure position, while being wife to Kurt and mother of three gives her depth. The layered story begins when her teenage daughter comes home from college seven months pregnant, shocking her parents. People begin dropping like flies as a murderer takes revenge, threatens that Brill is next. Talk about a stressful life!

However, there is too much repetition. This character tells that character about a circumstance, and later, the reader reads yet another conversation about the same topic being discussed between two others.

Nonetheless, the book is a worthy read, with a bit of romance and the suspense of tracking a slippery killer. Discussion questions are included.