Her Final Confession
Detective Josie Quinn Book 4
Lisa Regan
Grand Central Publishing
September 6th, 2022
Her Final Confession by Lisa Regan is a fantastic police procedural. This fourth book in the paperback series goes into the backstory of one of the secondary characters, Detective Gretchen Palmer, but it also shows how loyal a friend Detective Josie Quinn can be. Although this can be read as a stand-alone people may want to read the whole series to get more information of Josie’s personal life.
“I had introduced Detective Gretchen Palmer in book two and purposely did not put in much about her backstory. With this book I wanted to explore her origins story: where she came from, why she is traumatized, and why she became a police officer. Gretchen is a lot like Josie. She is a very quiet person, an introvert, and a blank check. Her whole life is being a detective. Josie and her relationship have a lot of things going unspoken. This works out well for both since they are not good at talking or showing their emotions or processing emotional trauma. They have a strong bond because each understands the trauma the other suffered. I wanted to do a female relationship that was not easy because both are so closed off, but they do support each other instead of undermining each other. They do become closer.”
The plot has the body of a college student found in the driveway of Detective Gretchen Palmer, a friend and peer to Josie. He has been shot in the back and has a photograph pinned to his collar. Josie is baffled trying to understand why Gretchen confessed to the murder that Josie believes her friend did not commit. Her faith in her friend does not falter, even when it seems Josie is the one person Gretchen has in her corner. Determined to prove Gretchen innocent Josie digs into the personal life and other cases she worked. In doing so she has put everyone in jeopardy considering a serial killer has stalked Gretchen for years.
“The killer is very similar to the Golden State killer. He had not been caught at the time I wrote this book. It was a little bit of a “ripped from the headlines.” With these DNA test sites I had thought for years how the police can use it to catch killers if they just build out the family tree. This is how they caught him. It is almost that fiction created reality instead of the other way around because I had finished writing the book before he was caught.”
Josie has razor- sharp instincts and her intuition seems to always be proven correct. She is feisty, focused, strong, fearless, and has a no-nonsense attitude. Readers also get a glimpse into her life and the relationships including her twin sister Trinity and her police partner Noah who is hoping he can also be her personal partner. To help her remain sober her private life seems to be coming together.
“She is very stubborn. Over the course of the series, she grows a lot but is brash and abrupt with a drinking problem. She does have trust issues, a private person, bitter and angry at times, but also a survivor. In every book she learns something about herself and people as she solves each case. She is forced to take on her trauma. The Josie you meet in book one is not the Josie of this book, four. The one constant is her strong sense of justice. She will do the right thing no matter what it costs professionally or personally. This remains the same throughout the books.”
Readers also get to know Gretchen’s backstory which is captivating. She had a tragedy in her past and that has motivated her to become a detective.
The story premise is riveting, action packed, with twists. Even though the characters are flawed, readers feel a connection with them.
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