Their Final Cry is a haunting and horrifying look at the human capacity for willful ignorance and the evil that thrives in that darkness. With a slow boil pace, Dea Poirier deftly turns up the heat at just the right moments, splashing action across the page until the stunning conclusion.
If, like me, you are into dark, police procedurals with highly complicated protagonists, then the Detective Harlow Durant series was written specifically for you.
What makes this series so unique and chillingly good is Poirier asks the simple question, “what would it be like if my detective had the darkest secret of them all?”. With that premise in mind, the exploration of Harlow’s past is every bit as intriguing and twisted as the cases she works in the present.
When the body of a teenage girl is discovered on an abandoned farm in a small upstate New York community, Harlow is called in immediately from her work hiatus to investigate. Whether she’s mentally ready to return after her last case is of little consequence when the closest person in her life needs help.
Harlow’s partner is already working a cold case at the same farm, after human remains were found in a cellar. The pair must determine if the newest victim’s body being dumped there is a coincidence or a warning to leave the past buried.
To complicate matters, Harlow is being hounded by a journalist on the verge of publishing a new book about her serial killer father. As she tries to put the past behind her, the case takes a dramatic turn for her partner when he recognizes a piece of evidence at a crime scene. With this new bit of information, he seeks to find answers to the traumatic event that shaped his life.
For fans of Will Dean’s Last Thing To Burn, this book gave me very similar vibes with the key difference being the point of view. While Dean’s focused on the experience of the victims, Poirier flips that on its head and explores what impact that kind of evil hidden in plain sight would have on the investigators and community at large.
And like all good books in a series, this can be read as a standalone… BUT… I highly recommend picking up the first couple books for a richer understanding of Harlow’s past and what makes her tick.
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Purchase Their Final Cry
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Barrington Books
Chapter 2 Books
Murder By The Book
Once Upon A Crime
The Book Dragon
The Poisoned Pen
