The Last Witness by Glenn Meade
MY REVIEW:
I will be honest here – if I had paid more attention to the subject matter of this book, I probably would not have agreed to review it. Because I try to fulfill all my commitments, I began to read it. First of all I will say that writing flowed so naturally that it was easy to be drawn into the story. On the other hand, I really wanted to put it down after each chapter but I became so involved in Carla’s story that I had to keep reading. I so did not want to know about the atrocities that took place in Bosnia during that era of horrific ethnic genocide. Current news, especially from the Mideast, indicates that similar carnage is once again taking place (if it has ever stopped). My tendency is to want to bury my head in the sand and live in denial of all evil but of course that is impossible.
The main focus of “The Last Witness” is Carla Lane, one of the only survivors of one of the Serbian death camps twenty years earlier. After the death of her husband, Carla’s repressed memories of that time of her life return and she vows to find out what happened to her parents and brother and to make sure that the men responsible for so many deaths are punished. The plot moves along at a steady pace with details from the past filled in by entries from a journal written by her mother that survived with Carla. The story takes a few twists along the way with at least one major surprise in store.
“The Last Witness” is not an easy book to read. It contains some fairly graphic details that demonstrate the utter depths of depravity men can reach. The fact that the story is based on true historic events makes it that much more difficult to stomach. This novel is very well written with a powerful message but it is not for the faint of heart. I am sure the images in my mind will be with me for awhile.
This book was provided for review by Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
After a massacre at a Bosnian prison camp, a young girl is found alone, clutching a diary, so traumatized she can’t even speak. Twenty years later, the last witness to the prison guards’ brutal crimes must hunt down those responsible to learn what happened to her family.
Twenty years ago, after the fall of Yugoslavia, the world watched in horror as tens of thousands were killed or imprisioned in work camps during an “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia. Carla Lane has little knowledge of what went on halfway around the world when she was a child. She is living a near perfect life in New York City, married and soon to have a family of her own. But when her husband is murdered by a group of Serbian war criminals, strange memories start coming back, and she discovers that she underwent extensive therapy as a girl to suppress her memories. She is given her mother’s diary, which unlocks her childhood memories and reveals that she was, along with her parents and young brother, imprisoned in a war camp outside Sarajevo.
As her memories come back, it becomes clear that she is the last witness to a brutal massacre in the prison and that her brother may still be alive. She sets out to find her brother, but first she must hunt down the war criminals responsible for destroying her life. But these killers will stop at nothing to protect their anonymity and their deadly pasts…and are determined to silence the last witness to their crimes.
From the talented storyteller who gave us The Second Messiah, The Last Witness serves up another captivating and nail-biting thriller that will keep you holding your breath right to the end.
Read an excerpt from “The Last Witness” HERE.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Photograph © Fred Cannon
Glenn Meade was born in 1957 in Finglas, Dublin. Several of his novels have been international bestsellers, translated into more than twenty languages, and have enjoyed both critical and commercial success.
