Title: The Last Ride (A Dear Abby Cozy Mystery Series #3)
Author: Sonia Parin
Published on: 27th August 2018
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Joyce, the local cafe` owner, gives Abby and Faith a task – find the identity of the Eden Bloggess and get one year of free coffee. The duo search high and low and come up with one name – Kinsley Roberts. Abby and Doyle set off to Kinsley’s house – a ruined mansion in the middle of nowhere. As soon as Abby reaches the place, she hears a scream and a woman dashes into her, her hands smeared with blood.
The woman (Kinsley) claims that a man is murdered in the stable. Abby goes to inspect and finds a dead body on the carousel. She immediately calls Joshua Ryan to the crime scene. Abby and Faith learn that the house belongs to a circus owner – Kinsley. Kinsley Roberts says that she inherited the house from Kinsley although she isn’t sure if he’s her relative.
Joyce thinks that Abby and Faith are withholding information from her and bans them from her cafe`. With no coffee, the duo cannot seem to concentrate on the case. But Kinsley’s life seems to be in danger and they must act fast, or else, their lives might also be at risk.
The Last Ride is the third book in the Dear Abby Cozy Mystery series. With each book in this series, the reader is introduced to the various side of the recurring characters.
Markus, brother of Mitch the pub owner, has become friendlier with Abby and her mates. Joyce plays the role of a villain in this book. She makes her own rules and bosses around people to follow it. Hers being the only cafe` in the town, people have no other option but to nod their heads to anything and everything that Joyce dictates.
Faith’s mum, Eleanor, played a bigger role in the previous book – Be Still My Heart. However, in this story, she doesn’t make her presence felt as often as she did before. Abby and Faith are not working in their office – Kinsley’s staying with Abby for the time being and the duo decide not to use their workspace and blame the lack of caffeine for this decision. Joshua seems to be very friendly with Abby. He even shares information pertaining to the case with her. He realizes that Abby is one step ahead of the police so he lets her work the case on he own and promises to help when needed.
Although the story started with Abby and Faith searching for the Eden Bloggess, the finding of a dead body takes the story in a different direction. The identity of the killer was totally unexpected. Not just that, Abby has a life-or-death kinda situation – a nail-biting scene. Not much of driving with Doyle or sleuthing in this story when compared to the second book in the series. More importance is given to character development and this made the story a bit different but at the same time, interesting.
Abby and Faith’s lack of caffeine intake made them go crazy!! I have heard that some people cannot function without coffee and the author has described this point in the book very clearly. I didn’t like Joyce’s villainous side in the book. There were hints about her ‘other’ side in the first two books but she’d totally lost it in this story! Like, totally! I wish Abby hadn’t forgiven Joyce in the end. I really wish she didn’t.
If you have missed my reviews of the first two books in this series, you can check them below:
Book #1: End Of The Lane
Book #2: Be Still My Heart
The Book Decoder 
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