The Final Vow by M. W. Craven

An invisible killer with a 100% success rate. No one is safe. Not even those closest to Washington Poe…

A shooting at Gretna Green. A bride is murdered on her wedding day, seconds after she slips on her new ring. It’s brutal and bloody but she isn’t the first victim and she won’t be the last. With the body count now at 17, people are terrified, not knowing where the sniper will strike next.

With the nation in a state of panic, the police are at a loss and turn to Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw – the only team who just might be able to track down a serial killer following no discernible pattern and with the whole country as his personal hunting ground. Can Poe and Tilly stop an unstoppable assassin, who never misses his mark and never makes a mistake? Or will he find them before they find him…

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You may remember that, since discovering the sheer delight of M. W. Craven’s Washington Poe series about a year ago that I came very close to binge-reading them all, they’re just so good.  I managed to resist the temptation, but knowing that book seven was imminent, I made sure that I was ready for it.  I’m glad I did.  I found The Final Vow to be just as brilliant as the other novels in the series. 

While these novels could (just!) be read as standalones, this one does contain something of a spoiler for the previous novel, The Mercy Chair.  And to be honest, I’d strongly recommend starting at the beginning.  Partly because of the sheer brilliance of them, but also because it helps to fully understand the backstory, the relationships between these wonderful characters, and the journey that they’ve come on to get to this point.

As ever, Craven throws the reader straight into the events as we learn that a lone sniper is targeting random members of the public.  With the death toll at 17 and no sign that the sniper plans to quit while they’re ahead, the authorities are no closer to catching them.  Coming under increasing pressure to catch the individual responsible, the dream team of Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw is reunited, their team disbanded after the secret services poached Tilly, very much against her wishes. 

I don’t want to get into the plot in any more detail than that, but needless to say, it’s as high octane and exciting as I’ve come to expect.  Craven’s novels are so intricately plotted, and I love the myriad of ways that Poe and Tilly find to solve the crime they’re investigating.  The Final Vow is no exception to this.  That they are clueless initially as the sniper appears to strike at random with nothing to link their victims only adds to the reader’s excitement.  I’ve said it before and will no doubt do so again, but I don’t know how Craven continues to do it.  Each novel is unique and while I don’t always love a series that just keeps on going, this one has definitely still got my attention. 

As if catching a lone sniper isn’t enough to be getting on with, Poe is on the verge of getting married to pathologist and all-round goddess, Estelle Doyle.  I love the personal lives of these characters as much as the crimes they’re investigating, and it’s been fascinating to see Poe’s development from curmudgeonly loner to where he is now.  I wouldn’t say that’s he’s mellowed exactly, but he’s relaxed enough to let a few select individuals into his life, and I think he’s a better person because of it.  One of those is Tilly Bradshaw, without whom this series just wouldn’t be what it is.  She is utterly superb in every respect. 

As with any series, there have been some novels that I’ve preferred to others, but The Final Vow is definitely up there with the best of them in my opinion, and the ending is *chef’s kiss*.  Highly recommended.

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The Washington Poe series:

1. The Puppet Show
2. Black Summer
3. The Curator
4. Dead Ground
5. The Botanist
6. The Mercy Chair
7. The Final Vow