To The Last Page

We all have our odd individual quirks and daily rituals, some we probably aren't even aware of or consider as anything out of the ordinary. Some routines around the home are comforting, reassuring, even precautionary, making sure things are switched off, closed, locked up. Some habits however are just strange and don't mean anything to anyone except ourselves. It's only when something changes, like another person coming in and upsetting the routine, that you might realise that they aren't always rational or easily explained to outsiders, but also bring an awareness that the motivations behind the behaviours might have deeper implications than you might think. Since it's entitled Rituals , and since Joan's little quirks, customs and habits are detailed at the outset, you expect that to be a significant and interesting theme to explore in this short novel, but there is a lot more to derive from this simple domestic situation that Joan finds herself in when, as a s...

Absent from the second book in the series while Élise Duromain undertook a solo adventure - definitely going out on her own in À bout de souffle  - Lucas Lievens returns for his own solo investigation in the third book in Alex Sol's series, but going solo is the only option for Lievens. Already retired from the police even before the start of the series, he is still unable to shake off his own personal loss, Lucas now operates a Private Investigator service with only one real purpose; to find missing children. Yes, it seems like the missing person theme is continuing after the previous two books in the series, but as you would expect there is a subtle difference in each investigation that expands into something entirely different. Lucas Lievens operates to his own rules then, and in the case of his investigations, he only helps find abducted children: hopefully alive but it's more often the case that after several days of police investigation without result, he is searching fo...