In the fall of 2019, I discovered the Ruth Galloway series and quickly binged my way through the first 11 of them. Each year since, a new book has published, and The Last Remains is the 15th and final volume of the series. It was my most anticipated book of 2023, and also one of the saddest books to look forward to, because I have adored this series more than I can say. I’ll definitely have a full 15-book reread at some point, slower, to allow especially those first 11 books come through to me with more detail and depth.

Weird thing: When I was about 25% through this audiobook, I happened to see and read the publisher’s description of the book on GR/SG. It was completely wrong, with hardly a thing in common with the book I’d been reading. So I went to a different edition, which had a completely different description, this one accurate. With the last Galloway book I read, a similar thing happened, with at least three different descriptions floating around and details wrong in all three (down to character names or event years, etc). Now, when I go look at the descriptions of the previous book, they all match and are all correct, but at the time, they weren’t. The same seems to have happened here – in fact, the description almost seems like a cobbled together version of this book and the last! It makes me think that the publishers are getting a pre-drafted description of what the book was going to be about, but then the writing happens, and writing always changes what you think is going to happen. I’m sure soon enough, all the descriptions will be changed into correctness, but for now, don’t trust them!

Thankfully, I didn’t really remember the description of the book before I started listening to it, so I wasn’t really thrown by wrong info. Instead, I just enjoyed every word from beginning to end. The mystery was a bit simple compared to earlier volumes, but that left more room for focus on the characters. In a book that has to wrap up more than a decade’s worth of relationships, careers, and personal growth, character should always be the priority, and Griffiths handled it all very well. I’m quite satisfied with where the story ended, and while I’ll miss Ruth and the gang, I feel enough closure to stave off any disappointment.