Book Review : Hilary Davidson - Her Last Breath (2021)
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Canadian novelist Hilary Davidson is one of the most reliable names in the thriller writing business. You know the rock band that delivers exactly what the people wants year in, year out? This is more or less what she does. Not every author operates within such a well-defined paradigm and it isn’t always easy. Her latest novel Her Last Breath manages to deliver these trademark Davidson-ian thrills while completely assuming that “same, but different” feeling.
Her Last Breath tells the story of Deirdre Crawley, a bereaved young woman who receives a delayed text message from her dead sister Caroline at Caroline’s freakin’ funeral. The dead woman claims her rich husband Theo murdered her and that he murdered his first wife too. No one seemed to know the husband even had a first wife at all. Feeling angry, hurt and adrift, Deirdre decides to investigate on her sister’s death in other to gain closure and move on with her life.
A novel about truth
What makes Her Last Breath stand out from its predecessors in Hilary Davidson’s bibliography is the dual narration. Deirdre and Theo constantly exchange the point-of-view from which the story is being told on a non-regular basis. You never know when exactly it’s going to shift, but you know that’ll it’ll do at some point. What it does is build two different narratives about what is more or less the same investigation. Two different ways to uncover the truth.
Dual narration aren’t exactly groundbreaking, but what makes the technique work in Her Last Breath’s favor is its relationship to the truth. It’s a concept that’s been pretty fucking beat up in public discourse over the last couple years since you-know-who accidentally made a great point about disinformation and that conspiracy theories became a major thing. Truth is not nearly as self-evident as it ought to be. Even less when it gets clouded for criminal reasons.
In Her Last Breath, the truth is that Caroline Thraxton is dead. Hilary Davidson uses Deirdre to find out WHAT happened to her an Theo Thraxton to find out WHY it happened to her. Because there is no WHAT without the WHY, right? There are circumstances beyond her own doing that put Caroline in harm’s way. By using this dual narration, Davidson sheds light on both the murder and the circumstances while cranking the tension upwards with every chapter.
It is diabolically efficient, even if you don’t care about the characters.
Davidson-ian pleasures
I was surprised to see low scores and vague complains about the twisty plot and surperficial characters on Goodreads. This is exactly what Hilary Davidson does: crazy rich, Kennedy-like family secret thrillers that feature obscenely well-educated characters who know architecture and quote classical philosophers in proper context. Maybe it feels a little daytime soap-ish to you, but I don’t think the point is to be relatable. The point is to be entertaining.
In that regard, Her Last Breath gets the job done in the same way Hilary Davidson’s previous novels all did. She’s an expert at manipulating expectations and creating an aura of uncertainty each time you turn the page. Was it my favorite Davidson novel? No. Blood Always Tells and The Damage Done probably are. Her Last Breath was perhaps a little too in its own makeshift reality for me, but it got the job done anyway because Hilary Davidson is a good storyteller.
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Should you read Her Last Breath? I believe it’s a novel that demands particular circumstances. If you’re looking for a fun, fast-moving vacation read that is NOT brainless, this is exactly what you need. It’s written in such a way that it basically reads itself. If you’re expecting more than that from Her Last Breath, you might find that it falls a little short. Veteran Hilary Davidson readers like me will appreciate it. Perhaps not the best gateway novel, though.
