Synopsis of the literary thriller Four Last Things

January 2020. Covid-19 is creeping up on the world, to most still a silent stowaway. It’s certainly the last thing on Detective Tom Dearie’s mind when a serial killer he’s been chasing sends him letters detailing the stalking, capturing and torturing of his next victims. Tom’s aloof boss Camille Littlefield teams him up with Arthur, a bookish hipster profiler, wanting them to communicate with the killer through newspaper ads.

While the death toll continues to rise, Tom’s private life isn’t going smoothly either. His wife is leaving him for another man, and his famous hippie mother, a controversial children’s book author, wants him to discourage his sister from carrying out euthanasia on grounds of intolerable mental suffering.

But his sister’s demons are his too, something the killer seems to know. In order to spare potential future victims a horrific fate, Tom will have to face his own demons first. It’s a race against time, while the illusive, highly intelligent serial killer brings the entire task force to its knees, with the unambiguous intent to decimate it.

Four Last Things is an absolute page turner. It’s a compelling crime thriller as well as a psychological drama, very vividly written, shocking in its themes, at times profoundly poignant, with riveting dialogues and unexpected twists, and the eccentric kind of scenes Ending is known for.