Warning: Spoilers if you haven’t read the previous books in the series.

The Forensic Mystery series by Alane Ferguson has yet to disappoint me. The latest, The Dying Breath, is no exception. Cameryn, a brilliant teenage girl, has been fascinated with forensics for as long as she can remember. In the first book she is instrumental in finding a serial killer. In the second book, Kyle, a serial killer just starting his career, finds her. She barely survived her first encounter with Kyle and he’s been keeping tabs on her. Now he’s making it clear he’s coming after her, though to kill her or love her is still up in the air.

Though the book starts only a couple of weeks before her eighteenth birthday, it’s strange that Cameryn seems more like a teenage girl (though the term ‘girl’ bothers her. She prefers being called a woman) in this book than the previous ones. Perhaps it’s because this book is more about her struggles for independence, something the adults in her life have a difficult time accepting since, you know, a psychopath is after her.

She is actually quite petulant for the first few chapters because everyone is after her to be careful. This is an intelligent, mature, young adult, but it almost seems that despite the fact she surrounded by death she’s gotten cocky about her ability to survive. After all, she’s still not the one on the table being autopsied even after three previous harrowing adventures.

Also complicating her life is the young town deputy, Justin, who finally admits to his feelings for her, though he knows he can’t do anything about it until her eighteenth birthday. Cameryn admits hers as well, but a romantic relationship that begins when one of the participants is the obsession of a serial killer while the other is charged with protecting the other from said serial killer - is bound to be rocky. Frankly he’s borderline stalking her, but since it’s actually his job (really, the sheriff has ordered it and has shifts too), she can’t really tell him to back off.

The mysteries are written so you only know what Cameryn knows, ergo if Cameryn is deceived, then the reader is usually deceived. However, sometimes we see things through Cameryn’s eyes that we understand even if she doesn’t. In this way, the romance between Cameryn and Justin is written very well. Cameryn doesn’t seem to realize Justin’s struggle. He is twenty-two and has had to wrestle with his attraction to a seventeen-year-old for months. Now that she’s approaching eighteen and he can admit it, it’s still hard for him because she is so young in spite of her experiences. Cameryn doesn’t understand this, probably because she thinks of herself as terribly mature and compared to her classmates, she is. When it comes down to it though, she is still a teenage girl from a small town who has barely left the county she lives in.

Even if she wants to be a woman.

This isn’t the book to start with if you’re going to read this series – I highly recommend starting at the beginning. The last chapter could be seen as a wrap-up of the series. If so, Alane Ferguson has done a great job with this series in tying up loose ends. If not, I’m eager for the next book.