The Last Trace by Petronella McGovern

Publisher's Synopsis

WHAT IF YOU'RE SCARED YOU COMMITTED A CRIME BUT CAN'T REMEMBER?

Family. It means everything to Sheridan. She has missed having her brother around. At last, Lachy is back in Australia, and Sheridan can't wait to spend the Easter holidays all together in the mountains with their kids.

But, on Good Friday, something devastating happens that rips their two families apart, and now she can't imagine ever forgiving him.

Lachy knows he's not coping, but his sister doesn't have the full story. And, terrifyingly, nor does he. There are some critical gaps in his memory. How is he connected to a missing woman, a hit-and-run, and a request for DNA?

To untangle the truth, Lachy must decide who he can trust. His sister? His friends? Even himself?

My Review of The Last Trace by Petronella McGovern

The Last Trace is an edgy family drama laced with secrets from the past, fear of the unknown and the burden of doing the right thing regardless of the personal cost. Petronella McGovern has woven together the main story set in Australia in the present day with heartbreaking events in the USA in 1968. 

“Lachy had barely slept, tossing and turning, berating himself. Scumbag, loser, irresponsible dickhead. In between those thoughts, he tried to piece together the missing hours. How had he behaved in front of his son? Of course, none of the memories returned. Whoosh, gone after three minutes, gone forever. The fear that he’d done something terrible made him jittery, craving a whisky to calm his nerves. But no, he was never touching the stuff again. Shit, how could he have had a blackout with Kai around? How could he have driven in that state? He knew he was in a bad way but moving here was supposed to make him better. Not worse.”

Lachy suffers from blackout episodes. He has done so for years but they appear to be getting more frequent. His latest one ended when he found himself at the pub with his son, Kai, and he couldn’t remember if he’d driven there while out.

Kai notices that something’s up with his dad. He’s been visiting, living with his dad on the remote property in the Snowy Mountains. Concerned, he calls his aunt. Sheridan is Lachy’s sister and has long been the responsible voice of reason for the family. When Kai calls, she makes the trip to visit them.

But a near tragedy threatens to rip the family unit apart and then, there’s news from the US where Lachy had been working until recently. Allegations have been made, careers are in jeopardy and lives have been put on hold. The agreed response is for Lachy to return to the States and get back to work.

The second timeline takes us back to 1968 where we follow the life of a young woman, the daughter of a strict religious man, as she navigates her way through a forbidden affair. It’s clear that the family she belongs to is connected to Lachy and Sheridan and we’re headed for a significant revelation somewhere down the track.

It’s when Lachy and Kai take a trip to the US that events really move forward and the significance of a DNA test that Lachy had taken is going to become important. The history of blackouts and some questions about events that took place years ago are going to come back and make Lachy’s life extremely uncomfortable.

There was only one part of the storyline that I thought could be expanded upon and used a little better, and that was to do with Lachy’s job and the ructions that had taken place between him and one of his colleagues. It was used as one of a number of problems that Lachy was facing and could have provided a fascinating showdown if it were explored a little more fully. I was a bit disappointed when it ended up being explained away in a mere couple of sentences.

The Last Trace is a strong family drama that uses DNA matching in an interesting way. Plot twists are nicely engineered with a cast of strong characters given well developed backgrounds helping to create a thoroughly riveting story. The past is used to bring the actions of the present day characters into relevance, occasionally raising some slight rumblings of disquiet, particularly for Lachy - those darn pesky blackouts.