Freeform Press’ twisty series The Amateurs comes to a close with the third and final book, Last Seen: An Amateurs Novel. Sara Shepard, the mastermind behind Pretty Little Liars, has crafted this trilogy with exceptional skill and fans of murder mysteries won’t be disappointed by its exciting conclusion. But with little to go on, the Amateurs will have a tough time cracking this final case to save one of their own.
Brad has been messing with Seneca, Maddox, Madison, and Aerin for years and they are now hot on his trail. The shocking end of the second book, Follow Me, found Brad abducting Aerin and making her his next potential victim. If her friends ever hope to see her alive again, they will have to once again play Brad’s games. But this one just might reveal more than Brad wanted them to know.
The case they must solve involves a 9-year-old boy whose been abducted by his piano teacher, a woman who was using an alias. Brad’s orders are that they are to track down the kidnapper and alert him of her whereabouts in exchange for Aerin’s freedom. But as the Amateurs get closer to solving the case, Brad becomes more and more enamored with his prisoner, who he’s longed for all this time.
Once again, this group of friends with an interest in criminal justice will have to race against time to solve a case before Brad does something crazy, or crazier than he’s already doing, that is. But the stakes are even higher in this final adventure where not one, but two lives are at stake. One of them just happens to be a character that readers of the series are already rooting for, which makes this final volume so gripping.
I had never read or even watched Shepard’s hit series, Pretty Little Liars. However, it’s easy to see why a generation was so captivated by her work. It’s fitting that this series found a home on Freeform Press, as they are busy adapting another series by her called The Perfectionists. I would not be surprised if The Amateurs series ended up on the small screen as well, where it would make a great trilogy of TV movies. Perhaps for a future 31 Nights of Halloween?
While this is the last book of The Amateurs series, it still gives one final twist that leaves the door ajar for more stories with these characters. Whether or not we see them again really depends on readers like you. I would recommend this entire series to anyone who loves murder mysteries or stories set in coastal vacation destinations with a dark side. The final book may be called Last Seen, but this may not be the last we see of these characters.