Last Witness picks up where Retribution left off, after a three year interval where our heroine CJ allows herself to develop a relationship and to believe that she can have something resembling a normal life after the traumatic events that nearly robbed her of her sanity.

It is not meant to be though, as her nemesis William Bantling, who raped her 15 years ago, just refuses to go down quietly, and the actions she took to send him to death row come under question. Professional disgrace is the least of her worries, however as a murderer is on a rampage intent on killing every person connected with Bantling’s conviction, leaving CJ for last.

While Last Witness brings a welcome return of the excellent characters introduced in Hoffman’s debut novel, it does feel very much like a sequel, and a little too much space is devoted to bringing readers who have not read the first book up-to-date with the story. There is a fine balance between making each book in a series stand alone by giving enough information and annoying fans by repeating too much, and Hoffman errs a little on the side of the latter.  This, combined with exhaustive legal explanations which readers of the first book would already have been familiarized with, makes for a lot of slow pages that detract from the story.

That said, however, the book still makes for an enjoyable read and Bantling is further developed into a thoroughly hateful character that is likely to make stern opposers of the death penalty consider making an exception. People familiar with CJ’s plight will be incited to many moments of anger and frustration as some nightmares not only refuse to go away, but are joined by new and freshly disturbing ones.