Fatal Finale is Nancy Mehl’s chilling finale to her beloved The Erin Delaney Mysteries series. Erin thinks the worst of life is finally behind her as she looks forward to getting back into the world. But the greatest trial is still before her when her best friend is kidnapped, and Erin is given only six days to find her.
Main Themes
Erin is thrilled that her best selling book is being turned into a movie. When she is invited to fly out to California to spend some time on the movie set, she invites her best friend, Kaely, to join her. But someone has been watching Kaely for awhile, and as soon as her plane lands, she disappears. Erin receives a mystery call telling her that she has six days to solve a set of clues and find her friend before it’s too late.
Panic sets in as Erin is forced to solve the mystery without being able to rely on Kaely’s uncanny profiling skills to give her the competitive edge over the would-be murderer. Her faith is still new, but she finds herself relying more and more on God to keep her calm and focused on solving the clues.
There are main themes of salvation, friendship, forgiveness, and not letting grudges fester.
Favorite Scenes
I enjoyed the profiling scenes, when the characters rely on gut instincts to make clever assumptions about the person they’re dealing with and how to either reason with them or outsmart them. If I ever had a career change and decided to join law enforcement, I would totally want that job.
Faith Elements
The lines between the spiritual world and the physical world are very blurred in this novel. Most of the ‘scary suspense’ elements come from intense hallucinations, some of which were fine and others of which were a little weird. The characters also cling to Psalm 91:14-16 as a literal promise that Kaely will live a long life and will not be harmed by the kidnapper, but I think Christians should be cautious about claiming general promises as specific promises. God does not promise every person a long life on earth, although he does promise eternal life to those who believe and trust in him. Not all of the faith elements blended seamlessly into the novel.
Family Friendly Considerations
Other than the spiritual elements mentioned above, the violence was clean and Fatal Finale was less intense (at least, in my opinion) than Dark Design. It’s a great novel for adults who can read through these elements with wisdom and discernment.
Interested in Similar Reads?
If you enjoy suspense where characters work through demons from their past, you might enjoy these novels as well:
- Twilight Tactics by Lynette Eason
- When the Silence Breaks by Elizabeth Goddard
- Riptide by Chad Robichaux, with Jack Stewart
- Soulless by Jonah Baird
