Sherlock, but she’s a crotchety elderly woman dragging around a himbo Watson? Sign me up. That is the premise of The Last Vigilant by Mark A. Latham. A debut book and the first in a trilogy, The Last Vigilant is a mystery fantasy that harkens back to the golden age of sword and sorcery. Calling it a Sherlock adaptation is a massive oversimplification, but it is the story of an extremely smart and observant Vigilant who is brought in to solve a crime and her clever but out-of-his-depth guard.
Speaking of our himbo assistant, Sergeant Holt Hawley is a man with a lot of demons. Working in the army with many individuals above his cast, he is subject to non-stop discrimination and occasional attempted murder. He is sent on an impossible quest: find the last Vigilant. They are a rumored last survivor of an ancient order capable of performing acts of detective magic, and they’ve been lost to the world for decades. No one truly expects Hawley to succeed. But succeed he does, dragging this poor crone out of her retirement and onto a political stage where Nell and Hawley must navigate intrigue and peril to solve a mystery around kidnapped children.
The Last Vigilant is a complicated book to review, as I think it has both clear strengths and weaknesses. I am fully here for Nell. A grumpy old woman who is smarter than everyone else coming down off her mountain and making pompous asses look like idiots is right up my alley. Nell is a delight to observe, and her continuous page presence did a lot to make this mystery fun and interesting. Hawley, on the other hand, is fine. His character identity is interesting, and I enjoy his personality, but his complicated role within the army and world is confusing and underdeveloped, and it was hard to empathize with his experience in the story because of how messy its execution was.
Despite Hawley being underdeveloped, the book’s real sin is how it often treats the reader. The Last Vigilant overexplains things to a painful degree, to the point where it felt like Latham thought I was illiterate. Character motivations, reveal implications, and general lore dumping were outrageously over-explained. It pulled me out of the story in multiple instances, which is a shame because I was pretty invested in the mystery.
The narrative is well-paced, and the suspects are enticing. Nell and Hawley’s progress around the world felt like a perfect marrying of my favorite golden age fantasies and classic mystery novels. This was achieved through the creation of a captivating political theater, a large cast of possible suspects, and a generally chaotic investigation by our protagonists. Despite having multiple issues in how the information was presented to me, I did actually have a lot of fun working my way through this mystery with the interesting cast.
The result is a very mixed bag experience for The Last Vigilant. I think, ultimately, I do recommend it as I am curious to see where the story goes next and genuinely looking forward to the sequel. I just hope that some of the overexposition is reeled in by the time we get to our next entry in the Kingdom of Oak and Steel series.
Rating: The Last Vigilant – 8.0/10
-Andrew
An ARC of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The thoughts on this book are my own.
On balance, you’ve convinced me to try this, so thank you!