Five of five stars
In the opening scenes of One Last Move, we meet Snowden’s main character, Larry Rosewood. We get an inking of his profession, and the circumstances that are about to change the trajectory of his life.
In the first chapters, Rosewood loses his best friend and business partner. Losing him again in the discovery of what the last years of his life had become – totally not the man Larry thought of as a brother. In making sense of those first discoveries, Larry continues to uncover more of his partner’s deceptions. He finds their business enmeshed in scandal and on the brink of bankruptcy. It’s up to Rosewood to get to the bottom of what befell Ted before whatever it is ruins everything.
Snowden weaves the various threads of Ted’s deceit and Larry’s efforts to right a rapidly sinking ship with skill. It took some time before I could see the clues that had been left and how they all led back to what ultimately would make or break the story.
One Last Move pulls heavily on the metaphor of a chess game and does it masterfully. At several points, Larry equates what he’s up against as his opponent having more than one king on the board. And he’s not far wrong. Not your average suspense story where you find out the villain only in the last pages, Snowden allows you to see what and who his protagonist is up against early on. The mystery is in who will come out of it all the victor.
There are a good few poignant, intriguing threads to One Last Move, Snowden weaves the narration with interesting facts and tidbits of real life circumstances. With the surprising addition of thought provoking questions that face many of us in real time, the author challenges you to think while at the same time enjoying the respite he offers with his fiction. This is a story that will stay with you for a long time. I highly recommend it!
[I was fortunate enough to be contracted to edit this book preparatory to it going to print. I am reviewing it entirely of my own volition; the opinions expressed herein are mine.]
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