Veteran writer, producer and showrunner Scott Shepherd has set this brilliant mystery/thriller during Christmastime and spread the action across the U.S. and Great Britain. This helps make THE LAST COMMANDMENT one of the best novels of its kind that I have read so far this year.

The book begins with the brutal murder of Billy Street, the lead singer of the British band The Blasphemers, after one of their small house shows. With Metropolitan Police Commander Austin Grant just months away from a self-imposed retirement, he is not prepared for such violence so close to Christmas. Little does he realize that this is just the first in a series of murders that not only will terrorize London and New York City, but somehow will be connected to himself.

"[THE LAST COMMANDMENT] called to mind Thomas Harris’ earlier work --- a serial killer novel with just the right amount of intensity, suspense and a clever murderer who always seems to be one step ahead of everybody else."

The next murder is of a visiting Oxford Professor of Greek Mythology who was found marked with a bloody line slashed across his forehead to accompany the gash that opened his throat. Grant commiserates with his highly intelligent younger brother, Everett, who suggests that these killings are following the pattern of the Ten Commandments. It turns out that the marks left on each body represent the Roman numeral associated with the respective Commandment.

To further disrupt the last months of his job, Grant is contacted by NYPD Detective John Frankel. The body of a priest has turned up at St. Patrick’s Cathedral with the same deadly MO. Of course, this means that a trip to the Big Apple is in order for Grant. He is happy to do this because his only child, Rachel, lives and works there, having relocated after losing touch with him following the death of her mother from cancer the previous year. Grant teams up with Frankel, and they believe that the Commandment Killer’s next target is Timothy Leeds, who had murdered his parents and has just been released.

By the time they find Leeds, he is dead with the Roman numeral “V” carved into his forehead. This occurred shortly after Leeds was to meet a British journalist for an interview. In addition to this reporter, Grant has his eyes on Prior Silver, an ex-killer who had a grudge against Leeds and had found religion at the time he was released from prison. Could either man be the Commandment Killer? Is there any significance to these murders taking place during the holiday season?

Meanwhile, Grant is reconciling slowly with Rachel, who is beginning to fall for Frankel. This certainly will make for an interesting holiday gathering when all three fly across the pond to London in pursuit of Silver, who had been seen jetting out of JFK. One of Grant’s protégés had the bad luck of finding a double homicide at a home where the bodies were posed in some sort of tableau on a bed. Just as he was trying to figure out the symbolism, he realized that the assailant was still in the room with him, and he ended up being collateral damage in this deadly case. Grant now knows that this is personal and vows to bring the killer of his friend and colleague to justice.

Even though I figured this one out fairly early on, it did not take away from the pure enjoyment of reading THE LAST COMMANDMENT. It called to mind Thomas Harris’ earlier work --- a serial killer novel with just the right amount of intensity, suspense and a clever murderer who always seems to be one step ahead of everybody else.