The Last Witness (Badge of Honor Book 11)

I’m finding the series a little harder to stick with. Early on, it spread itself over Matt Payne’s rookie cop experiences, his clash with his rich family and friends over his job, the lives and careers of other characters like Peter Wohl, Dave Pekach, and Charlie McFadden and the crimes themselves.Now, a lot of the supporting cast has fallen away. Payne is engaged to Amanda Law and there are tensions over his professional preoccupations - Griffin can still insert some of his patented male stream-of-consciousness as Payne wonders if he’s stepped in it with his lovely fiance - but there’s less personal soap opera to leaven the hard crime aspects. Griffin’s series have succeeded with his male-ensemble approach to storytelling, but now it’s all about just one, Payne.The crimes are getting harder and there’s more of it. With the series rebooting forward a quarter century, Philadelphia is mired in seemingly permanent urban dysfunction.I had trouble keeping up with the complex web of criminals: urban thugs, street scum, illegal immigrants, drug cartels, Russian gangsters and businessmen, crooked politicians, unscrupulous developers, all gaming and double-crossing each other. (It makes the reader long for the comparatively simple days of the earlier series, where the mob, street criminals and the occasional psycho or crooked cop were the primary obstacles to a fair city’s peace and happiness.Some story lines are being developed over three or more stories, and left unresolved at various books’ ends. I had trouble following a complicated shootout at the end of this one - who was impersonating whom and who shot whom.The action centers on the killing of a teenage prostitute as she hides at her shelter manager’s house. The shelter manager, naturally, is a young woman from Payne’s social circles - in this case, a friend of Amanda’s.The shelter manager flees when her house is firebombed. That she has some damaging evidence against the murderer becomes clear. What remains unclear is why she has a bug out bag ready, what happened to two other missing social workers and how she thinks ransoming damaging evidence back to the perp will get her out of her jam.

People it is time to understand that these are not W. E. B. B. Griffin books but are William E Butterworth IV books. Griffin always wrote with broad strokes, frequently getting historical facts previously stated about his characters wrong, which has endlessly been discussed in the review pages here, but simultaneously having multiple lead characters whose lives interact throughout the story (Craig Lowell and Mac, Ken McCoy and Malcolm and Pick Pickering, Clete Frade and Peter von Wachstein). These central characters had a group of people who surrounded them who added immensely to the story. There was also the introduction of characters previously unknown whose intertwining into the story took up much of the novel - Charlie Galloway and The Easterbunny prime examples from The Corps novels, who thereafter mostly disappear. (The Lieutenant investigating the car theft ring in the Badge of Honor another example). There was usually some type of crisis (personality clash) of the higher ups that usually led to a big summit meeting which ended with everybody getting their point across and the goal maintained. Although an imperfect model this is in many ways a "Hill Street Blues" type of story telling. And it has all disappeared.These are now simple police procedural novels with the author using Matt's private life simply for setting a mood. No Brewster Payne pulling stings quietly in the background. No Patricia Payne reaching out to Denny Coughlin. Amy is mentioned but just in passing. No recounting (or acknowledging) the deep ties that bind these people. Peter Wohl has completely disappeared. There is only one character that matters, Matt Payne. Jason Washington and Tony Harris make appearances but are given nothing to do. The rest of Matt's supporting cast has been forgotten. No new characters other than the victims. The summit conference is a mere formality with the only thing discussed is "where is Payne?" Nothing extraneous comes in. No big crisis whose origin had been explained from each participant's viewpoint to resolve. Think the first half of a "Law & Order." (On the other hand there are not the infuriating historical mistakes although the statement that Mickey's mentor, The Bull, is black may require some review.Griffin had a legion of fans (me included). He seems to have maintained a higher degree of involvement with his Honor Bound series (with one exception) and to some degree with his Presidential Agent series. But I am much afraid that we have seen the last of the classic Griffin. Will keep reading to see what happens to Matt but the days of counting the days are probably over.

Add a written reviewI don't wanna

I read books 1-9 in this series & found them to be well written with great plots & characters with some humor intertwined - hard to put the books down once I started reading them - I looked forward to reading the next book to follow the characters & see what would happen to them - them boom - book 10 disappointed with Matt Payne being almost solely featured along with a disappointing plot but I figured the author Web Griffin had a "bad hair day" - I just finished book 11 and to me it was even more disappointing than book 10 - book 11 mostly featured Matt Payne with another almost boring disjointed story line - since books 1-9 were so terrific I am giving Griffin one more chance & bought book 12 but if this book stinks like 10 & 11 did I am done

I made a really stupid mistake. The book started very very slow, but my evaluation was based on bad information. I was reading an e-book--a fine one--but it did a skip ahead and I lost part of the story at some point then picked it up when it finished really fine. I feel pretty stupid for writing it was a dud because it was not. I am glad I discovered the "lost" section of "Lost Witness". I believe I will leave the critiques to someone a little more qualified--at least in reading an e-book.I recommend the book with only the qualifier that it started a bit slow for me. The finish was dynamite!My face is red.

Not as suspenseful as other Griffin books. I think this one was written by the son. He does not have the ability to keep you going from place to place without truly getting your bearings. Still a good read for seasoned fans. I met W.E.B. Griffin in person as a Marine when he brought out the Corps Series and I have read everything he has written. A measured style of writing but he still spins a great yarn.

In have read all the early Griffin Books, and all the Mash he collaborated on before. I have not been so happy with this later collaborated novels. This one started off well, but finished very quickly leaving several issues, to me, unanswered. It was almost as if he got bored and wished to get it to the publishers. I believe that the original books which he wrote alone were of a much higher standard than those coming from "his" pen now. I was particularly incensed when he took the factual British story of "The man who never was" and ascribed it to his American OSS heroes.

I have been a fan of Mr Griffin for many years and look forward to his Badge of Honour series when they come out, but unfortunately I must agree with the other reviews, the book lacks his usual sparkle. I fact I was quite disappointed that the wait wasn't worth it.

This series has gone off the boil. Maybe it is just a one off.

very good

Not enough plot as it was very obvious what was likely to happen. The series now seems to be drifting along