About the book

About Last I Saw Him: An Amoret Novel

"Arthur Herbert not only highlights the stunning natural beauty of the Texas Big Bend's desolate landscape, but also plumbs the complex depths of the hearts of those who call it home. With relentless plot twists, memorable characters, and a lot to say about the oddities of creative genius, Last I Saw Him is a novel as enticing and intoxicating as a tequila sunrise." -William Kent Kreuger, NYT Best Selling Author The award-winning author of The Bones of Amoret returns with an atmospheric locked room mystery that immerses readers in the sprawling, lawless deserts along the Texas-Mexico border. Abby Huxford’s business card says she’s a young literary agent at a boutique New York agency, but she jokes it ought to say “Professional Babysitter” given the energy she expends on wunderkind author Rulo Gatlin, an alcoholic prodigy with a generational voice. When Rulo’s second novel is short-listed for the Pulitzer, Abby arranges a secluded writing retreat for the self-taught genius in the desert outside the Texas border town of Amoret. There the tortured savant hunkers down in a primitive cabin to craft his highly anticipated third novel with a battered manual typewriter and his demons. On the day she’s scheduled to pick up the completed manuscript, Abby arrives at the cabin only to find it locked from inside. Forced to break in, her shadow falls on Rulo’s corpse, dangling from a noose as he looks down in death at the finished pages of the third book. But all is not as it seems. Alongside Sheriff Lloyd McHenry, Abby’s search to discover the truth behind Rulo’s last days leads to a darker place than she could have imagined as pulling at loose threads unravels a shroud over one of the town’s ugliest secrets: a real-life murder mystery. With vivid characters and masterful plotting, Herbert’s twist-filled whodunnit will keep you guessing to the very last page.

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