Daria McGowan is an archaeologist who has been traveling all over the world on digs for many years. While on an expedition in Iran, Daria receives a fax from Howe University in Pennsylvania that they want to showcase her great-grandfather's artifacts in their museum. The artifacts were recovered a century ago and are the only remains from a lost colony called Shandihar.

Daria returns to the US to work on getting the showcase together for an exhibit. While going through the inventory of artifacts, she realizes there are pieces missing. Daria calls FBI agent Connor Shields to investigate the case. She met Connor two years ago on a blind date. He rushes to her rescue and works with her to help recover the missing artifacts.

While searching for the missing pieces, the case becomes more complicated when Daria and Connor find a trail of murders that link to the missing artifacts. Who knows about Shandihar and would kill to own these rare artifacts? During the case, Daria and Connor get to know each other better and start to develop feelings. Will they recover the artifacts or will they become another casualty in a murder's quest to get their hands on the priceless pieces?

The murderer is making it look like these murders are ritualistic and in retaliation for their homeland artifacts being taken from them. The suspect list grows as the story progresses. No one can be trusted and the artifacts must be guarded by high security. Is the murderer someone on the inside or a stranger unknown to them? Will they continue their murdering spree undetected by the FBI and police?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading LAST BREATH. It was fascinating, captivating, and intriguing from the first page to the last. I found all the archeology facts to be well researched and intelligently written. The romance between Daria and Connor was a small part of the book, with the quest to find the artifacts being the main storyline. I was pleasantly surprised by the ending and that makes this a well crafted novel. This was my first experience with a book by Mariah Stewart and I will definitely read her previous books.