by Will Dean
SYNOPSIS
Caz Ripley, a cafe owner from a small, ordinary town, boards the RMS Atlantica with her boyfriend Pete and a thousand fellow passengers destined for New York. The next morning, she wakes to discover that everyone else on board has disappeared. And that's just the beginning. Caz must prepare for a crossing that will be anything but plain sailing...
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With the drama of The Woman in Cabin 10 and the tension of And Then There Were None , The Last Passenger is a psychological thriller set aboard a cruise ship about a woman whose seemingly ordinary life is suddenly thrown dramatically off course. Will Dean is The Master of Intense Suspense and this novel is full of his trademark twists and turns.
REVIEW
As Caz embarks on a well-earned and long-awaited cruise with her partner Pete, her only concern is that her sister will be able to cope with running their small cafe and looking after their elderly mother in her absence. After an enjoyable first night of good food and exploring the RMS Atlantica, Caz wakes up alone. Thinking that Pete must have already headed out for breakfast she leaves their room to look for him and it slowly dawns on her that it isn't just Pete missing from the ship - it's everyone. As terrifying as this is for Caz, it's only the beginning of the living nightmare to come.
I was up until at least 3am finishing The Last Passenger. Once I had been introduced to Caz and her horrific situation there was simply no way I was leaving her, and it has instantly claimed a spot in my top reads of 2023.
I was already a big fan of Will Dean's other novels but the brilliant thing about this book was that it was so unexpected. I read the blurb and had a few ideas in my head of where the story might be going but I never imagined it taking the direction that was eventually revealed. For me, the moral behind the story really shone through. There was a strong and important message about the affect of certain aspects of modern culture (which I won't go into too much detail about to avoid spoilers) and it brought up so many questions that need to be discussed both within the story and on a much wider scale. At the same time, I think that it could be interpreted in so many different ways which will make the story unique to each individual reader.
To bring things back to the book - The Last Passenger was the absolute definition of an unputdownable thriller. The chapters were punchy, always leaving a cliffhanger or hint about what was still to come which made it impossible to stop reading. The characters were intriguing and even though I can't say they were all likeable, I was certainly invested and rooting for them to overcome the obstacles they faced onboard. As an added surprise, as well as being a psychological thriller at its core, there were plenty of 'horror' elements or at least some very horrific scenes that have now been deeply ingrained in my mind.
I honestly never though the vast ocean could be so claustrophobic but the whole book was almost suffocating to read. The fact that time was ticking for a variety of reasons just added another alarming layer of tension onto an already stressful situation.
Brilliant, shocking, memorable and providing a heartfelt social commentary - The Last Passenger is an absolute must read for all thriller fans!
Thanks to Hodder Books @hodderbooks and Will Dean @willrdean for the opportunity to read and review.
Genre: Thriller / Psychological Thriller
Publisher: Hodder Books
ISBN: 978-1529382822
Pages: 496pp
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