She Treads Softly: The Last One

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

The Last One

The Last One by Will Dean
8/8/23; 448 pages
Atria/Emily Bestler Books

The Last One by Will Dean is a very highly recommended locked-room psychological thriller.

Caz Ripley is taking a luxury cruise liner RMS Atlantica with her boyfriend Pete. After an enjoyable first evening, Caz wakes up the next morning and Pete is gone. Upon stepping into the corridor and looking around, she discovers no passengers or crew. She appears to be alone on the empty vessel which is on autopilot heading into the mid-Atlantic and she is unable to radio for help.

The Last One was an un-put-down-able, heart-stopping thriller and twisty take on a locked-room mystery. The details of events on the Atlantica are perfectly presented and utterly frightening. Admittedly, you have to set all disbelief aside and roll with the intense plot, but the great news is that the plot is well-written, compelling, frightening, and suspenseful enough to make this very easy to do.

Readers will have all sorts of theories and some clues while reading but won't really know what is going on until the end. I was absolutely glued to the pages. The Last One was the best novel to follow my last excellent review book and hold my rapt attention. I don't want to share much more to avoid spoilers, but read this book!

I loved The Last One as much as I loved First Born. Will Dean is now on my list of authors to automatically read any of his new novels.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Atria via Edelweiss.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.