Thank you Ballantine Books #partner, for the finished copy of The Last Ferry Out in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library.
Publisher: Ballantine Books / Random House Audio
Published: May 20, 2025
Summary:
On a trip to the tropical paradise where her fiancée died, a young woman begins to suspect the death was no accident—and the killer’s still on the island—in this twisty thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Reese’s Book Club pick We Were Never Here.
When Abby decided to come to Isla Colel, she wasn’t sure what—if anything—she’d find. She only knew that she needed to see the place where her fiancée, Eszter, died, to try and make sense of everything that happened.
The island is nothing like Abby expected; though it was once a bustling tourist hub, a hurricane a few years earlier left it a shell of its former self, with only a few locals and expats remaining. Even the once-daily ferry to the mainland now only runs every week or so.
There, Abby befriends an alluring group of expats, but her sense of unease surges when one of them says he knows the truth about Eszter’s last days. Before she can see him, though, he vanishes from the island. Hours turn to days with no sign of him, and the other expats are chillingly cavalier about his disappearance.
As her quest for the truth unearths dark secrets, shady pasts, and a web of lies, Abby grows more determined than ever to find out what happened to the love of her life. And the deeper she gets in the close-knit expat community, the more she suspects one of them is Eszter’s killer—and will do anything to keep the truth buried. But will she discover who it is before she becomes the island’s next victim?
My thoughts:
This is the second book I’ve read by Andi Bartz and I am a fan!!! This showed up right before I left for Montreal Mystery Festival and knowing that Andi was going to be there and talking about this book, I immediately put it at the top of my to-read pile and I’m so glad I did…I loved it!
This is such an atmospheric, tense read that straddles the psychological thriller/literary thriller line. I found it to be equal parts creepy and emotional, dealing as much with grief as it does with finding out who you are as a person and how much we really know those we love. I loved that there is an underlying sense of paranoia woven throughout that has you wondering just who can be trusted at all times and as the secrets start to unravel, the tension ramps up. And the setting plays such an integral part of the story, it’s as if it is a character itself, which I loved! There were so many unexpected twists that kept me on edge throughout all the way up to and including the ending!
I loved this one and I loved hearing Andi talk about the book, in conversation with Will Dean and my friend Candice at the festival. It was such a great chat about their books, and how setting really does matter!
Audio thoughts:
This was amazing on audio, with a trio of narrators – Dani Martineck, Imani Jade Powers and Natasha Soudek – bringing the characters to life. Their accents, characterization and pacing all helped to make this book come alive!
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