I’m thrilled to welcome you today to my publication day stop on the blog tour for excellent standalone thriller The Last Passenger by Will Dean. Thank you to Alainna from Hodder & Stoughton for giving me the opportunity to read and review this wonderful book.
About the book:
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 …
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.
About the author:
WILL DEAN grew up in the East Midlands and had lived in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying Law at the LSE and working in London, he settled in rural Sweden where he built a house in a boggy clearing at the centre of a vast elk forest, and it’s from this base that he compulsively reads and writes.
His debut novel, Dark Pines, was selected for Zoe Ball’s Book Club, shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize and named a Daily Telegraph Book of the Year. The second Tuva Moodyson mystery, Red Snow, was published in January 2019 and won Best Independent Voice at the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards, 2019. The Last Thing to Burn was released to widespread acclaim in January 2021. First Born was published in 2022 and The Last Passenger is published on May 11th 2023.
My Review:
The Last Passenger by Will Dean is a fantastic, edge of your seat read that had me gripped from beginning to end. Very different to his Tuva Moodyson series of books, this is a standalone thriller that slowly increases the tension as the story progresses. With twists, turns, shocks and surprises that I did not see coming, this is a psychological thriller that had my heart racing, desperate to find out what was going to happen next.
Cafe owner Caz Ripley boards the RMS Atlantica with her boyfriend Pete, hoping for a relaxing journey across the ocean to New York. But, after a lovely first evening aboard the ship, she wakes the next morning to find that everyone, including Pete, has disappeared. The doors to the cabins have been wedged open and the ship is empty, with passengers and crew nowhere to be seen. Searching the ship for signs of life, Caz comes across three more passengers, all as distressed as she is and unsure of what to do next. As the ship continues to steam across the ocean, the four passengers soon find themselves in a desperate fight for survival. With Will Dean’s trademark twists and turns, the story steadily gathers pace as it races towards a denouement that is as shocking as it is thrilling.
Will Dean’s writing is as mesmerising as always, the tension ratcheting up to almost breaking point as Caz finds herself embarking on a journey that is anything but plain sailing. What has happened to Pete and a thousand other passengers? And will she ever set foot on dry land again?
I don’t want to say too much more about the plot as to do so would take away from the impact of simply experiencing it for yourself. But I can say with complete honesty that The Last Passenger is a tense and unpredictable story that will keep you guessing throughout. And I loved it!
As someone who is about to go on my first cruise, leaving from Southampton just as the RMS Atlantica did, I wasn’t sure if reading The Last Passenger just days before I go would be the wisest thing to do. I had originally planned on taking it with me to read on board, but when the opportunity arose to join the blog tour, I knew I had to bite the bullet and go for it. And I’m so glad I did!
The Last Passenger is an intense and at times dark and creepy read, but it’s so beautifully written, the story slowly unfolding as the truth begins to emerge. The claustrophobic atmosphere of the deserted ship made me shiver as I put myself in Caz’s shoes, imagining what it would feel like to wake up and find myself all alone…
A tense and gripping psychological thriller, The Last Passenger is a fascinating, atmospheric and thought provoking tale that I thoroughly enjoyed from beginning to end. Will Dean’s writing gets better and better with each book and I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us next!
Highly recommended.
Now back to packing my bags ready for my own adventure on the sea. Hopefully I won’t wake up on the first morning to find myself all alone! 🚢 😱
The Last Passenger by Will Dean is available to purchase now:
Cal Turner Reviews 