The Last One by Will Dean Book Review

About the Book:

When Caz steps onboard the exclusive cruise liner RMS Atlantica, it’s the start of a vacation of a lifetime with her new love, Pete. On their first night they explore the ship, eat, dance, make friends, but when Caz wakes the next morning, Pete is missing.

And when she walks out into the corridor, all the cabin doors are open. To her horror, she soon realizes that the ship is completely empty. No passengers, no crew, nobody but her. The Atlantica is steaming into the mid-Atlantic and Caz is the only person on board. But that’s just the beginning of the terrifying journey she finds herself trapped on in this white knuckle mystery.

My Review:

The plot is pretty much a locked room one with a multi-million dollar twist. I felt it got off to a really slow start with nothing happening that really interested me until about a third of the way in. Then the pace was hap hazard, slow then an exciting bit, then slow. For me to appreciate fiction in general and a thriller specifically, it must be believable. I did not find the situation in this novel believable at all. The logistics and the cost are both real barriers to the plot being believable.

Dean is certainly imaginative in his writing. I do feel the book could have easily been shorter, leaving out many of Caz's memories of her father, for example. I found the characters to be strange, almost caricatures. I didn't like any of them.

This would be a novel better appreciated by those who like reality shows, which I do not.

My rating: 3/5 stars.

This is the second novel I have read by Dean. You can read my review of the first book of Dean's I read, First Born.

About the Author:

Will Dean, author of The Last Thing to Burn which was shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, grew up in the East Midlands of the United Kingdom. After studying law at the London School of Economics and working in London, he settled in rural Sweden where he built a wooden house in a vast 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 on ITV, shortlisted for the National Book Award (UK), The Guardian’s Not the Booker prize, and was named a Telegraph book of the year. Photograph by Will Dean.

Simon & Schuster, 448 pages.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the Publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

(My star ratings: 5-I love it, 4-I like it, 3-It's OK, 2-I don't like it, 1-I hate it.)