The Last Flight by Julie Clark Review

Title: The Last Flight 

Author: Julie Clark 

Age Group: Adult 

Genre: Mystery/Thriller 

Series: Standalone 

Star Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars 

I won a free copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads program—thank you so much to Goodreads, Julie Clark, and Sourcebooks Landmark! 

The Last Flight has been sitting on my massive TBR pile for a month or so now; I received it as a prize in a Goodreads giveaway, and I decided to swap it with a friend. Because of that, I bumped it to the top of my list as soon as I was finished with The New Husband. The Last Flight is a compelling, twisted mystery with terrifying secrets at its center. If I had to sum it up, I’d say it’s like Breaking Bad meets a domestic thriller, but to sum it up that way would be to do the whole book a major disservice. The Last Flight asks an intriguing question: If you could leave and start a brand-new life, would you? Even if it meant leaving everything behind? 

Two women. Two separate flights. One chance to escape their pasts. Claire Cook’s life looks perfect to an outsider. A perfect marriage to a wealthy, handsome senator, a charmed life of charity dinners and philanthropic events. But dark secrets hide within the Cook home, and her husband, Rory, will do anything to make sure that they don’t come to light. Enter a mysterious woman named Eva, who presents her with an irresistible offer: to switch flights, with Claire going to Oakland, California, and Eva returning to New York. At the last minute, Claire decides to trust this mysterious stranger and make herself at home within a new life. But it turns out that Eva has her own demons to run from. Desperate for a fresh start, she disappears into Claire’s charmed life, only to find that it’s not so charmed after all... 

This book was such a breath of fresh air! Mysteries and thrillers make me nervous as a whole; I can often guess the ending before I get halfway through. But that wasn’t the case with The Last Flight! I had no idea what to expect when I started it; this is the first book I’ve ever read by Clark. This book was told in a series of flashbacks, and the pacing was breakneck. I gobbled this book up in less than three days, breathless. In fact, there were times that I had to walk away from it, just to make it last a bit longer. I loved the premise of it: two women at a crossroads of a lifetime, and the reckless decision to switch flights, and in doing so, their own lives. I’ve always harbored a secret longing to pack up my stuff and start over in a place where no one knows me, and The Last Flight took that to the ultimate extreme. Both Eva and Claire were desperate for an escape from their lives, and for them both, that escape turns deadly. I loved this book; the pacing was breakneck, and I loved the way that the author used flashbacks to flesh out the women's pasts. I also loved the sense of dread and suspense that coated every word, all the way up to the shocking, jaw-dropping ending! The bottom line: A gorgeously dreadful mystery thriller, I loved The Last Flight! Next on deck: Lobizona by Romina Garber!