This book should come with a health warning. I feel as stressed and traumatised as protagonist Caroline at the end! Caroline boards a luxury cruise liner with boyfriend, Pete. They enjoy a relaxed first evening on board but when Caz wakes the next morning everyone is gone and she is storming out to sea alone on the ship.

Fast paced and gripping this certainly was and I read it incredibly fast but it was possibly a little too far fetched for me and some parts I almost skim read as her trauma was so evocative! Definitely well written and gripping but a bit too much for me!

The Last Passenger - Will Dean

Having previously read Will Deans The Last House to Burn and loving it, I was super excited to get my teeth into this book - and wow oh wow what a book! This book is going to stay with me for such a long time, I have already recommended it to so many people, and yes I am that annoying person who cannot stop talking about a book they have loved for months afterwards!

I liked that there weren't too many characters in this story as it really allows you to get to know the ones that you have got, and they were the perfect mixture of personalities and character traits. I loved the twist about a third of the way through and all I am going to say is - that final line in the book....I was not ready for it! An amazing twisty roller coaster of a ride, and I am already looking forward to re-reading it.

Thank you so much Netgalley, Will Dean and Hodder & Stoughton for the e-arc in return for my honest thoughts and opinions.

I don't even know what to say about this book! It's absolutely mad and completely addictive!

Will Dean is an incredible storyteller who creates such eloquent and engrossing books that are full of drama and tension. The Last Passenger is just so dark, so suffocatingly scary. I devoured it and was left literally gasping for breath. I had several WTF moments, and now I'm finished, my head is spanning!

Highly recommend this book! It's incredible!

WOW just wow! I didn't think Will Dean could get any better after Last Thing to Burn, but here we are.
I requested the book because I liked the premise, I thought it was unique, and I was right, this book was tense and thrilling and I highly recommend it,

Can goes on a luxury cruise with her boyfriend. When she wakes up the first morning, she is apparently the only person on board and there's no luxury. Things go downhill from there.
The twists come at you and things turn unexpected.
I really enjoyed this and being strung along thinking one thing, then doing a 180.

Caroline ‘Caz’ Ripley is a 49-year-old cafe owner. Her current partner (although they haven’t been seeing each other that long), Pete, invites her on a holiday: onboard a luxurious ocean liner RMS Atlantica. Their plan is to travel to New York in style and enjoy themselves. Caz is secretly hoping that Pete might even propose to her during their holiday.

During their first day, Caz and Pete mingle with the other people on the ship, they have dinner, relax – do all the things you would do if you were on holiday. However, all that happiness is cut short, when the next day, Caz wakes up and realises that Pete is gone.

In fact, everyone is gone. She is the last passenger on the ship…

Wow! What a page turner that was!! I read this story in two sittings and I even stayed up late to finish it (even though I knew I’d be a walking zombie at work the next day). Let me tell you – it was worth it.

This locked-in thriller is full of suspense, action and it certainly packs a punch. I loved the twist halfway through the book, pretty sure my mouth was wide open! The ending was also sublime. I cannot fault this book. All I can tell you is to read it for yourselves. You will not be disappointed.

Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton for approving my NetGalley request to read and review this title.

As far as i can tell, Will Dean cannot write a good book. From the brilliant Tuva Moodyson series to his standalone thrillers, he has a skill for crafting page turning thrillers with cleverly crafter characters. The Last Passenger is no exception - a mystery to rival Christie with a compelling cast and a truly brilliant ending

Will Dean’s The Last Passenger (Hodder & Stoughton, 9 May 2023) is a bold, wild ride of a story that poses several questions about society and fame, while also providing some decent thrills.

Caz Ripley, a cafe owner from a small, ordinary British 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. As she staggers around the abandoned ship desperately searching for help she comes to realise that this was no accident.

The Last Passenger is a dark tale that takes a sharp satirical look at modern society and culture. I will not reveal more of the plot, as there are quite a few surprises, and a couple of shocks towards the end. There are some slow patches, but for the most part the book proceeds at a rapid pace and Dean certainly knows how to pile on the emotional pressure. Some of the scenes are quite chilling and it is very easy to feel for Caz and her plight.

It does require a reasonable degree of suspension of disbelief, especially the final pages, and I suspect that it is not going to be for everyone. However, if you enjoy clever, concept thrillers with a strong driving narrative and a good dose of moral outrage, then this is for you.

A couple are excited to be on a luxury cruise. They settle down for the night. Next morning Caz wakes, and Pete isn't there. Nor is anyone else! The ship is apparently empty of crew and guests. Thus begins a really gripping story as Caz tries to make sense of what has happened. Its a real psychological thriller, which tears the reader apart with such a range of feelings as the action spirals up and down.

The story itself is really well told and a tense read. It also makes you think and question our own realities. I can't say more without spoilers!

I couldn't put the book down but I didn't want it to end. And the kicker at the end - fab! I'll probably reread it again, just to savour all the details I may have missed when the action was drawing me along.

Thank you to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a creepy dark , unputdownable book! I had no ambitions to ever go on a cruise , after reading this, I can say with certainty , I never will.

Caroline ( Caz) is in her late forties, there is a lot of trauma in her family's past but life is going ok for her. She is in a relatively new relationship with Pete and they are taking the holiday of a lifetime on the ocean liner, RMS Atlantica sailing to New York. Caroline is a bit apprehensive leaving but after they board and explore the ship, Caroline begins to relax. The couple have a nice meal, talk to some other passengers and have a drink before retiring to their cabin for the next night. When Caz wakes the next morning, Pete is not beside her and all he belongings are missing too. Caz leaves the cabin and as she walks along the corridor, she sees the doors to all the other cabins are open and the rooms are empty. The ship that had 1000 passengers on board when she fell asleep the previous night appears to be completely empty. No other passengers, no crew, its just her and the ship is powering full steam ahead through the Atlantic ocean.........

It would hard to add much more detail without giving spoilers so I wont. I was drawn into this immediately and was fairly terrified from a couple of chapters in . I was fully sucked in to this one then the pace would slow again, much like the seas the ship is on, this one ebbs and flows. You absolutely need to suspend belief at several points and I was frustrated with parts of the story as it unfolded but this is a really ambitious thriller and its original. On the whole, it works. Impossible to predict, so many twists and turns and its genuinely scary in parts. I really liked the main character and enjoyed watching her character develop as her journey gets more and more terrifying. At close to 500 pages this is a detailed book that held my interest throughout. Some parts worked better than others for me but it entertained me throughout.

A perfect holiday read once that holiday isn't a cruise.

Caz Ripley embarks on a long awaited holiday with her new partner, Pete. They board the luxury liner, Atlantica and prepare for a fabulous voyage. Caz awakens the next morning to find that she is the only passenger aboard. What lies ahead of her is anything but plain sailing.....

I was so thrilled to be approved for an ARC of this on @netgalley as I adored Will Dean's thriller "The Last Thing to Burn".
"The Last Passenger" is fast paced and gripping. You must suspend disbelief in order to enjoy this book but it is a great thriller. The only thing that let it down for me was the ending........really??? Really??

3.5 stars from me (Rounded up to 4 on @goodreads and @netgalley)

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Thanks to @netgalley @hodderstoughton for the advanced copy of "The Last Passenger". Available now.

🚢THE LAST PASSENGER🚢

📒E-BOOK📒

⭐️⭐️⭐️(3 Star Read)

Publish Date: 11th May 2023

. This book is the ultimate escape room on a cruise ship
. It’s very eerie and the descriptions support this vibe throughout
. I enjoyed Caz as a character and liked how parts of her life were linked to her experiences on the ship and we got to know her a little more however this didn’t happen as much for the other characters and I couldn’t take to them as much
. I’m not going to sit here and say I absolutely loved this book because I didn’t but I finished it so that must mean something… it did keep me going as I wanted to know what happened in the end up
. Parts of this book were totally far fetched and that is really a pet hate of mine in a book
. The ending didn’t really feel finished for me which was a shame (unless there’s another one pending…)
. I’ve never read anything by Will Dean before so thank you to NetGalley for a digits copy of ‘The Last Passenger’ in return for an honest review!
. It’s safe to say I won’t be stepping foot on a cruise ship anytime soon!!!

Best known for his Tuva Moodyson Series, Will also does particularly fast-paced standalones, of which, this is his third after ‘Last Thing to Burn’ and ‘First Born’. But ‘The Last Passenger’ is a completely different kettle of fish in some ways.

Don’t be fooled by the short, sharp synopsis for this book – everything changes course for lead character Caz after about 30 pages. And the story continues to change direction at a rate of knots throughout its 486 page voyage as it gets into somewhat deeper, darker and murkier waters.

Despite its length I cruised through this novel in a few days and chances are you will too – because Will has delivered yet another page turner with practically more cliffhangers than you can shake a nautical stick at.

Without giving too much away ‘The Last Passenger’ will also make you think about whether society in general has crossed the line. Or is about to in the near future. All in all, the novel plays out like a classic extended Twilight Zone episode (or for the younger ones – Black Mirror) right down to the very… last… sentence.

So, if you’re looking for a twisty tale where everything isn’t quite what it seems then you definitely need to be swayed into picking this up. Just get your sea legs ready.

I'm switching to bullet points for this review because I have a lot of FEELINGS!

So the idea I thought we were getting was really interesting
How would YOU survive alone on a huge cruise ship?
(I've never been on one but the author does a really good job conveying the size of this ship, well done Mr Dean)
That's not the story we got though
Caz does think she's alone but that doesn't last long
There were some good Passengers vibes for about a chapter and a half though
Things got darker at a good pace
I didn't feel like we were jolted or jarred
But there were a few red herrings
(Here come some of those spoilers)
They made such a big deal out of the box, and then - nothing
We kept getting hints about Caz and Smith's deep dark history, and nothing happened there either
It just seemed like a lot of work for not much result
It's a very intense read though
I definitely understood Caz's disorientation at the end
I was pretty disoriented myself
But then the ending
Oh god the ending
My recommendation
Buy the book
Read the book
Stop on the third sentence of page 482
(Assuming my proof's pagination is accurate)
Don't read any further
Then you'll be happy
Just like me!

Will Dean is always an auto-buy for me and his Tuva books are up there with my favourite books read so far! However I didn’t love this one.

It was certainly twisty and creepy, the premise is great and I’m certain it will stay with me for a long time. But I almost found it too eerie… the idea of being stranded in the middle of the ocean in a Big Brother-esque situation apparently is now one of my worst nightmares!

Wow. This is a twisting and turning thriller that keeps you guessing throughout.

This is one of my favourite books of the year so far. Just when you think you have things figured out you are served another twist or turn.

Unfortunately I did guess the twist which knocked my feedback down a couple of decimal points but that is a me problem as I often guess twists.

If you love a good twisty thriller then do yourself a favour and read this!

Caz and her new partner Pete take a trip of a lifetime on board the Atlantica ocean liner and despite Caz's fear of being on the water things are going well to begin with, until she wakes up to find Pete has gone, along with the rest of the passengers and crew. Vanished. Life boats are still unused, beds are made, luggage gone and the boat is on auto pilot.

Soon Caz learns she isn't alone, but will maybe come to wish she were....

This is a nail biting twisty thriller. The short chapters lure you in to reading just one more, and before you know it you're 50 pages further into the mystery!

The novel has a story line that is unique. I thought it a modern take on the mystery of the Mary Celeste - but as the story progresses it becomes ever more strange. The questions that are posed seem fantastical or implausible and the true situation is revealed slowly as secrets are peeled away like layers of an onion. As the truth seems to become apparent there are further unexpected twists providing what was all in all a good read

My thoughts about Will Dean’s The Last Passenger is one of the best books I’ve read so far this year. Its one of those books that leaves you thinking of it, even days later. With the right amount of suspense, an amazing plot, and wonderful characters, The Last Passenger brings a well written story, character-driven thriller book that makes it truly interesting and highly recommendable. Will Dean’s The Last Passenger is a nail-biting, suspenseful thriller, chock-full of twists and turns. Every time I thought I had it figured out, it whisked me off in a new direction and it had me in its clutches right until the very end. Will Dean’s The Last Passenger tells the story of When Caz Ripley steps onboard the RMS Atlantica with her boyfriend Pete, it’s the start of the holiday of a lifetime. Caz is a homebird, a café owner slowly repaying a debt run up by her father when Caz and her sister were still children. Despite the fact that this week-long cruise from Southampton to New York is only her thirteenth date with Pete Davenport, she already feels that they might have something special; and when she discovers that he has sprung for the Platinum cabin, she starts to think that younger sister Gemma might be right: maybe this is an elaborate setting to pop the question. When a proposed trip to the ship’s casino forces Caz to reveal family secrets sooner than she planned, the pair end up having a quiet evening and an early night. When Caz wakes the following morning, Pete is gone. So, too, she quickly discovers, are all the other passengers. And the crew. RMS Atlantica is travelling full steam ahead across the Atlantic with nobody at the helm, and no-one else, seemingly, onboard, except for Caz Ripley. If you haven’t read any Will Dean’s thrillers yet, I strongly recommend this book. Writer Will Dean deserve an applause for writting a nail biting plot which makes the readers to sit in the edge of the seat. If you think you see where Will Dean’s book is going, trust me you don’t. I was felt shocked, I gasped, it was truly so well done that I will still be thinking about it for days to come. It’s a great mystery with so many twists and a shocking end you will not see coming. I would like to say a big thank you to writer Will Dean and publishers Hodder books publishers for kindly sending me a gifted copy for me to read and review this book which I’ve enjoyed reading on NetGalley. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💥💥💥💥💥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

This is a gripping roller-coaster ride on the high seas. When Caz nervously goes on a cruise with her boyfriend Pete, she does not expect to lose him. She does not expect to be alone on a liner that should have thousands on it. Instead, when she walks out of her room in the morning she finds no one, no noise, no hustle or bustle, no idea as to what has happened.

There are some things that I would love to mention but can't as it would mean spoiling it for those of you who have not read the book. The story does centre around Caz and the author fleshes her story out by adding details from her home life and her upbringing. It is something that becomes important later in the book and so as the author tells us the details he is giving her purpose and defining who she is as a person.

The suspense that builds up in this story is fabulous, tension and subtle drama as well as more dramatic scenes are all blended wonderfully to keep me hooked. It is a mystery that combines thriller and suspense and I think to some extent there is some horror but that depends on how you would personally feel about being on a huge ship by yourself. What sounds great is far from it when the author has put his twist on this scenario.

This is an action and adventure story as Caz is trying to survive in bizarre and changing circumstances. The mystery of the story is one that I didn't expect, I did have a few theories but nothing close to the author's vision. The trail he laid was exciting and one that had me hooked, it kept me turning the pages and I needed to know what was going to happen and how things were going to end.

Ideal for those who like a locked room-style mystery thriller. Tense and atmospheric, dangerous and full of action. Fabulous story and one I would definitely recommend.