Wow! What a book. I couldn’t put it down.
A fast paced wild adventure with more twists and turns than I can count, and an ending you never see coming. Brilliantly written and great characters.
Definitely recommend this one if you like suspenseful , mysterious thrillers.
Thanks to #NetGallery #HodderAndStoughton for an arc of #TheLastPassenger in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first Will Dean and probably won’t be my last, he is certainly the master of twisty, heart stopping thrillers.
Caz is on a trip of a lifetime with her partner, Pete. They are crossing the Atlantic to New York on a spectacular ocean liner.
After the first evening Caz wakes up alone and quickly realises she is the only person on the ship, where has everyone gone?
It’s impossible to say more about the plot without spoiling things, needless to say it’s not what the reader expects and it throws in twists when you least expect them. It’s very clever, and a definite page turner. The characters were difficult to like, though, so I didn’t feel emotionally invested at any point. Once I got to the end I thinks that’s intentional. I’m sure this will be another smash hit for Will Dean.

This is a very difficult book to review without spoilers.

Caz is on a luxury cruise with her boyfriend and a thousand other passengers, she wakes up one morning to find out everyone else on board has disappeared.

Of course, your first question is 'Where is everyone?', apparently an age old Marie Celeste mystery and you want to know the answer. The reveal is somewhat underwhelming and cheating if you expected a more or less believable psychological thriller.

This is my biggest issue, I believe this book is misrepresented as a psychological thriller, and if the reader was more fully informed on the story in advance I would have had no interest in reading it.

I got a third of the way through and put it down, tried again a few weeks later and managed another third. I know this book won't drag me in.

Suspension of disbelief is mentioned in several of the reviews I've read. Without elaborating on why I can't believe in it, I can't say much more.

I know lots of people enjoyed it, but know what you are getting into, the blurb doesn't tell you that, and I'm nor sure how it could without losing the main angle it's currently selling on.

I don't what to put anyone off, but wouldn't want anyone to choose this on my recommendation.

Thanks to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton

This was certainly an absorbing read, I stayed up way too late a couple of nights just to finish a chapter and then one more.

Difficult to describe what happens in the story too much without giving it away. It certainly has cemented my thoughts about never setting foot on a cruise ship!

The ending - arghh! I’ll say no more.

Despite wanting to finish the story, did I enjoy it? Found it frustrating in parts.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for my review.

I have really enjoyed Will Dean's books but I was a bit disappointed with this one. I loved the premise and it had a great start but for me it lost it in the middle. I did love the last third.

Rating - 5 stars without the ending, 4 stars with the ending

𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐑𝐌𝐒 𝐀𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚 – 𝐖𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬 & 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐦 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬!

Well if only! 😆 “Insane” is the first word that comes to mind for this one🤯!

Thanks NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC!

Best to dive in blind!

Review -

Brace yourselves for an extremely immersive and impossible to put down story! This book grips your throat with a strong vice right from start and doesn’t let you breathe easy until the end. Questions upon questions and perplexing conundrums will soon begin to plague your mind.

This nerve wracking thriller employs every single eclectic ingredient - riveting and bone-chilling atmosphere, impossible isolation, characters with troubled pasts, unrelenting tension and most of all - the sucker punching twists and surprises that hit us out of no-where! The plot construction is simply “water-tight” 😉.

Dean’s creativity and imagination run wild as he incorporates a treacherous game of survival into the plot. Blurring reality and illusion - he explores how humans behave when thrown irreversibly out of their comfort zone, starving and pushing their body and mind to absurd limits.

Rest assured that you will be feverishly turning pages late into the night- terrified, anxious, numb with both adrenaline and a strange sort of excitement - unable to bear all the unknowns with every passing second.

Apart from the grand twist of the finale which sort of invalidates the whole experience, I thoroughly enjoyed this pinnacle of unimaginable craziness. Hold on to your jaw, as it might drop off to the floor- more often than you can endure!

This is probably the most annoying book I have ever read.
Whenever I thought I knew the direction it was taking, it changed and the goalposts moved.
Whenever I thought the plot was slowing down, another explosive event happened.
I was compelled to finish this book, but then the last sentence sent me in another direction..
No spoilers, but if you enjoy reading a book which is exciting, unpredictable, nerve wrecking and also annoying addictive, then this is for you!

‘Missing at sea: everyone, except you’. -cover tag-line.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Last Passenger’ by Will Dean.

If ever a book needed to be read ‘cold’, it’s Will Dean’s latest standalone thriller. So just a few details:

Caroline (Caz) Ripley is a café owner from a small Yorkshire town. Her boyfriend, Pete, has booked them on a luxury cruise aboard the ocean liner, RMS Atlantica. They, along with a thousand fellow passengers, leave Southampton destined for New York.

The first morning Caz wakes to find herself alone in their cabin. As she begins to explore she discovers that everyone else on board has disappeared, both passengers and crew. Yet this is just the beginning of this absolute corker of a thriller.

There were some aspects of the story that required suspension of disbelief though it didn’t overly bother me as it is intended as pure escapism.

Without giving any spoilers, Dean did address social issues in the narrative. I also found that Caz’s musings about the vastness of the ocean chilled my blood.

Overall, I was riveted to my seat for this wild ride. Despite its almost 500 page length, I read it in a single day.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

4.5 stars

It’s not often that a blurb gives away absolutely nothing about the book, inviting you instead to embark on a mystery reading journey with no map or signposts to guide your way. Such is the premise of The Last Passenger: so vague, it’s barely worth acknowledging.

Caz is looking forward to the holiday of a lifetime with her new love Pete. A seven-day voyage across the Atlantic on the luxury cruise liner, RMS Atlantica. The ship sails from Southampton, and after an evening of dining and dancing, the couple retire to their swanky cabin. Come morning, Caz wakes to find Pete gone and on further exploration discovers that the entire ship is completely devoid of both fellow travellers and crew. She is the last and only human being left on board.

Frustratingly, not much more can be said without spoiling the fun of this thoroughly entertaining, twist-a-minute read. I recommend suspending disbelief and just rolling with the punches. Much of the plot is far fetched, but in much the same way as 1980s disaster movies like Airport, Towering Inferno and Earthquake. Like these and others of that ilk, The Last Passenger is all about exaggeration, about pushing beyond the boundaries of probability. But, crikey, it doesn’t half make for compelling reading!

As someone who’s usually the first to pick holes in psychological thrillers and complain about either — or both — plot and characters being unconvincing, I revelled in for once just putting all that aside and enjoying this for what it is: an exciting, fun piece of fictional escapism.

If ever there was any doubt that Will Dean didn’t expect his readers to take The Last Passenger too seriously, this was vanquished once and for all in the very last sentence. My eyes may have rolled right out of my head, but I thought it was absolutely brilliant. As cheeky as heck, but bloody genius!

A must read and further evidence of Dean’s amazing versatility as a writer.

The Last Passenger

4⭐️

Embarking on a trip across the Atlantic with her new partner on a luxury liner, Caz is ready for a much-needed rest. Ready to forget about her responsibilities at home, Caz turns in for the night. When she wakes up, she finds that everyone has disappeared and she’s all alone…or is she?

What can I say about The Last Passenger? This story is so unique and so absolutely terrifying that I couldn’t pull myself away from the book! I loved Dean’s The Last Thing to Burn and First Born, so was excited to see what sort of twisted story he came up with next. It didn’t disappoint!

This is a tense read from start to finish and without giving away any of the many wonderfully twisty elements in the story, I would best describe The Last Passenger as a nautical Hunger Games with Survivor and Big Brother vibes.

I will never set foot on a cruise liner after reading this so well done to the author for ensuring that my fear of water remains intact 😆😆

Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the arc. Out today!

Caz is looking forward to a relaxing cruise across the Atlantic with her new partner Pete. Stepping on board the RMS Atlantica, she feels a split second of guilt for leaving behind her sister Gemma who had been left in charge of her cafe, and her mother who is in a nursing home. She tells herself everything will be fine and that evening she and Pete enjoy an evening of cocktails and food. When Caz awakes the next morning she finds Pete has gone missing, instantly panicking, she heads out of the cabin to find the ship deserted. Everyone has vanished. What happens next is about to change Cat forever - she is the last passenger

I don’t know where to begin! I purposely didn’t read any spoilers or blurbs for this book so I went in blind - I have been saving this book for a while but decided publication day would be the best day to read it, I was kindly gifted a proof copy from Will himself as a competition win, so I was completely delighted! I had no idea at all where the story was going, there were some real nail biting scenes and I was totally engrossed! I felt like I was with Cat on that boat! There’s loads of do they don’t they moments too, who to trust, who is lying, and most of all what the actual is going on?! I have no idea how you think of these stories Will, it’s like nothing I’ve read before! The writing is superb, the story and plot is exciting, gripping and easy to follow, I read this in a day, I just had to know what was going to happen next! Nice little twist at the end too, just to finish things off nicely! I absolutely loved it! Thank you Will for sending me this book, and thank you for writing such a masterpiece! Deffo one of my favourite books of the year!

2.5 stars. I was excited to read this as I love Will’s books but I struggled with this one. It dragged on too much and I found it very repetitive. Not for me am afraid

Caroline (Caz) Ripley is taking a holiday with her partner, Pete, aboard an ocean liner bound for America. The first morning aboard Caz wakes up & Pete is not in their cabin. No big deal, he's probably gone for an early breakfast so she gets ready & sets off to catch up, but as she leaves their cabin, she notices all the other cabin doors are propped open & they're all empty with no sign of the other passengers or their luggage. As Caz explores more of the ship, she finds that there is no trace of anyone else onboard - even the bridge is deserted. Caz realises to her horror that she is on a ship heading out into the ocean & she's the only one onboard!

First of all, when I read the synopsis, I thought what a fantastically creepy setting. Now, it's difficult to say much more about this book plot-wise without giving away spoilers, so I will just say that, although it doesn't quite unfold the way I'd imagined from the synopsis, it's still a very entertaining read. It's one of those books that it's best to go into with as little information as possible. At times it veers into becoming too implausible with the twists but it keeps the reader on the edge of their seat as to what's coming next. The only thing that lets it down (for me) is the ending which was one twist too many for me. 3.5 stars (rounded up)

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Hodder & Stoughton, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

The last passenger is a page turning thriller. We begin by meeting Caz boarding the Atlantica a huge cruise ship sailing from Southampton to America with Pete her boyfriend, however after her first nights rest, she awakes to a completely different type of ship and the games begin.

I liked how even though the book was based mainly in one area with few characters it was still exciting and tense throughout with a good mix of different people. There is a lot of tension throughout and real need to survive can be felt and definitely kept me interested. I was very intrigued to see where the story went.

I will be recommending to others although maybe not if they have a cruise planned any time soon :)

It took me a while to get into it, but once I did, I was hooked. The change in pace was refreshing, and the story kept me on the edge of my seat.

The main character, Caz Ripley, is a cafe owner from a small town who boards the RMS Atlantica with her boyfriend and a thousand other passengers. But when she wakes up the next morning, everyone else on board has disappeared. The mystery deepens as Caz tries to figure out what's going on and prepare for a crossing that's anything but plain sailing.

One of the things I loved about this book was not knowing what was real and what wasn't. Will Dean did a great job of keeping me guessing and questioning everything. Overall, “The Last Passenger” is a great read for anyone who enjoys a good mystery with a unique twist.

Well, that’s put me off the idea of a cruise anytime soon! It shows the dangers and intrusion of reality shows, and the extreme lengths people will go to for their few moments of fame! Truman show meets Groundhog Day!
It is a tense read, unbelievable at first, but once you are in thrall to the experiences of the lone Caroline, you realise how cruel and twisted the premise is.
Caroline and her partner join RMS Atlantica for a holiday cruise. The next morning, she is the only person on board. The fact she is trapped on board makes the whole experience seem more awful, no way off, it’s so isolating and scary.
You quickly realise it has to be staged, and then more people are discovered. There aren’t any really nice people in this situation, challenges are set, it’s rather like the ancient Roman games in the amphitheatre, then it was slaves versus animals, this shows humans becoming like animals in order to survive, nasty and very intrusive. BUT, it is so addictive, the plot was plausible, but, I thought the ending was really pushing it too far. It would make a perfect challenge show for television.
My thanks to Netgalley, and the publishers, Hodder and Stoughton for my advance digital copy, freely given in exchange for my honest review. I will leave a review to Goodreads and Amazon UK.

I’ve never been on a cruise & this book certainly hasn’t persuaded me to try it either! A meandering beginning soon took me to high tension in the blink of an eye.

Middle-aged Caz & her newish boyfriend, Pete, are on a transatlantic cruise spending the first day investigating their new surroundings & making dinner acquaintances.
The next day, Caz wakes to find Pete gone but his watch is by the bed so she decides to go for a wander & find him. The ship is eerily quiet, the majority of the cabin doors are open & there is not a soul to be seen. No passengers & no crew. She even goes to the bridge & discovers the ship is steering itself. On returning to her cabin, she hears faint tapping & decides to follow the sound. Is she really alone?

I can’t say anymore without giving away some huge plot spoilers, so I won’t. Although brilliantly written this book won’t be for everyone & I can imagine a very split readership. For me, I just had to suspend belief & go with it. Dark, fast-paced & full of what ifs. Read it.

Another great read from the author, A storyline a little off the beaten track, without giving too much away or spoilers the blurb basically covers it, grabbed my interest and left me eager to get started, and safe to say I wasn’t disappointed.

Wow! What have I just read? If any book should be made into a TV film then this is it!!
Will Dean has created a gripping, tension filled book that will set your heart racing and I predict that it will become the talked about book of 2023.
Just go out and buy it you won't be disappointed.
Highly recommended!

4,5 stars

Well, this was certainly something different!

Thanks to #netgalley and #HodderBooks for this ARC!

If you decide to read this, remember to stock up on food and clear your schedule because you won't be able to put it down, not even to go to relieve yourself. I kid you not! This, my friends, is the quintessential page turner. 😅

Caroline boards a passenger ship in the UK ready to enjoy a relaxing cruise across the Atlantic to New York. She works hard at her coffee shop and knows she’s deserved this getaway with her new boyfriend Pete.

The cruise ship is as luxurious as they come and after an excellent first dinner on board she falls asleep content.
But when she wakes up the next morning, not only is she alone in the cabin, but she seems to be the only passenger left on board.

What happened to all the other passengers that night?

I'll stop here because the less you know the better. It sounds crazy, right? I mean, how on earth could you explain something like that?
This isn't a paranormal thriller, in case you were wondering. No, Dean doesn't take the easy way out....

I buddy read this and I think we were all a little let down by the ending!

But since reading the book I’ve had a few days to mull it over and I really can't say I would have been any happier with a different ending.

In the end, the fact remains that Dean has written a highly entertaining and ambitious book. He could easily have left us hanging with an ambiguous ending, but instead he found a very plausible explanation and managed to tie up all the loose ends. I had to add half a star for creativity! 👏🏼