BLOG TOUR: The Last Passenger by Will Dean

“A luxury cruise liner, abandoned with no crew, steaming into the mid-Atlantic. And you are the only passenger left on board.”

Set to be published on 11th May, The Last Passenger by Will Dean follows cafe owner Caz Ripley from a small, ordinary town, who 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…

Rating:

Today is my stop on the blog tour for this book. Thank you to Hodder & Stoughton for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was nervous about reading this book as I had seen a few less favourable reviews beforehand concerning the concept and ending. And because the synopsis is quite vague, I had no idea where it was going to go. So I went in with an open mind and some out-there predictions (which I actually wasn’t too far off with), and I came away having had a lot of fun with it!

The Last Passenger is what I liked to call a good popcorn thriller, where the plot is unbelievable at times and everything is slightly exaggerated, but it all adds to the pure entertainment of what results in a fast-paced thrill ride that you don’t want to put down.

To go into more detail about the book would be to spoil the many surprises so I will avoid discussing the plot as best as I can, but it brilliantly combines a suspenseful action adventure with a slightly dark psychological thriller.

While I didn’t find the book very tense at first, despite the claustrophobic setting and unsettling situation, it did slowly build up on me. Soon enough, my heart was racing and I couldn’t stop turning the pages.

One downside of this being a lighter suspense is that I personally would have liked it to have been darker in places, especially in regards to the passenger’s past issues which are frequently mentioned and pointed out as being relevant. But there were also a lot of brilliant surprises along the way which really blew me away, and a few moments that genuinely gave me goosebumps.

Dean also tied the story up a lot better than I was expecting him to. With a story like this, I had many questions that I needed answering for me to decide if it all paid off or not, and Dean most definitely ticked them all off for me. And the ending? I loved it!

You’ve got to be in the right mood for a popcorn thriller, otherwise you just pick up on the implausibilities and can’t enjoy the satire or effortless amusement that it provides you with. But if you’re in the mood for a lighter suspense and binge-worthy read, The Last Passenger is the perfect book to escape into.

Details:

The Last Passenger by Will Dean
Release Date: 11th May 2023
Print Length: 496 pages
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Synopsis:

A luxury cruise liner, abandoned with no crew, steaming into the mid-Atlantic.
And you are the only passenger left on board.

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 …

About The Author:

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands, living in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying law at the LSE, and working many varied jobs in London, he settled in rural Sweden with his wife. He built a wooden house in a boggy forest clearing and it’s from this base that he compulsively reads and writes.