The Last Passenger - Will Dean

There's a certain amount of pleasure to be derived from a well-constructed thriller, even if it follows a familiar pattern, one that draws you in and leads you by the nose through the steps of escalation from initial criminal act (usually murder) through the investigation, complications and twists to resolution. What I find even more thrilling is a book that presents you with a highly unusual circumstance from the outset that seems almost impossible, meaning that you have no way of guessing where it is going to go from one page to the next. That's great of course, as long of course as the author provides a suitable, credible and necessarily inventive resolution. I'm afraid that Will Dean just doesn't follow though on what he sets up at the start of The Last Passenger.

The novel certainly delivers in the WTF stakes right from the start, as Caroline Ripley, after only one night aboard the transatlantic liner RMS Atlantica, wakes up to find that everyone else on the ship has disappeared, including her boyfriend Pete. The beds have been made, all the luggage is gone, and even the control room has been abandoned by the crew. After running through and dismissing any possible logical explanation why she appears to be the only person left on a ship that is powering away at 29 knots on autopilot for a seven day journey to New York (could there have been an emergency evacuation that she somehow missed?), her main concern is what does she do next?

And you expect that this will remain the question that is going to have to be repeated down the line, as each option is unlikely (unless we expect the book to be a very short one) to succeed. Which does give you pause for a moment as you wonder how long the author can drag out a situation of one person on a runaway ship with no crew, no passengers and no working communication systems, but you can expect and be sure that there will be other twists ahead. And the best thing about that is that you have no idea where they are going to come from.

There is some hint that it is going to be a psychological drama, with a few clues masterfully dropped in relating to Caroline's troubled family background and her fears of betrayal and abandonment. Pete is the first man she has been able to trust for many years, and that might prove significant. Trust becomes an even more important factor when - without giving away any spoilers - despite initial appearances and since it's a big ship to cover, Caz finds that she is not the only person on a ship. While you are waiting on some major revelation to come and explain what has happened, the other concern that starts to creep in is that this is essentially a variation on a Huis clos situation. The remaining passengers might as well be on a lifeboat with the usual mix of social classes and behavioural types that get into disputes and conflict with very different ideas about what is needed to survive.

On a luxury liner it's a more luxurious kind of trapped situation and you would think things can't be all that bad and that help is sure to arrive soon, but as things increasing go wrong and a mysterious box is found that temptingly warns that it is not to be opened, you'd think Caz might be better off taking her chances on a lifeboat after all. Unfortunately, even that proves not to be a viable option. So far, Dean doesn't put a foot wrong, using some traditional themes, a disaster movie situation mixed with some psychological drama relating to issues of trust, on a ship that is beyond their ability to control - "It's like we're going around in circles, drifting. I want us to move towards somewhere" - with an added element of an inexplicable mysterious twist.

Again, without giving anything away, the mysterious twist that has to be delivered in order to explain this extraordinary situation turns out to be not the most original idea, but it comes early enough at about a third of the way in for you to suspect that there are more revelations to come. That makes The Last Passenger a tricky book to review and justify the reasoning behind any criticism. Nonetheless, the premise and twists are unoriginal, having been done in other books and high rated Netflix shows, and Dean doesn't follow through on Caz's repetitive reflections on her psychological and family troubles. Fatally, and disappointingly as far as I'm concerned, despite the promising opening and supposed commentary on modern day issues, the novel descends into unconvincing age-old hokum.

Reading notes: The Last Passenger by Will Dean is published by Hodder & Stoughton on the 11th May 2023. My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the preview uncorrected proof. If a significant incident that changes the direction of a book occurs in the first 100 pages or so, I usually think it's a judgement call how much of that to reveal and anything after that is potential spoiler territory. The blurb for the book however goes to a great deal of effort to not give away anything of the plot other than the last person remaining on a ship mystery, so I have tried to adhere to that as far as possible in the review.