THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY BESTSELLER, & INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!
“The Last Flight is thoroughly absorbing—not only because of its tantalizing plot and deft pacing, but also because of its unexpected poignancy and its satisfying, if bittersweet, resolution. The characters get under your skin.”—The New York Times Book Review
Two women. Two flights. One last chance to disappear.
… Book Review
Two women. Two flights. One last chance to disappear.
Claire Cook has a perfect life. Married to the scion of a political dynasty, with a Manhattan townhouse and a staff of ten, her surroundings are elegant, her days flawlessly choreographed, and her future auspicious. But behind closed doors, nothing is quite as it seems. That perfect husband has a temper that burns bright and he’s not above using his staff to track Claire’s every move.
What he doesn’t know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish. A plan that takes her to the airport, poised to run from it all. But a chance meeting in the airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision.
The two women switch tickets, with Claire taking Eva’s flight to Oakland, and Eva traveling to Puerto Rico as Claire. They believe the swap will give each of them the head start they need to begin again somewhere far away. But when the flight to Puerto Rico crashes, Claire realizes it’s no longer a head start but a new life. Cut off, out of options, with the news of her death about to explode in the media, Claire will assume Eva’s identity, and along with it, the secrets Eva fought so hard to keep hidden.
For fans of Lisa Jewell and Liv Constantine, The Last Flight is the story of two women—both alone, both scared—and one agonizing decision that will change the trajectory of both of their lives.
Praise for The Last Flight:
“The Last Flight is a wild ride: One part Strangers on a Train, one part Breaking Bad, with more twists than an amusement park roller coaster! Julie Clark is a devilishly inventive storyteller.”
—Janelle Brown, New York Times bestselling author of Watch Me Disappear and Pretty Things
“The Last Flight is everything you want in a book: a gripping story of suspense; haunting, vulnerable characters; and a chilling and surprising ending that stays with you long after the last page.”
—Aimee Molloy, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Mother
“The perfect combination of beautiful prose and high suspense, and an ending that I guarantee will catch you off guard.”
—Kimberly Belle, internationally bestselling author of Dear Wife and The Marriage Lie
“The Last Flight sweeps you into a thrilling story of two desperate women who will do anything to escape their lives. Both poignant and addictive, you’ll race through the pages to the novel’s chilling end. A must read of the summer!”
—Kaira Rouda, internationally bestselling author of Best Day Ever and The Favorite
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Two women, both on the run, switch places on their respective flights. But will switching seats really save them? This book is an excellent example of why I don’t write suspense—I was surprised more than once. But I was invested in the characters. Fast, compelling read
5* Fantastic Addictive Stars
The Last Fight was a fantastic fast paced thrilling read. From the beginning you will be hooked in until the last page is read. It was very well written and the twists and turns very clever and original. I thoroughly enjoyed this compelling read and would love to see it made into a movie.
I went back and forth between 4 and 5 stars for this book. There was something that kept nagging at me but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was. By the ending, I knew the issue I had with the book but at the same time, the ending was what secured my 5 star rating.
Two women. Both battling situations out of their control. Claire, a battered woman married to a powerful and wealthy man, wants to escape from under his thumb and start again. Eva, a woman who feels abandoned and unloved, has been manipulated by several men in different ways and is now seeking a way out of a situation that may just cost her her life. A chance encounter may be just what it takes to save them both.
Told in dual timelines, The Last Flight is a page turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Eva’s story is told in the past – preflight. Claire’s story is told in the present – post flight. The multiple timelines flow wonderfully and do a remarkable job tying the stories of the two women together. For some time, I felt like the reader was getting more about Eva in the past than Claire in the present and that disturbed me somewhat. I wanted more equality in the storylines but the author knew exactly what she was doing.
Highly recommended for many reasons. Great read, page turner, kept me guessing, and showcases the hardships women face even in the Me Too era.
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Okay, this was really good…
Two women in crisis meet at the airport and decide to switch tickets and escape their terrible circumstances.
Claire has choreographed her escape from abusive, douchey, Senate-seeking husband Rory with microscopic precision.
But her plans disintegrate at the last minute forcing her to punt on the fly and well, what if what she’s getting is worse than what she has?
I loved that I felt smug about knowing what was happening but then got slapped into my place!
Thank you to Julie Clark, Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for giving me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Never under-estimate the power of women!
Two women, victims of circumstances, shackled by men, both an epitome of hope and determination to break free, happen to meet each other at the airport and take their last flight… the flight toward freedom but meet a dead end. One of them boarded the ill-fated flight to Puerto Rico. Did her hopes vanish with the plane? Clark keeps you guessing.
The Last Flight is another statement about the emerging power of women who refuse to be terrified or tied down by men who hide behind various excuses to manipulate and tower over women. It is a female oriented story, with strong characters that have been picked from real life – a friend who would always stand by you, a mother figure who emphasizes that fear could be conquered and truth should be faced. Some positive messages to take charge of your life, to forgive yourself and start afresh. I liked it.
The Last Flight is indeed a unique, refreshing new read. Claire Cook has the life every woman would love. Money, staff at her bidding, a grand home, and rewarding work for many charitable causes. Her husband, Rory Cook, is rich and ready to begin a political career. Things in private are not as perfect as the world believes, however. After a year of very careful planning, everything is finally in place for Claire to finally escape her verbally and physically abusive husband. At the almost very last minute, Rory suddenly changes her corporate plans from Detroit to a different event in Puerto Rico. Within hours, Rory will discover her plan, and Claire is terrified. I actually sucked in my breath at that point! At the airport, along comes Eva who is also in a desperate situation. Together they decide to exchange plane tickets, so they can both just disappear. Horrific as it sounds, Claire’s flight which is now Eva’s flight to Puerto Rico crashes in the ocean. Is Eva dead? Will they find her body and discover Claire wasn’t on that flight? The best part of this book is the slow unraveling of both Claire and Eva’s past and what has brought them both to their respective tragic presents. Claire has assumed Eva’s identity, and she slowly unravels Eva’s past right along with Eva’s chapters in the book. The ending wasn’t what I expected at all though!
Propulsive, intense, and exhilarating!
The Last Flight is an alluring, character-driven thriller that immerses you into the lives of two strangers, Claire and Eva, as their worlds unravel, intersect, and collide while embarking on a mission to escape their dangerous and troubled pasts.
The prose is sharp and brisk. The characters are desperate, courageous, and strong. And the plot using flashbacks and a back-and-forth, past/present style creates tension and suspense as it unwinds piece-by-piece all the deception, secrets, histories, personalities, and relationships within it.
Overall, The Last Flight is an addictive, twisty, meticulously crafted page-turner by Clark that does a wonderful job of reminding us that every choice, good or bad, always has a consequence.
This book had me hooked just reading the prologue. I didn’t want to put it down. Glad I didn’t.
Twisty page turner–clever, moving, and inventive.
It’s not often that a book takes over my entire life, but that’s what this one did. From the first page, I was hooked by a story that drove through my life like a thunderstorm. I found myself wanting it to go on and on. When, towards the end, my husband saw a strange look on my face, he asked me what was wrong. “I’m nearly finished this book!” I lamented. It’s well-written and brilliantly planned and plotted. Read it! You’ll be glad you did.
The Last Flight by Julie Clark is an addictive novel that is just begging to be read in one sitting! I flew through it in one day because once I started I just could not stop. I loved the dual narrators and I was invested in both Eva and Claire, but most especially Claire.
I think my heart broke a little over the ending, but besides that I had zero issues with this wild ride of a book. It’s definitely not for people that don’t like unbelievable stories, but if you can suspend a little bit of belief, it should be a home run for you. I thought the entire novel was suspenseful and it is SO hard to stop reading once you start – so I just read straight through! The Last Flight was definitely very different from Clark’s previous book and I think that made me love it even more. There is still a science aspect, but this was an unputdownable thriller that was totally captivating.
I mostly forgot what the book was about before reading it and I think this is a great one to go into blind. The Last Flight is a very timely novel that will be sure to keep you on the edge of your seat, so I highly recommend checking it out!
Bravo, a perfectly constructed thriller that kept me fully immersed in the fictive dream. This was due largely to the superior writing craft of the author. There are two plotlines intertwined and evolve in alternating chapters, both strong female characters well realized and easy to root for. One is mostly backstory but is dynamic enough to hold my attention. The backstory is told in past tense and the forward motion story is told in present tense. I was never lost or confused by the voices of these two very different women.
The premise, I admit is a little bit sensational and coincidental but again the wonderful prose guided me through. The premise is similar to Strangers on A Train has been used before by a number of authors, Elmore Leonard, Stewart Woods are to that readily come to mind. The author uses it only to set the stage and then delves into the backstory of the characters. If this is a first book by the author, then I can’t wait for the next one.
If you like your thrillers, economic and fast moving with strong female characters I highly recommend this one.
David Putnam Author of The Bruno Johnson series.
Two women, parallel lives, one problem
“The Last Flight” by Julie Clark is the story of two women, Clair and Eva. They are not crazy or unstable; they are just two women with a shared problem and one huge complication. They have no plans and not nearly enough money, but they are both desperate enough to risk everything they have to gain everything they want.
Clark structures the narrative from each point of view over several time periods, labeling each chapter to identify the perspective. The lives of the two women run on parallel yet different tracks, and readers follow them through the days before and after the “last flight” that becomes the turning point for each of them. They hide behind a curtain of lies, never trusting anyone as they each take one step forward followed by the next, and the one after that. The consequences of the “last flight” are clear from the start, but how each person arrived at that event is similar and yet different at the same time. Each life has been cleanly split into “before” and “after, and yet the ramifications of their own past actions bleed into the present.
“The Last Flight” is complicated and compelling. It is a world filled with people who carry secrets. I found it gripping and fascinating to read. While there are hints along the way about the ending, the plane crashes after all, the inevitable disclosure is still a little unexpected and sad. I received a review copy of “The Last Flight” from Julie Clark, Sourcebooks Landmark.
I’m a sucker for suspense stories crafted around an airplane crash, and Julie Clark’s The Last Flight lived up to the hype and then some. Clark starts with a bang then keeps the pace at full throttle, deftly weaving two seemingly separate stories into one wild and entertaining ride. The perfect combination of beautiful prose and high suspense, and an ending that I guarantee will catch you off guard.
Strong women take center stage in this Breaking Bad meets Sleeping with the Enemy thriller. The Last Flight has it all — original characters, fast pacing, and clever twists, all in one explosive package!
The Last Flight is a wild ride: One part Strangers on a Train, one part Breaking Bad, with more twists than an amusement park roller coaster! Julie Clark is a devilishly inventive storyteller.
It’s almost impossible to totally disappear no matter how much you want to get out of your life. In this wonderful suspense novel, two woman are able to disappear from their lives and start over but not without fear that they will get caught.
To the outside world, Claire has a perfect life – she is married to a well loved philanthropist who is making plans to start in politics. He tells everyone how much he treasures Claire and in public he appears to love her very much. Behind closed doors, it’s a very different story. He abuses her physically and emotionally and is very controlling. He wants to know where she is and what she is doing every minute of the day. She has no family and no friends but she knows that she has to escape from the life she is in. When she meets an old friend at the gym, they start to work together to help her totally disappear from her life. When their plan fails, she unexpected gets help from a stranger at the airport. Eva is also trying to escape her life but for totally different reasons. She has been making and selling drugs in California and not only is the drug boss looking for her but so are the police. She fears that if the drug boss finds her, she’ll be killed and if the police find her, she’ll end up in jail. After a short conversation in the airport, Claire and Eva decide to exchange lives. As Eva and Claire exchange plane tickets and identities, they are both relieved but have no idea what the future holds for each of them.
This novel is an emotional roller coaster that keeps you turning pages to see what happens. Even though Claire and Eva have led totally different lives and ended up somewhere that they needed to escape from, I was rooting for both of them to succeed. I was hooked on this thriller from the first page and was up reading it most of one night because I had to find out what happened to both of them. The chapters alternate between the two women with Claire’s story in the present and Eve’s story in the past.
My opinion is that this is going to be one of the highly discussed books of the summer. You don’t want to miss it!
Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
I received an early copy of this book on Netgalley and I’m so glad I did. I read a lot of psychological suspense and Julie’s Clark’s first book is this genre is up there with the best of them.
The story hinges around a plane crash over the Atlantic. Claire was supposed to be on the flight, but at the last minute she trades tickets with a woman in the airport, desperate to do anything to escape her abusive husband. The characters: Claire, the wife of a prominent philanthropist who is considering a senate run, and Eva, a college drop out who’s now manufacturing and selling drugs, are both real, flawed and compelling. The structure of the book which alternates between Claire’s story after the plane crash and Eva’s story in the months leading up to the crash, amps up the drama and makes this book a real page turner. I tore though it in less than a day, anxious to figure out what really happened on the day of the crash and why. Clark’ exploration of the emotional tolls of abuse is nuanced and important, but doesn’t bog down the story. A perfect one day read.
Imagine the complexities of life leading you to make a change so sudden, it will impact all facets of your life. Claire Cook knows a thing or two about how deceiving appearances can be to the public eye. With a husband whose political career dominates over each miniscule detail in her life, Claire knows all too well how smothering a life in the spotlight can actually be.
Months of planning have gone into a plan that Claire hopes will help her escape the chains that bind her so tightly to this life. A plan so complex that one small detail can derail the entire house of cards. Just when Clair thinks all of her plans are going to crash and burn, an opportunity arises that will change the course of her path. An unexpected encounter in the airport offers Claire the chance to leave it all behind.
Meeting Eva in the airport gives Claire the chance to hope for a new beginning. At Eva’s insistence, Claire swaps tickets with the passenger. Leaving Claire headed to Oakland, CA posing as Eva. Then Eva heads to Puerto Rico under the guise of being Claire. The thrill is short lived when Claire finds out that the flight to Puerto Rico never made it to the destination. Determined to continue her life as Eva, Claire embarks upon a life filled with secrets that will rock her to the core. Can Claire keep her identity under wraps with secrets crowding her from all sides?
The Last Flight by Julie Clark was recommended to me by a friend. I will admit, since this was a ‘new to me’ author’ I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I found when turning the pages of this novel was a thrilling quest that would have the impact to alter so many lives. I found myself sucked into the story with each chapter, delving deeper and deeper into Claire’s life. The twists and turns often made me scratch my head in disbelief and uncertainty. However – that is what set this book apart from many others. The hesitancy to understand why some of the events were mentioned rolled and rolled until the very last chapter. The questions you think in your head often leave you with wonderment. Then it all makes sense how this ill-fated swap changes the course of so many lives. I thoroughly enjoyed diving headfirst into The Last Flight. I cannot wait to read more from Julie Clark in the future!!
4.5/5 – I love a book about strong women. I really adored both Claire and Eva. Their lives haven’t gone the way they wanted them to, but they take control of their own future and do what they need to do to get themselves out of their situations. All of the female side characters were also SO strong!
There’s a lot of things in this book that surprised me. Like, I had some general ideas of what I thought would happen, and yet I was still shocked at multiple moments. I love when that happens.
4.5 stars instead of 5 because I really thought Dex would be more involved in the current timeline. Also because I feel like while the non-linear timeline did work quite well, there were times that I didn’t love it.
This is the 10th book I’ve read in 2022 so far, and is definitely my favourite of the year so far! I can’t wait to read more by this author.