I’ll be honest, kind of wary of these female driven suspense thrillers lately. There are just too many of them out there right now, trying to out convolute each other. Often too preoccupied with stunning the readers with the prerequisite plots twists to do the actual work of writing instead. Which is all to say that the best thing about this book, the thing that makes it stand out in the sea of same and similar, is precisely that, the author did the work and created two female characters (some things like split perspectives are unavoidable) so engaging and likeable that their respective journeys up to and post the fated last flight are actually compelling enough to sustain the plot entirely. I’m almost surprised at how much I liked this book because it has several elements I might normally stay away from…it’s very much a #MeToo timed story and it’s more or less women’s fiction in a way. All of the main character, actually all of the good characters are women, women support each other, help each other out and defy the men who all seem determine to abuse, oppress, use, control, manipulate, terrify and/or flat out kill them. It’s pretty black and white that way, not a lot of grey territory and that’s sad in a way, because strict moral rigidity tends to take away from good complex storytelling. And yet…Claire and Eva manage to do it, survive their personal tragic stories and rise above (and no, that isn’t a tasteless pun on the premise). So ok, let’s address the premise…it’s fairly straight forward in that strangers on a train sort of way, two women desperately trying to get out of the frying pans their lives have become just into the potential fire of exchanging lives and ways out. Claire, getting out of her abusive marriage to a wealthy political scion, gets on a plane to California and Eva, fleeing her past as a dealer, gets to go off the mainland. And then the plane Claire was supposed to be on, the one Eva got on instead, does a Boeing Max 737. And suddenly all the plans go right out of the window. Ok, sorry, the terrible puns are here to stay, it seems. So anyway, the novel comprises dual perspectives, so that you get to know Claire in the after and Eva in the before. It’s all fairly standard suspense thriller business with every chance of being tedious and yet…Claire and Eva manage to come alive, in all their flawed beauty. They are smart, tough, self sufficient, they don’t whine, they make efforts and plans, they strive to improve their lot, they avoid becoming clichés. They are both victimized by men in their lives, but they don’t come across as victims, which is a pretty important distinction. These ladies are decidedly not chick lit material. There are no cheesy romances, no gay best friends, no bffs to get drunk with while doing each others’ nails. It’s women’s fiction at its best. And there’s also a great deal of suspense throughout, the pages are taut with it, the author did a really great job of dramatizing that edge of your seat quality you don’t often find well done in a thriller. There isn’t much mystery as such and what is of it is fairly easy to figure out, so don’t read it for that alone. It’s much more of a character driven suspense thriller. So yeah, Last Flight is just too good of a book to get weighed down by its heavy handed message. Go figure. I enjoyed this one, very entertaining and plenty well written. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

To the outside world, Claire Cook leads a fairy tale life, married to a political hotshot with a glamorous home and a staff of servants waiting to do her bidding. But her famous husband is really a controlling monster who pays his staff to track every move Claire makes. Desperate to escape, Claire makes a daring plan with a woman who wants out of her life just as badly as Claire wants out of hers. At an airport, they switch tickets. Claire will take Eva’s flight to Oakland and Eve will take Claire’s to Puerto Rico. It was only meant to provide a little breathing room for both women, but when the plane to Puerto Rica goes down, Claire realizes she has a second chance in another life. After all, Eva’s life can’t be any worse than the one Claire left behind, could it? Original and captivating, I’d like to see this story on the big screen