The Last to Vanish, by Megan Miranda, is a mystery/thriller set in a picturesque and quirky mountain vacation town in North Carolina. Miranda creates atmospheric settings that instill that delicious sense of impending doom. She is equally adept at writing characters that are nuanced, likeable, and ultimately flawed. For both of these talents, I hope this book becomes a movie! Pacing, however, is problematic. It takes the entire first half to set up the action. Although the writing is masterful, it was at times painfully slow. At 51 percent, the pace accelerates and the action leaps forward and continues unabated until the very last page. Miranda skillfully pulls all the loose ends together in a series of twisty turns. I was never even close to figuring out the resolution! If you love twisty thrillers and scary mountain small towns, this novel is for you! Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the opportunity to read a digital ARC. I enjoyed it!

👻SYNOPSIS: A thriller that opens with the disappearance of a journalist who is investigating a string of vanishings in the resort town of Cutter’s Pass - will it’s dark secrets finally be revealed?

👻REVIEW: I’ve got mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I simply couldn’t put it down, needing to find out what happened to the vanishing hikers, but the end ultimately ended up but anticlimactic for me.

This thriller was a true page turner though; you wanted to know why the individuals had vanished from Cutter’s Pass, and I found myself finding any excuse to read it, which I love with a book.

The flow was steady, and the atmosphere was described perfectly. My only gripe is that I just didn’t jive with the ending; I just felt like “this was it?!” .. but maybe I’m jaded from too many thrillers.

All in all though, I’d definitely recommend this for your summer reading list. Thanks @scribnerbooks for an ARC of this one, it comes out the 26!

👻VERDICT: 4 STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

First and foremost, thank you to Netgalley and Scribner Books for the gifted e-copy.

This was my first book by Megan Miranda, and overall I enjoyed it. I wasn't sure what to expect going into this one, but it was atmospheric and a unique setting. This one was a slower burn than I was expecting, so I did find myself slightly bored at parts. However, once the twists picked up, I found myself guessing (incorrectly) about what was going to happen next.

This one is out now, and I recommend it for fans of atmospheric, slow-burn, popcorn thrillers!

Twisting plot with intertwined, secretive characters. Everyone is looking for something, hiding something, or outright lying about something. Keeps you guessing.

I love Megan Miranda’s books, and this one was no exception. A town full of secrets has led Abby to question many things about the people around her. I was definitely hooked, and had trouble putting it down!

Megan Miranda is an auto buy for me. I read All the Missing Girls and was floored at its creativity and uniqueness in a genre where stories often feel reused. The last few years it’s been up and down for me with her stories. Some are good, others just aren’t for me. But without a doubt, The Last to Vanish is one of her best since her debut. It feels fresh and raw. The story and the characters are unpredictable and the setting is so vivid. Highly recommend!

This one was just okay to me – I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it.

Cutter’s Pass is in the mountains in North Carolina. It’s a place where people come to explore the outdoors and a place where there have been multiple unsolved disappearances. Abby works at an inn in town, and when one of the missing person’s brother shows up to do his own investigation, Abby decides to help out. Will they be able to find the truth of the disappearances?

I loved the setting and the creepy atmosphere. The beginning was a little too slow for me, but it picked up towards the middle. I did enjoy the multiple POV’s and there was a twist that I didn’t see coming. One of my big complaints was that I didn’t find it suspenseful at all, which is a must for me in thrillers.

A huge thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner / Marysue Rucci Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Who doesn't love a thriller? This book was good. The details of the Appalachians, the town, and the hotel were really great. It helped me visualize it even more. The plot held my attention as did the mystery surrounding it. Abby was a great main character and she was also likable. The writing was suburb and this will not be my last Megan Miranda book.

Megan Miranda does it again. I loved this story. The twists and turns kept me engaged and I finished this in just a couple of sittings. Her characters are so real and her deep dive into their psyches keeps me reading.

Due to the disappearance of 6 hikers over the years, Cutters Pass has been called “the most dangerous town in North Carolina”. What secrets are the citizens of this tight knit community hiding? Abigail Lovett has been working at a local inn for 10 years, yet she still has not been fully accepted by the locals. When the brother of one of the missing shows up at the inn, separately and together they are caught up in solving. the mystery.

Miranda’s writing conveys a good feel for the call of the mountains for those who love it so. The story does get bogged down a bit in trying to get to where it was going and there were a few too many convenient coincidences, but, overall, it was an engrossing, finished in one day read.

Thanks to @netgalley and @scribnerbooks for the ARC

I always enjoy Megan Miranda's books and I found this a solid mystery with an interesting setting. In a small in near the Appalachian trail, a number of hikers have mysteriously vanished. Then a reporter investigating the disappearances also goes missing.

For me the strength of this one was the setting, which was interesting and well-portrayed. It's a small town setting and because the disappearances took place over a long span of time, it's pretty likely that someone in town was involved.

I don't want to say too much but there was an aspect of the ending I liked and one I liked less. But I did enjoy this one!

3 stars ⭐ ⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the eARC of The Last To Vanish by Megan Miranda. I absolutely enjoy thrillers where I can't wait to turn the page and be shocked/surprised/devastated. This thriller did not fall into this category. It was a slow read for me. Maybe because I wasn't really invested in the characters. There were a lot of characters to keep track of in the story. Abby Lovett, the main protagonist and manager of the Passage Inn in Cutter's Pass, seemed to be trying to solve a really hard puzzle and so many pieces are missing. There was much detail about the town, the hotel, the paths in the woods - at times, I just felt overwhelmed with all the detail. I thought it slowed the book down. And Georgia, another employee at The Inn, gets scared at some point and leaves. As in, the rest of the book, she is not hard from until the very end of the book. It just seemed odd. The ending exposing the killer (s) was a shock, but it felt like the plot got too tangled up in itself.

Having worked at the Passage Inn for a decade, Abigail has heard all the stories about the people who have gone missing. When a journalist investigating the disappearances himself disappears, and his brother shows up at the inn, Abigail finds herself drawn into the search for the truth.

Miranda doesn't disappoint. This is another suspenseful book with a ton of twists and turns, complex characters, and a protagonist who draws the readers in. The setting is a character in itself, and the ending was completely shocking to me. I definitely recommend this book.

The small mountain town is a perfect setting for a slow burn mystery/thriller. The character development made the who can you trust aspect all the more intriguing. I also enjoyed how the book was divided into parts surrounding a particular disappearance. I found the twists to the plot plausible without being overly predictable.

Reading Between the Wines book review #65/135 for 2022:
Rating: 3 🍷 🍷 🍷
Book 🎧: The Last to Vanish
Author: Megan Miranda
Genre: General Fiction (Adult) | Mystery & Thrillers
Available now!

Sipping thoughts: People disappearing. No one knows why, how, or if it is foul play. Secrets to kill and die for. When someone else disappears and Trey drops in with questions, Abigail Lovett decides to find out the truth once and for all. I was a little confused with this book with the names and who was who. It dragged a little for me until the last 30%. This was more mystery than thriller in my opinion. I love Megan Miranda but this was not my favorite of hers.

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley and @Scribner copy of @TheLastToVanish.

#TheLastToVanish #MeganMiranda #Scribner #NetGalley #advancedreadercopy #ARC #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bookreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #MysteryAndThrillers #GeneralFictionAdult

It sounds cheesy to say Megan Miranda never lets me down, but her success rate with me as a reader is impressive. I am always excited to pick up her latest thriller every summer, because I know it will be a page-turner that blindsides me with twists I didn't figure out immediately, and a protagonist who fascinates me as equally as I find them untrustworthy. This book is the perfect thriller for people who don't want anything to scary/gory but still want to be wracked with nerves.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC!

I was so excited to receive this book from NetGalley as an ebook. I had heard great things about it. However, now that I am finished, I feel somewhat disappointed. I had such high hopes for this book. I loved the whole concept of staying in a remote Inn and searching for people who had gone missing, but I just feel like that was all that was going on. The majority of the book was the main character Abby, trying to help a journalist, find out what happened to his brother and others who all went missing years ago. But that was it. Not much else was happening other than asking people questions. I was a bit bored throughout most of the book. Although the ending was pretty good, I did not see a couple things coming at all, it still didn’t make up for the lack luster story being told most of the book. I liked Megan Miranda’s writing style and I did Enjoy the atmosphere this book was set in, it just fell a little flat for me.

Okay thriller fans- step right up to one of the best books of the year. The Last to Vanish is an atmospheric and spooky thriller set in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina.

Seven people have vanished in the mountains near the resort The Passage Inn. When the last to vanish has a relative show up to look for them, inn manager Abby Lovett learns the truth about decades old secrets that rock her to her core.

Megan Miranda has a killer knack (no pun intended) for describing the setting of her thrillers, and something about this one just gave me the chills while reading.

This is a five star read that’s a must for any thriller fan and a no brainer for Miranda’s fans. She delivers on this one, beyond expectation.

Definitely a five star read for me.

**Many, many thanks to #NetGalley and #Scribner for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.**

3.5 stars, actually.

Don't get me wrong: This is a well-written story that held my attention from beginning to end just because I wanted to find out what really happened to all the people who inexplicably went missing over the years in the small town of Cutter's Pass, North Carolina. But as "thrillers" go, I have to say there wasn't a whole lot of edge-of-my-seat tension. Besides that, there wasn't a single character for whom I would have cried had he or she been bumped off somewhere along the line.

That includes Abigail Lovett, who sort of wandered into town a decade ago and stayed to help run The Passage Inn, situated not far from an Appalachian Trail trailhead. Accessing that means traversing what's now known as the "Vanishing Trail" that ends at Shallow Falls - a place best known as the site of the disappearance of the so-called "Fraternity Four." This group of four friends ventured out on a hike 15 years ago, never returned and never have been seen again. Since then, two women have gone missing and never been found, as did, more recently, journalist Landon West, who was investigating their disappearances. Now, that journalist's brother Trey has come to town looking for clues as to what happened, staying at a cabin at the Inn and making Abby, her co-worker Gloria and Inn builder/owner Celeste quite nervous for reasons not really clear. Maybe that's on purpose, intended to make readers more curious as well; instead, it only gave me another reason not to care much about what happens to any of the three characters.

Meanwhile, the townspeople seem to have closed in around themselves, allowing the rumors surrounding the disappearances to fuel the fires of the tourist trade while avoiding any meaningful discussion of the facts. They totally dismiss rumors of a strange man who lives a secluded life in the woods who, some say, might have had something to do with what happened to the missing people. Glimpses of other townspeople, including the sheriff, seem to suggest some kind of awareness or even culpability, but nothing is fleshed out enough to make for a really intriguing theory.

Abby herself remains mostly in the dark, musing over possibilities until incriminating evidence turns up in an unexpected place. At that point, some of what may have happened years ago begins to make sense, but mostly it arouses more suspicions about who her co-workers and neighbors really are and what they really know right up to the end, when Abby learns the hard way that there's good reason for the truth to be hidden all these years.

All told, it's an enjoyable book that, if I were taking a vacation, I'd be happy I toted along to read on the beach. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.

Megan Miranda delivers a smart suspenseful book again as always!!!

Abby runs The Passage Inn in Cutter’s Pass, NC. It is located near the Appalachian Trail sms lots of hikers stay here to get off the trail for a night. There has been the disappearance of 7 people over the years in this area and all remain unsolved mysteries!!

Landon is a journalist who was trying to piece together the missing people when he goes missing himself. His brother, Trey, arrives at the inn 4 months and his brother disappears. Will he be able to figure out anything? Will he bring Abby and others into this hub??

Miranda tells the story by starting with the most recent disappearance and working back to the first which was the Fraternity Four in 1997. Readers will be immersed in this riveting story right from the beginning.

Thank you for the early digital copy that I received.