This book had the best atmospheric setting that just pulled you in. This book is set on the isolated Isla Colel. An island off the coast of Mexico that used to be a top tourist destination until a hurricane destroyed quite a bit of the island. Now only locals and a few expats remain on the island. The once daily ferry to the island only runs once a week if that. Abby is visiting the island as this is the last place her fiancée was seen before she died. It was a suspenseful, twisty good read trying to unravel the clues to what happened to Eszter.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine Books for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest thriller by Andrea Bartz. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4 stars!

Abby felt drawn to go to Isla Colel because it was where her fiancée, Eszter, died to try and understand everything that happened. The island is small with just a few locals and expats remaining, and the ferry only runs periodically. Abby tries to befriend the expat group, but mysteries and secrets swarm around all of them.

I'm always a fan of locked-room style mysteries. This was a slow burn atmospheric thriller, with a small group of characters all with backstories and suspicious behavior. There are plenty of requisite twists and turns, and that ending was a big surprise. It’s an exploration of love, loss, moving forward, and it kept me guessing and questioning everyone.

Drowning in grief, Abby sets out to solve the mystery of her fiancé's tragic death months prior. Upon arriving on the beautiful island of Isla Colel, she integrates herself with a group of expats, some who once knew her then fiance. She soon begins to question the people around her, seeing danger in what should have been a haven.

This was an atmospheric, slow-burn mystery set on a remote island full of suspicious characters all around. The grief surrounding the protagonist was almost a character in itself. The choices Abby made and her every waking second revolved around her quest in finding out the truth. While some of her decisions were questionable, it strongly portrayed what grief and loss can do to a person. This was descriptive and gripping, creating a sense of dread, knowing something is not right on what is otherwise a beautiful island. If you enjoy a solid mystery and well-told story, you will like this one. Three and a half stars.

Thank you, Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for this ARC.

A death on a remote island, sign me up for a locked room mystery. The book did deliver on this part, Abby's grief and determination to find the killer was relatable, but not always her choices. They seemed a little off character at times. However, the twists kept coming and I really enjoyed the writing style. While this is not my favorite Andrea Bartz's novel, I will still recommend it as a good one to read.

This did not work for me, but it is difficult to put my finger on the reason(s) why. This should have been a 4-5 star read for me, just based on the synopsis - mysterious death, plenty of suspects and secrets, and a remote location - throw in a tropical storm/hurricane and *chef's kiss*. Except...everyone annoyed me. Everyone. Something about the writing style grated on my nerves as well, and don't even get me started on the ending. Ugh. Just...ugh.

I know this is not a helpful review, but honestly there's not one thing that I can point to and say "this was awful". There's nothing wrong with the prose, it just didn't work for me. So, if you're looking for a remote island mystery, there's no reason not to try it, as long as you can tolerate an entire cast of unlikeable characters and being inside the POV of a whiny character for more than 1/2 the book. I could not.

After Abby’s finance dies from a tragic accident in the beautiful Isla Colel, Abby travels there to restep Ezster’s trip and try to relive her memories as a way to be close to her. However she is suspicious after she meets the group of expats that Ezster was friendly with.

This story is really a look at grief and how it affects our decisions. The main character is grieving as she investigates her finance’s death. The atmosphere is a major component of the story and we get a great feel for Isla Colel. While I was curious how it would end, I did not connect with the main character or story in a major way. It is a fast read and good for if you’re in the mood for a slower mystery.

“Everyone here is so dang nice. This place is a kind of paradise. So how could it have taken the love of my life from me?”

The Last Ferry Out comes out 5/20.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group Ballantine for the eARC.

I really enjoy Andrea Bartz novels. This one set on a tropical island gave me the exact tense slow burn mystery I was looking for.

Slow Burn Tropical Mystery. If you're looking for balls to the wall action and suspense... this aint that book. If you're looking for a more meandering yet tense... yet also tropical and relaxed... tale... hey, you've found that!

This is one of those tropical tales that uses its setting particularly well and indeed really transports the reader to that more low-key vibe, particularly among the more off-the-beaten-path, smaller, non-touristy islands... where perhaps people are willing to kill to keep it that way. Here the story is more about the various expats who have been on the island for varying amounts of time from just a year or two to a few decades and the love they have for the tropical paradise they've created amongst themselves in their fairly tight nit community.

Then... you have the outsider. Both the woman who originally came... and the woman who comes later looking to find out what happened in her fiancée's final days.

In a community of expats, *everyone* has their secrets of the life they are escaping from, and *everyone* has reasons for wanting to be here rather than there. This is where the mystery really comes to bear, in sorting through the various histories and motivations of pretty well everyone on the island... including our main narrator who just got there and her fiancée.

Ultimately this is absolutely a book you come to more for the setting and stay for because maybe you want a touch more tense than a cozy mystery... but still want to be relaxed rather than thrilled, so you don't want to go into a full on horror tale either. This book strikes just that balance, and I could very easily see it being read widely by the very tourists so many of the characters herein absolutely despise.

Overall a fun read, if slow - indeed, it does read quite a bit slower than its slightly over 300 page length suggests, feeling like it is perhaps 100 pages or so longer than it actually is. And yet, that stunning setting. Maybe you want to feel like you're there longer than you actually are, anyway. If so, you're going to love this book.

Very much recommended.

Read If You Like:
#️⃣ Multiple POV
⏳ Past and Present Timelines
🏝️ Isolated Tropical Setting
🗝️ Locked Room Thriller Vibes
🔎 Seeking the Truth in a Tragedy
🐌 Slow-burn Suspense
👀 Everyone is a Suspect
🤐 Secrets & Lies

Abby flees to Isla Colel, seeking answers to what happened in the final days prior to her fiancé Eszter’s untimely death. Isla Colel is a once-glamorous Caribbean island now quietly rotting in the aftermath of natural disaster and collapse of the local economy. Now, those that live there want to keep it small and quiet, even the expats running from their lives want that too as it is now a place for those running from their lives and hiding out from the secrets that loom in the shadows.

Eszter died on the island several months prior under suspicious circumstances, succumbing to a deathly food allergy attack.

So, Abby inserts herself into the circle of Eszter’s eccentric expat friends, hoping to understand what really happened. Because no matter how plausible it is she died innocently, something is off and secrets and lies keep piling up, leading Abby to further believe something sinister happened to Eszter.

Abby’s growing instability as she continues to seek answers, and as her grief morphs into obsession, she begins to question everyone’s motives—including her own.

As the days slip by and her grip on reality frays, Abby must decide how far she’s willing to go for answers—and whether she’s prepared to handle what she finds.

There are layered answers that come as to what happened to Eszter all the way until the final moments of the story being told- and I truly loved those layers and twists and turns were truly everyone all the way until the end was a suspect!

Thank you so much to PRHA for my gifted ALC and Ballentine for my gifted ARC!

The Last Ferry Out by Andrea Bartz is an atmospheric and moody mystery/thriller that will have you questioning how well you really know your partner.

Abby was supposed to have joined her fiancèe Eszter on the beautiful island of Isla Colel. But instead, Abby is on the island alone, trying to process the tragic death of Eszter. Eszter had many allergies but she was always vigilant, especially while traveling, making sure that she had her EpiPen at all times. So to Abby it makes no sense that Eszter died of anaphylactic shock mere feet away from the EpiPen. Now on the island, Abby is trying to retrace Eszter's last days. Finding the group of expats that Eszter was close to, Abby finds herself with more questions than answers. When one of the expats says he knows the truth about what happened to Eszter, Abby makes plans to meet with him in the morning. Only, the next morning he is missing. The more Abby digs into the expats, Eszter, and the island, the more she finds dark secrets that were meant to stay hidden.

This was definitely one of those slow burn reads with descriptive and haunting prose, a cast of suspicious characters and foreboding throughout. The description of the settings were immersive and rich and I could definitely see this playing out in my head. The characters are well written and feel realistic, each one having his or her own secret that the island keeps. One thing that I have to point out is I felt like parts of this story were a bit too slow, but I still really enjoyed being fully immersed into it! Overall, a great mystery/suspense more than a straight up thriller, with some emotional depths that pull you in deep. I highly recommend this for fans of atmospheric and chilling mystery thrillers!

Thank you to NetGalley, Andrea Bartz, and Random House Publishing Group/Ballantine for this ARC!! Publication date is May 20th 2025.

Thanks to Ballantine Books for an advanced copy of The Last Ferry Out by Andrea Bartz. I love remote island settings which is what drew me into wantng to read this one.

Unfortunately, this was too slow a burn for me in a thriller. I wanted more and I started to get bored about midway through. I loved the atmospheric setting and the ending did surprise me.

If you're a fan of a slow burn thriller you'll enjoy this one.

At times I fantasize about moving away from the US. While remote islands off Mexico isn’t on my radar, apparently it is for some people.

A few months ago Abby received the call no one ever wants - your loved one has died. Only Abby’s loved one, her fiancé Eszter, died alone of anaphylaxis on an island in the Mexican Caribbean. No one there for her. Just taking a time out from life to gather her thoughts and put the finishing touches on her business degree project.

Now, months after Eszter’s death, Abby is visiting the tiny Isla Colel to try to put together the last days of Eszter’s life. What Abby finds is an amazing group of ‘ex-pats’ who have made the isle their home. They all seem to be hiding something. Does it have to do with Eszter’s death? Abby is tormented by the thought that someone might not be telling the truth.

Over the course of just a few days, Abby becomes integrated into this group, all the while not quite trusting any of them. But what Abby is going to find is a tangled web of lies and deceit that she never could have imagined. In doing so, maybe Abby will finally be able to let go of Eszter and move on.

Really fascinating and riveting novel about the lies, or omission of the truth, that we think we can get away with. The little things we tell ourselves really won’t make a huge difference. Andrea Bartz has woven a tale full of these things not said. Isla Colel is a masterpiece of truths hidden. I couldn’t put this one down. With every chapter, someone else was guilty. That is the true test of a great mystery. There is so much more than mystery in this book. Self-realization, acceptance, moving on.

Great read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for- Ballantine for eARC!

This was a slow-burn mystery centered on Abby’s search for answers surrounding the death of her fiancé, Eszter, on an island in Mexico. What begins as a simple desire to meet the people Eszter spent her final days with gradually evolves into a deeper investigation into the suspicious circumstances of her death.

I enjoyed getting to know the characters, especially as their motives were constantly in question. There was always the sense that everyone knew something Abby didn’t, which kept the intrigue alive. However, just when it felt like the story was building toward a major revelation, it would shift directions, often into chapters that felt more like filler than forward momentum. This made the pacing feel uneven, especially since the entire story is set over just a few days.

That said, the author’s descriptions of the scenery and setting were beautifully done—vivid and immersive. This was my first book by this author, and despite some pacing issues, I’d definitely be interested in reading more of her work..

Thank you so much to @netgalley copy of The Last Ferry Out! This is a perfect read for the beach! I have read all of Bartz books, and although not my favorite (I think it was a me issue) this was a slow suspense with some heavier emotions of grief, finding oneself after loss and sadness.

I think I was expecting a much twistier read, but I kinda knew where this was going from the beginning. There were a lot of different storylines colliding which made it hard to focus and I did not really care for the Eszter who was pretty damn selfish in my opinion.

>>>> for some original book related illustrations, check out my blog :) <<<<
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I really enjoyed that the main characters were a queer couple without it being the major focus of the story. I appreciated that it was treated like any other relationship and did not become the reason for violence or a point of homophobia within the story.

I also loved the multiple types of characters that were presented throughout the story and the way they seemingly wove together, despite being vastly different from one another but shared a desire to 'start over' or live differently.

Andrea Bartz' writing is excellent. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Colel and the nature. I felt like I could picture myself there.

Overall I really enjoyed this book! The characters were interesting, the story kept me engaged. I had moments of being enraged by certain characters (don't want to spoil anything!) but in a way that made me want to keep reading.

3.5 stars!

I really enjoyed the pace and build of this one!

Abby is a newcomer on Isla Colel, where everyone has a secret and people give each other space to keep their secrets. Abby's fiancee, Ezster, tragically passed away on the island, and Abby needs to visit to process her grief. But even Ezster had her own secrets...

I enjoyed the twists and turns of this novel! I would have liked to get to know the characters on the island more, to understand their motivations and actions. Ultimately, while the ending was surprising and made sense within the novel, it would have been more satisfying if there had been more motivation behind the characters' actions, and a deeper reason behind the choices they made than what was on the surface.

Thank you for the eARC!

The Last Ferry Out has a great premise and takes place in an enticing setting. Abby travels to Isla Colel, a tropical island where her fiancée, Eszter' died. I enjoyed the premise of a woman searching for answers on an island with only one ferry going in and out on a weekly basis. I loved how this created a sort of trapped feeling which I enjoy in books. Plus, another person goes missing, well I thought this would be a slam dunk for me. Unfortunately, it was missing that little bit of something as well as a faster pace which would have earned this book a higher star rating.


I found this book to be slow moving, and I struggle with slow burns. I wanted things to hurry up quite a bit while reading. Some of those characters including Abby annoyed me at times. Hey, it happens we aren't meant to like them all. What I did enjoy was the setting, the atmosphere, the mystery, the secrets, and the twists.

The book is told mainly in the present but goes back and readers get to see Abby and Eszter together. This book looks at love, loss, secrets, and grief.

This was a solid three-star book for me. Enjoyable yet too slow in parts for me. Others enjoyed this book more than I did, so please read their reviews as well.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the eARC!
I enjoyed this one, it had me guessing quite a bit, but there was a lot of characters to keep track of, so it was a little on the difficult side to read.
I really liked the location/setting and the plot, but was not very surprised by the ending. I had it figured out about halfway through. I really feel like Abby and Ezster were kind of forced and didn’t really work together, so the romance aspect of the book wasn’t great. There just wasn’t chemistry between them when the flashback scenes would come.
It was entertaining to read, and the remoteness of the setting was fantastic.

Unfortunately I'm DNFing this at 70% in. I just can't get into this story. It is very much a slow burn mystery that is a little too slow burn. The characters are uninteresting and I feel that the story could literally be told in half the amount of pages as there is a lot of extraneous information that yes, may eventually lead to something, but it is taking entirely too long to take off.

I love an Andrea Bartz novel and while this one was moody and chilling, it was a bit slow moving for me. Abby was a great MC, doing her best to live through the grief of losing her fiance but it took until halfway through the book to get any action.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the ARC.