Daniel P Warner

In her novel The Last Flight, Julie Clark intertwines the stories of two women into a compelling thriller. Attempting to disappear from her powerful and abusive husband, Claire Cook assumes the identity of a woman she meets in the airport. Claire thought it was a chance meeting. She was wrong. Claire thinks the woman was running from a painful situation, not too different from her own. Wrong again. Eva was a drug dealer, on the run for her life.

When the plane that Eva boards in Claire’s place crashes, with no survivors, the world thinks the famous wife is gone. But her husband suspects otherwise. And Claire wonders–did Eva ever get on that plane? As Eva’s underworld of undercover cops and drug kingpins envelops Claire, she makes a mistake that threatens to expose her.

The intrigue is strong from the beginning, and the suspense builds with every page. I love how the author draws us in to Eva’s backstory, creating a likable character with a string of poor choices that led to her most desperate moment. A moment that Claire jumps into headfirst.

The Last Flight helped me better understand the patterns of spousal abuse-how a woman could get pulled into such a relationship and feel that there isn’t a way out. But the author expertly weaved it into the story in a way that didn’t slow down the narrative. Instead, it increased the story’s tension and the reader’s empathy for Claire Cook.