The Last Flight by Julie Clark

Synopsis

“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 as bright as his promising political career, and he’s not above using his staff to track Claire’s every move, making sure she’s living up to his impossible standards. But what he doesn’t know is that Claire has worked for months on a plan to vanish.

A chance meeting in an airport bar brings her together with a woman whose circumstances seem equally dire. Together they make a last-minute decision to switch tickets–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 goes down, 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.”

-Synopsis from StoryGraph

Review

I first heard about this book from a friend who stumbled across it at the library, read it, and highly recommended it to me. I enjoy thrillers and the premise of this one was very intriguing.

The story begins with Claire making preparations to leave her abusive husband. As the synopsis mentions, she has everything for her disappearance planned until a last minute schedule change throws a wrench in her plans.

I really sympathized with Claire’s desperation to escape this abusive relationship, something that is shown in flashbacks. Her husband, Rory, is not the man she thought she was when she married him and she believes her only option is to leave him. At the airport, she meets a woman named Eva who is in an equally desperate situation and is willing to switch tickets with Claire, allowing them both a chance to start over.

The story is told through Claire’s first person present-day point of view, and Eva’s third person past point of view. As Claire deals with her new reality, we get to see what happened in Eva’s life that led her to the airport that day. Claire has no idea that when she assumes Eva’s identity she may be taken on a litany of new problems that Eva was also running from.

The story is suspenseful and well-paced. At some points I guessed what would happen, but there were a few surprises that I enjoyed.

I will say the ending was a little ambiguous. If you are someone who enjoys open-ended style endings that are open for interpretation, you will probably appreciate this one. Overall, if you are a fan of thrillers I would say this is a solid choice. I would consider reading future books from this author as well.