Overall, I liked Andrea Bartz’ newest thriller, The Last Ferry Out. I mean, it’s definitely no We Were Never Here, but what could be? That twisted friendship and the travel wildness and the unreliable, ominous vibes? Perfect book. So obviously, I wanted to read the author’s next book!

In The Last Ferry Out, we still have a thriller in a distant backpacking location, but instead of a twisted friendship, we have expat secrets at the heart. When Abby goes to Isla Colel, she hopes learn more about her fiance Eszter’s last days and what Eszter wanted to tell her, but didn’t get a chance to say before she died.  Abby quickly meets a crew of expats, who knew Eszter on the island.

I loved the expat circle, first because it worked to pull Abby in. It felt realistic that the few English speakers on the island would insta-bond, especially those who’d consciously dropped out of working and chasing success. There’s an easy, relaxed friendship that felt realistic to me, but also worked for a mystery novel, with casual meetups and no one paying much attention if someone didn’t show or didn’t text back.

The island life begins to reveal expat secrets of varying intensity. I just loved the blend of expats restarting their lives, expats who couldn’t make it at home or didn’t fit in or were just loners.  The novel really nailed those questions: Is this an interesting drifter who doesn’t feel like following the prescribed career path? Or is there a strong reason, perhaps a legal reason, why he hasn’t been home in years? It had similar vibes with parts of The Beach, where the fun and freedom of backpacking life begins to show darker sides. I think this atmosphere is also what I responded well to in We Were Never Here.

The disappointing thing is mostly that I kept hearing this book was so twisty, and after We Were Never Here, I had very high expectations. But Last Ferry Out was very much a straightforward story of Abby asking direct questions about Eszter and deciding which answers were real, and then asking more questions, and deciding which answers were real, with a final reveal to the reader of the real villains explaining how none of the coincidences were coincidental. It was an interesting ending, and it did tie off the ends neatly, but it just didn’t live up We Were Never Here for me.

Good for readers interested in the darker side of backpacking like in The Suspect and The Beach, or The Glass Kingdom for expat secrets.