Andrea Bartz returns with a moody island thriller that trades neon cocktails for rip currents. The Last Ferry Out strands grief stricken Abby on Isla Colel, a once buzzy paradise hollowed out by a hurricane and a vanishing ferry schedule. She has come to stand where her fiancée, Eszter, died. What she finds instead is a tight knot of expats, a missing man who claimed to know the truth, and a feeling that the island itself wants her to stop asking questions.
What it is about
Abby arrives on Isla Colel looking for closure and meets a seductive circle of locals and strays who stayed after the storm. When one of them hints that Eszter’s death was not an accident, then disappears, Abby starts pulling on threads. The novel moves between Abby’s present day hunt and earlier chapters that sketch her relationship with Eszter, letting love, guilt, and doubt braid into the mystery. With a ferry that only comes every week or so and weather that turns on a dime, the island becomes a natural pressure cooker.
What works
Bartz is in her element with atmosphere. The ruined resort bars, salt blistered roads, and creeping storm fronts create a claustrophobic vibe that pairs perfectly with a dwindling suspect pool. The expat microcosm feels both alluring and predatory, which keeps the social dynamics tense even when very little is said aloud. The dual timeline pays off emotionally, giving Eszter dimension and grounding Abby’s obsession in something more than genre duty. When the plot finally breaks open, the momentum carries through an excellent set piece and a cheeky last page stinger.
What holds it back
The first half is a deliberate slow burn. If you like your thrillers sprinting from page one, you may feel impatient. A few POV shifts and timeline pivots can read choppy, and Abby’s choices, while believable inside her grief, may test your sympathy in spots. The finale resolves the whodunnit cleanly, but the very last stretch will feel restrained if you expect a jaw on the floor denouement.
Themes to savor
This is as much about the aftershocks of loss as it is about a murderer on the loose. Bartz threads in questions of who gets to reinvent themselves offshore, how communities police their secrets, and why the living sometimes hold tighter to a story than to the person they lost. The queer romance at the book’s core is treated with care, and the flashbacks do real work instead of functioning as mere mood lighting.
Verdict
The Last Ferry Out is a salt stung, slow building thriller with an excellent sense of place and a steady undercurrent of dread. Come for the locked island vibes and the expat intrigue. Stay for the way Bartz lets grief distort a paradise until every palm frond looks like a knife.
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