Thank you for allowing me the chance to read this book early and write a review!

I am a huge fan of Megan Miranda's. I've read all of her adult books, starting with THE PERFECT STRANGER. I am excited each year when she has a new release.

THE LAST TO VANISH is a classic Megan Miranda thriller. There's a slow burn to the story, but it all culminates in not one but TWO surprise twists at the end, which made the read worth it.

I loved the setting. I am a huge fan of small-town/inclusive community thrillers where everyone knows something the stranger/newcomer doesn't know. Miranda did a great job providing a clear, developed setting that made the reader feel like they were part of the town (but still not quite part of it, like the narrator).

The plot was OK. The classic story of disappearances in national parks is definitely something I gravitate towards. Miranda was able to weave that classic plot into the story clearly. But, for most of the book, I was a little bored. Frankly, there weren't enough red herrings or clues for me to get really invested and try to "guess' what had happened.

The characters were fun. I liked Abby (the main character) and the other townspeople. They were classic stereotypes for this setting, but worked well.

While not my favorite, I'll continue to read her summer thrillers!

This is my favorite Megan Miranda book yet! Wow. I read a lot of thrillers and mysteries and I have not gasped out loud in YEARS from a reveal / story. I love the way MM unfolds a story and can evoke so many feelings along the way. Abby is stuck in-between being an insider and outsider in Cutter's Pass even though she's lived and worked there for 10 years and knows everyone. But how well does she know them? And what happened to all the people who have vanished over the last 25 years? Well tuck in, because MM does a masterful job of setting the scene, showing the town and the vibe there and presenting an impossible to crack mystery. And then slowly slowly pulls at a thread that slowly starts to unravel before it's sudden all apart. I cannot put any spoilers because it should be enjoyed with fresh eyes but it was MAGNIFICENT.

Thank you to Scribner for providing a NetGalley ARC and Libro.fm for providing an ALC of The Last to Vanish!

Pub date: 7/26/22
Genre: small-town mystery
In one sentence: Abby Lovett manages The Passage Inn in small town Cutter's Pass - where people can't seem to help but disappear.

If you like slow-burn mysteries, you're the target audience for this book! Protagonist Abby leads us through the cases of those who disappeared from Cutter's Pass. There's plenty of mystery, but this isn't a mile a minute thriller. There are a few good twists starting at about 65% in, and I only guessed a small portion of the ending.

Overall, I loved the atmosphere of Cutter's Pass, and I enjoyed trying to figure out the mystery.

✨Book Review✨
Book: Last to Vanish
Author: Megan Miranda
Genre: Thriller/mystery

This book takes place in Cutters Pass, NC a small hikers/backpackers resort town near the Appalachian trails. I loved the atmospheric tone this book took however, it ended up being a bit repetitive.

The mystery was a slow burn and ended up picking up towards the end of the book, but by that time I was kind of over it. Other than the main character, none of the other characters really developed for me. I may have liked this book in the cold winter months vs. summertime.

One of those books that starts out slow and gradually builds and builds to a crescendo. Just as you're reading along and things are as you expect, suddenly they just aren't at all. If you like small town thrillers, this book is for you! PS. Don't read before visiting a small town with a mysterious past and tight-lipped townspeople!

The Last To Vanish is about an outdoorsy town called Cutter’s Pass, located close to the Appalachian Trail in North Carolina, where several disappearances happened within the past few decades. Abbey stumbled upon the town ten years ago and started working at the inn. She fell in love with the town and the life she created there. Abbey's curiosity about the disappearances fuels again when a journalist, Landon West, goes missing after investigating the disappearances surrounding the vanishing trial, and his brother suddenly shows up at the inn.

It had a slow start, but it picked up fairly quickly. I could not stop reading once it picked up. The twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat for the better part of the book. It was easy to miss some obvious clues, so the major twist at the end shocked me. I also enjoyed the atmosphere and feel of the book. Although Cutter’s Pass is a crowded touristy place, it is apparent that the mountains create a dark, claustrophobic, and eerie feeling over the town. This atmospheric aspect plays a significant role in the book and adds to the mystery of both the town and the unsolved disappearances.

The only thing I thought could have been better is the character development.
All the characters seemed interesting and unique, but they turned out to be one-dimensional throughout the book. I wish the book went more in-depth about their background and had the characters be more fleshed out. I really enjoyed this book, though. It was a suspenseful page-turner mystery with an eerie atmospheric backdrop.


Thank you to NetGallery and to Scribner for giving me a copy of this book.

I liked this a lot! This was my first foray into Megan Miranda's works and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I though that, while the beginning of this was a bit slow for my tastes, it was such a fast read that I read it in just a few days. I thought that the mystery itself was not super interesting to me, but it was plotted well which helped keep me engaged throughout reading this book. I'm interested to look into more by this author and see if more of her work interests me even more! 3.5 stars rounded up to 4!

Cutter’s Pass, NC is a small fictional town in the mountains, near the Appalachian trails, made famous for numerous unsolved disappearances over the span of 25 years. The residents would have outsiders believe that said disappearances were just coincidences. No bodies were ever recovered.

Even though Abby Lovett has been working at the local inn for about ten years she still feels like an outsider at times. She gets dragged into the mystery when a journalist goes missing on her watch and his brother shows up a few months later with many questions needing to be answered. The story is told from Abby's perspective and is broken down into sections focusing on each disappearance starting with the most recent and working backwards.

Much like Miranda's last book, Such a Quiet Place, this book is very atmospheric. I had a very clear picture of the town, the people in it, the inn and the hiking trail. There was an eerie sense that all is not what it seemed. The mystery was a slow burn, and the tension didn't really increase until about the last 20% of the book at which point there was a lot to unpack.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Special thanks to @netgalley for the digital ARC of The Last to Vanish for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

I was never fully bored with this book, but I got to about the halfway point and realized nothing was happening. It all ends up be a big to do about very little, which was disappointing, but it's also not entirely without merit and does a decent job of setting up the town and inn as the true protagonists of the story... I just wish there was more action mixed in, I suppose.

Do you ever get SO excited about a new book coming from a favorite author that your anticipation builds to a level where it’s hard not to be disappointed??
I was worried that might be the case with The Last to Vanish - I remember Megan Miranda posting on Instagram last summer that she had done some Appalachian Trail hiking to research her upcoming book. I had just finished a two week backpacking trip on the AT, and one of my favorite thriller writers was going to be releasing a book involving it - how cool was that?! When Scribner offered me an ARC, I wanted to start reading it right away, but I forced myself to wait until after my spring backpacking trip to avoid having nightmares in the AZ woods 🤣🤣
This week I decided it was time to dive into the twisty fun. Set in fictional Cutter's Pass, a small mountain town off the AT in North Carolina, The Last to Vanish tells the story of multiple disappearances from the town over the last 25 years. Abby has been working at The Passage Inn, where the trail up the mountain begins, but she still feels like an outsider in the close knit community. No one in town seems concerned about the disappearances or being known as the "most dangerous town in NC". As small things begin to add up to bother her, Abby finds the truth is...
I got swept up in the story and just HAD to know what happened immediately! It combined my love for twisty thrillers with my love for hiking, and the unique trail towns - I feel like I've been to a few towns which remind me of Cutter's Pass (and I'm very glad I didn't disappear!).
Perfect for thriller fans and outdoor enthusiasts, check this one out when it publishes 7/26!! Thanks again to NetGalley, Scriberner, and Marysue Rucci Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to preview The Lat to Vanish.
I like Megan Miranda and her ability to provide novels with strong female characters and plot driven stories.
This novel is written in first person. Abby Lovett is a transplant to a village in North Carolina with an Inn run by her “aunt”. Strange disappearances and missing people are it’s claim to fame. Abby is haunted by the stories of these missing people but the tourists still come.
A recent missing person, a young writer, bothers her. She didn’t live at the Inn when the others had gone missing. But she knew this young man. When his brother arrives determined to find out what happened, Abby is thrown into the new and old missing person cases. She knows there are secrets but is frightened at what she may find if she pursues the clues. And there are secrets because Abby has her own.
Good book. Some parts are wordy but overall a good read.
4 stars

Thank you so much to Netgalley and publishers, Scribner and Marysue Rucci Books for this #gifted ARC! This was such a fantastic and atmospheric mystery set in a picturesque mountain town near the Appalachian Mountains called, Cutter’s Pass.

While this town may convey a warm welcome to tourists and visitors, it’s also known for its multiple disappearances of 7 visitors who arrived over the span of 25 years and then were never heard from again. Each missing person was last seen in connection with the mountain trails, the Passage Inn-where our MC, Abby, lives and works as manager, or the town itself and I truly couldn’t wait to unravel the mystery of just how the people and this place were connected to it all. As the secrets started to become exposed and as Abby and the brother of one of the missing people start to untangle the history of Cutter’s Pass, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough!

I found the main character, Abby, to be well written and was intrigued by all of the residents and visitors associated with this seemingly perfect town. There were also several twists along the way, a couple of which truly took me surprise! If you’re looking for a summer mystery that almost reads as if you’re listening to a true crime podcast then look no further than this one! I can’t recommend enough!

Thank you to Scribner for a gifted copy of The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda. This is my honest review!

"And I so I said, in an echo of Cory's of words: 'You won't find any secrets here.' And those were presumably the last words ever spoken to Farrah Jordan."

Secrets, small town life, loneliness, and unexplained missing persons over time... The Last to Vanish is a moody, tense story that often has an edgy ghost story vibe. I have read all of Megan Miranda's books and this might be my favorite one of hers. When I think of her books I often think of her stories evoking a sense of desperation, unraveling, or disorientation within her character's story; similar feelings are present here but I also thought the tone was at times more unsettling, creepy even at times (kind of what's out there in the dark, in the woods, in this town vibe). I also thought the context/setting was a critical part of the story, the setting of the hotel at the start of a trail/hiking area in NC at the Appalachian Trail, the small town insularity that kept outsides off balance, and the sense that the town and woods themselves were characters themselves. The tone and moodiness really worked for me as well as the uncertainty of what was going on. I felt that the setting and characters were very real and well developed.

At times though the pacing was a bit slow for me, perhaps because of the attention to detail, and some threads/misdirection worked better for me than others. That's my own limitation to the story and perhaps speaks to my overall enjoyment, I wanted to know what was going on but Megan Miranda let the story, the setting, the secrets, seep out slowly.

Secrets can be hurtful, can reveal a lot of harm, but can also bind people together in unexpected ways. The Last to Vanish honors the complexity of secrets and small town life.

A North Carolina mountain town with several disappearances and lots of secrets......sign me up! This was a well thought out mystery and it was so much fun finding out more and more as the story unfolds. Who can be trusted? Who is hiding the truth? It could be anyone and I would not have guessed where the story takes you. I thought the narrator was good and I will be recommending this one to anyone who enjoys a solid mystery with a good mix of thriller.

Cutter's Pass is a mountain town frequented by hikers and outdoor explorers. It is also known for its string of missing young people who walk into the wilderness and never return. Abigail runs the local inn where Trey comes to investigate the disappearance of his brother. This is a fast-paced mystery set in a close-knit town hiding lots of secrets. Abigail makes a great main character because she is both right in the middle of the danger and standing on the outside of the town history. The ending was both surprising and a nice wrap up to the story so you are left satisfied with the answers. I really enjoyed this one, even though I know nothing about outdoor adventures (in case people wonder about their investment in the setting).

Thanks to Megan Miranda, Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda is one of those books where the setting becomes its own character. Cutter's Pass is moody and dark, and amps up the darkness of this unputdownable thriller. Abby Lovett is a fantastic character, and I was biting my nails as I turned the pages. I didn't see the twist coming! Highly recommend!

I would like to thank NetGalley and Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books for providing me with an early copy of this e-book to read and give my honest review.
Do you want something dark? Something that makes your skin crawl just a bit? Something that leaves you guessing and twists? Give this one a try.
I love a good mystery. One I cannot truly solve and this one was it. I was not expecting the ending. I was not expecting the twist. It's always fun to have your mind messed with enough that you're not sure where things might be going.
I enjoyed how Miranda made a slow reveal of how all the characters in this book were somehow connected. It kept me wanting to read to find out how it all came together.
The best part of this book is the town of Cutter's Pass. The atmosphere of the town drips from each page. The detail with which the author shows you what it looks like are great. It's dark and has a mysterious past with the the disappearances that have happened over the years. So why is it people keep coming back. For the mystery, of course.
The pacing was nice, seeing as I read it so quickly. The guessing definitely kept me wanting to read.
It's hard to give a complete review without spoiling things so I'll leave it with they mystery is worth the read. This was my first Miranda read and it definitely makes me want to give some of her other books a try.

A super slow burn with shallow characters.

Taking place in a town called Cutters Pass, this book centers around Abigail as she becomes entangled in the mysteries surrounding the many unsolved disappearances that have haunted the town.
With the brother of one of the victims mysteriously showing up in the middle of the night to look for answers, Abigail soon discovers how little she knows about the people who surround her.

This was a typical suspense novel. I wasn’t excited about it but didn’t hate it. It just seemed to be missing something that I can’t quite put my finger on.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Even after a decade in her small North Carolina mountain town, Abby Lovett feels like an outsider. Known for its outdoor recreation, Cutter's Pass also has a history of mysterious disappearances, seven in the last 25 years. When a man arrives looking for his missing brother, the town closes ranks and Abigail learns how much she doesn't know about her friends and coworkers.

Megan Miranda's latest thriller gets five stars for its setting, but only three for its story. Cutter's Pass makes for an excellent atmospheric town but the supporting characters lack depth and complexity. A slow-build mystery, The Last to Vanish takes its time getting to the action, hoping the tension will keep you engaged. Which means you'll either love this moody thriller or you will find that it drags too much for your mood.

Megan Miranda has continued to write books that define the word "unputdownable." I could not stop reading The Last to Vanish. I read through the firework, I stayed up waaaaay too late, I read through my subway stop, I read during my lunch, I read 15 minutes past my lunch. I HAD to finish.

And I'm so glad I did.

Ten years ago, Abby Lovett started working at The Passage Inn in Cutter's Pass. It's a cozy, upscale resort, in a Carolina mountain town. Cutter's Pass is known for it's outdoor activities, as well as it's entry into the Appalachian trail, but it's best known for the disappearances. First for the Fraternity Four, then for Alice, then Farrah, and most recently for Landon West.

Abby can't help but feel like an outsider still, even after 10 years. But when Landon's brother, Trey shows and starts asking questions, Abby starts feeling the town closing rank yet again....and Abby starts feeling left out yet again.

This has the typical suspense that I've come to expect from a Megan Miranda book and still, I was thrilled with every twist. This was another thriller that will rank high on my best of list for the year.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.