THE LAST TO VANISH

3.5 stars out of 5

Don't get me wrong: This is a well-written story that held my attention from beginning to end just because I wanted to find out what really happened to all the people who inexplicably went missing over the years in the small town of Cutter's Pass, North Carolina. But as "thrillers" go, I have to say there wasn't a whole lot of edge-of-my-seat tension. Besides that, there wasn't a single character for whom I would have cried had he or she been bumped off somewhere along the line. 

That includes Abigail Lovett, who sort of wandered into town a decade ago and stayed to help run The Passage Inn, situated not far from an Appalachian Trail trailhead. Accessing that means traversing what's now known as the "Vanishing Trail" that ends at Shallow Falls - a place best known as the site of the disappearance of the so-called "Fraternity Four." This group of four friends ventured out on a hike 15 years ago, never returned and never have been seen again. Since then, two women have gone missing and never been found, as did, more recently, journalist Landon West, who was investigating their disappearances. Now, that journalist's brother Trey has come to town looking for clues as to what happened, staying at a cabin at the Inn and making Abby, her co-worker Gloria and Inn builder/owner Celeste quite nervous for reasons not really clear. Maybe that's on purpose, intended to make readers more curious as well; instead, it only gave me another reason not to care much about what happens to any of the three characters.

Meanwhile, the townspeople seem to have closed in around themselves, allowing the rumors surrounding the disappearances to fuel the fires of the tourist trade while avoiding any meaningful discussion of the facts. They totally dismiss rumors of a strange man who lives a secluded life in the woods who, some say, might have had something to do with what happened to the missing people. Glimpses of other townspeople, including the sheriff, seem to suggest some kind of awareness or even culpability, but nothing is fleshed out enough to make for a really intriguing theory.

Abby herself remains mostly in the dark, musing over possibilities until incriminating evidence turns up in an unexpected place. At that point, some of what may have happened years ago begins to make sense, but mostly it arouses more suspicions about who her co-workers and neighbors really are and what they really know right up to the end, when Abby learns the hard way that there's good reason for the truth to be hidden all these years.

All told, it's an enjoyable book that, if I were taking a vacation, I'd be happy I toted along to read on the beach. Thanks to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy. 

The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda (Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books, July 2022); 332 pp.