The Last Time We Drowned

 

A thriller where the main character is a bookstagrammer? Reader, I never stood a chance.

Charlie is broke, down on her luck, and nursing a betrayal from her former best friend when she gets offered the kind of gig that sounds too good to be true: live on a luxury yacht with a handful of famous influencers, learn to grow her following, and make life changing money promoting the boat. So of course she says yes.

But the women onboard are nothing like their feeds. Everyone has secrets, Charlie included. And when she starts asking what happened to the influencer she replaced, she gets the sinking feeling the answer is something very bad. Then a hurricane rolls in, traps the whole group at sea with their billionaire boss, and the dream curdles fast. Communications get sabotaged. Supplies run low. Everyone turns paranoid. Is there a ghost haunting this boat, or a killer who wants the secrets to stay buried?

This is a fun popcorn thriller, exactly what you want for the pool or the beach. I loved having a bookstagrammer at the center of it, and the locked room (locked yacht?) setup really worked for me. The pace never dragged. Once the storm hit and the group was stuck onboard, the whole thing tightened up and got claustrophobic. I kept waiting for the hurricane to do real damage, but that was never where the threat was. The danger was already onboard.

One honest note: the title and that moody cover set you up for a heavier, sadder book than you actually get. The real pull here is the trapped-on-a-boat tension, not the melancholy the packaging promises. Go in expecting a twisty beach read and you’ll have a great time.

Stephanie Németh-Parker narrates and does a lovely job. She had several women in the same age range to voice and kept every one of them distinct, which is harder than it sounds.

A quick, satisfying listen and a solid pick if you love a locked room mystery or you’re a little nosy about what really goes on behind the influencer curtain. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Sourcebooks Audio for the gifted listen. The Last Time We Drowned by Saratoga Schaefer is out now.

If you enjoyed this review, you might be interested in You Are Fatally Invited, a locked room mystery by Ande Pliego.

About the Author

Saratoga Schaefer (they/them) is the USA Today Bestselling and Indie Press Bestselling author of Serial Killer Support Group, Trad Wife, The Last Time We Drowned, and A Thousand Monstrous Forms. Their books have been featured in Variety, People Magazine, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour, and their writing has appeared in Writer’s Digest, CrimeReads, and more.

For more news about Saratoga's book, visit their website and follow them on Instagram.