The Last Flight by Julie Clark

Currently, publishers are churning out thrillers at a record speed. It seems many people are in need of escapist reading. No need to ponder why — we all see it — 2020 is drunk and needs to go home.

I was somewhat coping with the virus, our politics, another black man shot by police, disappearing mailboxes, the MyPillow guy, and the recent devastating fires surrounding the Bay Area. Somewhat coping — until I heard about the asteroid that has a small chance of hitting earth just before election day. That did it for me, I turned to my favorite vice – new books.

I digitally browsed the new arrivals shelf on the SF public library website — and downloaded this thriller before I even had a chance to think about it.

“Very few people actually stop to consider how difficult it is to truly vanish. The level of detail needed to eliminate even the tiniest trace. Because there’s always something. A small thread, a seed of truth, a mistake. It only takes a tiny pinprick of circumstance to unravel it all.”

Thus, begins the prologue of The Last Flight, a quite riveting story. Two strangers, both running from lives they want desperately to change, make a last minute airport decision to switch identities and take each other’s place on their respective flights. Claire is married to a very powerful man who is about to run for the Senate, but he is dangerously abusive. Eva was a brilliant chemistry student at Berkeley who made one stupid mistake and now is in fear for her life.

The two women meet by accident at an airport and decide to swap identities. Neither knows what the other is running from. Thus starts an intriguing tale with twists and turns at every corner, as each is running from her own demons. Ms. Clark crafts the story line with parallel narratives each with a constant underpinning of paranoia. She also captures behind-closed-doors abuse from a highly respected public figure. As well as, the futility of trying to find someone — anyone to trust and tell the truth.

“It isn’t just what has been done to us, it’s a system that tells women we are unreliable, and then expendable. That our truths don’t matter when set side by side with a man’s.”

The Last Flight is not great literature and has a few plot holes, but hats off to Ms. Clark for writing an intelligent, edge-of-your-seat thriller, which kept me turning the pages well past my bedtime.

It was just the perfect escape – now I’m back and what’s this about a pool boy?

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One of the most interesting things for me about The Last Flight was imagining what it might be like to suddenly lose your identity and to try to assume another. It reminded me of one of my past favorite reads The Diver’s Clothes Lay Empty. Very short and very recommended.