Her Last Breath: A Harrowing Thriller of Survival, Secrets, and Betrayal Underground

"What Stephen King did for an empty hotel in The Shining, Taylor Adams does for a treacherous cave in his bracing, breathtaking Her Last Breath."
โ€”BookPage

From the bestselling author of No Exit and The Last Word comes a heart-pounding thriller that plunges readers into the suffocating darkness of a caveโ€”and the even darker secrets that lie within.

When Tess reluctantly joins her adventurous best friend Allie on a caving expedition, she expects to confront her claustrophobiaโ€”not a stranger who traps her in a fight for her life. A man who claims to be a fellow caver harasses them at the cave's entrance. Confident, take-no-shit Allie insults the guyโ€”and he retaliates. Soon, Tess is trapped inside a narrow crawl space hundreds of feet underground, fighting to stay alive.

Hours later, Tess emerges aliveโ€”but the nightmare is far from over.

As Tess recounts her harrowing story of survival, the detective interviewing her shares new and shocking secrets about Allie's true past. Together, they begin to suspect the brutal attack wasn't so random after all. In the hospital, as Tess pieces together the events with a detective, she learns shocking truths about Allie's past that reframe everything. Was the attack truly random? Who was Allie beneath her dazzling interior? And most chilling of allโ€”has Tess really escaped the danger, or is it still closing in?

BUY THE BOOK

Published Feb 17, 2026

329 pages

Average rating: 8.18

45 RATINGS

|

Join a book club that is reading Her Last Breath: A Harrowing Thriller of Survival, Secrets, and Betrayal Underground!

Community Reviews

BennyBsMama
Mar 28, 2026
7/10 stars
I loved the way Taylor wrote this book. The different perspectives kept me intrigued. Lots of twists and turns.
Christine
Mar 23, 2026
8/10 stars
*4.5 stars*

Taylor Adams really knows how to weaponize a setting. This was such a claustrophobic, visceral experienceโ€”his descriptive style made me feel like I was trapped right along with the characters.
The Good:
Fast-paced & Engaging: I couldn't put it down.
Wild Twists: Genuinely caught me off guard!
The Not-So-Good:
Lost half a point because it dragged in a few spots where the tension should have stayed high.
Overall, a must-read if you love high-stakes dread!
@sweettea_and_a_book
Feb 23, 2026
9/10 stars
I finished the audiobook yesterday and the twists still have me dizzy AF! This book was deliriously, claustrophobically, anxiously SO DAMN GOOD!!!! It was really going down in that cave! ๐Ÿชจ OMFG itโ€™s been a long time since Iโ€™ve felt so pumped after finishing a book! This book took me thru there the entire time๐Ÿซ  The only thing I will note is that thereโ€™s a lot of details about the cave, and thereโ€™s a little slow start. But after that itโ€™s full speed ahead! You know the feeling when youโ€™ve finished binge watching a really good series and now youโ€™re excitedly looking for the next one to bring the same exact energy?! Thatโ€™s how Iโ€™m feeling right now! All I know is I HAVE to read every book this author has written because I have been missing out. Sheer genius! โ€œ....๐›๐ž๐ข๐ง๐  ๐š ๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ž๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ž๐ซ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐š ๐ฌ๐จ๐ซ๐ญ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฉ๐š๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ฅ๐จ๐ ๐ข๐œ๐š๐ฅ ๐ž๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ž๐ฌ๐ฌ. ๐˜๐จ๐ฎ ๐œ๐š๐งโ€™๐ญ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐ž๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฅ๐Ÿ, ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ก๐š๐ฏ๐ž ๐ญ๐จ ๐ฌ๐ก๐š๐ซ๐ž ๐ข๐ญ.โ€ I WANT ALL OF YOU TO SHARE THIS BOOK EXPERIENCE WITH ME!!!!

See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.