Last One Out: A Novel

A farmhouse, an ivy cottage, a stone bungalow. Three small shapes, each cast into shadow as the sun dipped lower behind a blue door with a key found beneath floorboards. Carralon Ridge may be a ghost town abandoned to the mines, but it has not always been this way. A recurring theme is appreciation for the way people in small towns support each other. The warm, golden glow of friendship and grassroots sports for the kids. Community fundraisers and neighbourly chats in the streets. The comfort of recognising a friendly face in shops and pubs. Tucked up in its embrace, citizens feel like they’re part of something that makes life better for everyone. But that embrace can only stretch so far; its reach is not without limits. Because a community isn’t a single living, breathing organism. It is made up of flawed individual members with their own hopes, beliefs, bank balances, and family structures, all trying to do the best they can when faced with a difficult situation. So when a mining industry offers to buy citizens’ property, a chasm is created between those who leave and those who stay. Those who accept the mine’s money and the ones who had hold onto their community. But at what cost? Neighbourly understanding that is only offered to those willing to toe the line isn’t real understanding at all. It’s easy to be supportive when your goals align; the challenge comes with emerging differences. The community members are so ingrained with a sense of honour–sell out or stay–that honesty becomes a weapon they wield against one another until someone is murdered. And the cause comes down to just one question: why are we still here? A truly universal question we could all ask ourselves. Because there’s no prize for being the last one out. Grief and guilt, shame and loyalty. Love and forgiveness, community and family. Jane Harper’s Last One Out is a triumph!

Found this narrative very repetitive and slow moving. The last quarter of the book was good, with the author writing with sensitivity about the missing son and his family.