The Last Flight

Finished July 14 

The Last Flight by Julie Clark

Claire Cook, wife of an influential man planning a senatorial run, has been living with domestic abuse for years. She's tried to leave, and failed. She has a plan now to disappear, with the help of an old friend, but when her plans go awry and she finds herself at the airport headed to Puerto Rico, and another woman strikes up a conversation that offers a different opportunity, she finds herself agreeing to switch identities and flights with Eva and takes her flight to Oakland.

Eva James is also running from her life, and she isn't honest with Claire about what she's running from. She isn't proud of what she's done the last few years, but she hasn't seen another option, and now she fears that her time is running out. Getting a fake ID is proving difficult, and so when this opportunity arises to switch with someone, she jumps at it. 

When Claire lands in Oakland, she finds that the flight she was supposed to be on has crashed, with no survivors. She is stunned and she can't reach the friend who has helped her before. She decides to go to Eva's house and take some time to figure out her next move and there she finds some clues to Eva's real life. 

This is a story of domestic abuse, about the difficulty of getting away from such a situation when you lack the power in the relationship, and about other abuses of power and privilege. 

This was a book that grabbed me and kept me reading to see what happened to both women. It is a book about how things are beginning to change, and people are starting to believe those who speak out against those who would manipulate and use them. A book that makes you think about the bigger issues.