Book Review: "The Last to Drown" by Noelle W. Ihli

I’ve seen so much praise for Noelle W. Ihli’s books that I’ve been meaning to pick one up for a while. But when I saw a friend mention that The Last to Drown gave her The River Wild vibes, I knew I had to read it. And now I just need my heartbeat to slow down so I can go to bed!!

Kaia and her husband were supposed to go on a whitewater rafting trip to celebrate their 30th birthdays. But now she’s switched to an all-girls trip and she’s excited to get her adrenaline pumping.

Yet not long after the trip starts, some of her fellow travelers start talking about a tragedy that occurred 7 years earlier on the same stretch of river they’ll be riding. Apparently one of the guides killed a group of rafters and while his body was found, one survivor managed to get free. The murders have been the subject of a television movie and lots of conspiracy theories over the years.

Kaia’s nervous enough about the journey; she doesn’t want to think about murder. And when equipment goes missing or somehow gets lost, it’s just a coincidence, right? But when Kaia awakens to screaming in the middle of the night, she realizes that tragedy really is striking twice.

It’s the middle of the night, and they’re not sure how they’re going to get down all of the Class-3 and Class-4 rapids. Then they realize that the killer has every intention of leaving no survivors. And Kaia and a few of her fellow travelers aren’t going to let that happen without a fight.

This was just a fantastic thriller that left me breathless. The descriptions of the rapids and the struggles the women faced, the feelings of fear and despair felt so incredibly real. I really was wowed by this, and I’ll be diving into Ihli’s backlist, that’s for sure!