From the bestselling author of The Quiet Tenant comes a propulsive new thriller: Fifteen years ago, Frida and her brother escaped a cult. Now her brother is the prime suspect in a murder investigation—and it isn’t the first time.
Innocence doesn’t bail you out; it just makes you easier to trap.

Frida and Gabriel arrive seeking a fresh start at the stunning Ara Hotel in the secluded desert of Escalante, Utah. Once so close they were able to finish each other’s sentences, they’ve grown apart in recent years after a sudden, unspeakable tragedy. Now, at the luxe resort, they are ready to reconnect between dips in the pool and hikes on spectacular desert trails. It all feels like paradise—until the dead body of a beautiful young woman who was vacationing at the Ara with her powerful, much older husband is discovered.

When the local police arrive and suspicion quickly falls on Gabriel, Frida is forced to revisit memories from their upbringing in a cloistered cult in upstate New York, their dramatic escape, and the scandal that followed. Frida’s belief in Gabriel’s innocence never wavered at the time, but now even she can’t ignore the evidence mounting against him.

Alternating between past and present timelines, Our Last Resort builds toward a shattering climax that uncovers the fate of the murdered Ara guest and poses the question: how well do we ever really know those we love? Taut, gripping, and intense, Clémence Michallon’s latest suspense novel is a nail-biter until the last page, cementing her status as a major new talent in the genre.

I received an advance galley of this book courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

I read The Quiet Tenant by this author last year and thought it was clever and well-structured. It had this quiet intensity that kept me turning the pages. It wasn’t for everyone, but I enjoyed it so much, I named it one of my favorite reads of 2023. So when I saw that Michallon had a new book out, I was genuinely excited. I had high hopes for this one. A desert resort, a sibling duo with a traumatic past, a murder? Yes, please.

But, sadly, it never really took off for me.

The story centers around Frida and Gabriel, a brother and sister who, years ago, escaped a cult. We meet them in the present day, checking into a luxury resort in the middle of the Utah desert. They’re meeting up to talk about the possibility of participating in a documentary about the cult and the murder that happened there. It’ll also be a chance for them to reconnect after some time apart. Of course, because this is a thriller (at least on paper), a young woman ends up dead, and Gabriel quickly becomes the prime suspect.

We jump between the past (cult days) and the present (murder fallout), which I usually love in a story. I’m a sucker for a good dual timeline, especially when it builds tension. And the structure here is done pretty well. The transitions are smooth. The writing itself is clean and purposeful. But despite all that, I just couldn’t bring myself to care much. Nothing really gripped me. I didn’t find the mystery all that mysterious, and the suspense never built to anything that felt surprising or unsettling. I kept waiting for a moment, be it a twist, an emotional gut-punch, something, but it never came. Even the reveal felt muted.

As far as the characters? They’re fine. Frida didn’t annoy me, but I didn’t feel particularly invested in her, either. Same with Gabriel. I liked the idea of exploring the aftermath of a cult upbringing. How that shapes your future relationships, your trust issues, your entire sense of self, but it never got deep enough to make me care. There’s a lot of potential in their backstory, but it stays mostly on the surface. Even the resort setting, which should’ve been eerie or at least a little atmospheric, felt kind of flat. I wanted the heat, the isolation, the silence of the desert to really seep into the tension of the story, but it mostly sat in the background. It never became a character the way I hoped it would.

Honestly, the word that kept floating around in my head while reading this one was: fine. The book is fine. The writing is fine. The premise is fine. The execution is fine. But it didn’t leave much of a mark. It’s one of those books that I’ll probably forget in a few weeks—not because it’s bad, but because it just didn’t stick.

Now, I do think some readers might enjoy it more than I did. If you’re not expecting a twisty, edge-of-your-seat thriller, and you’re more into slower-paced stories about siblings, trauma, and buried secrets, you might vibe with this one. It’s a quiet book, more introspective than pulse-pounding. Just go in with the right expectations. As for me, it was just okay. I’m still excited to see what Michallon writes next. She clearly knows how to structure a story and create a mood. I just wish this one had taken a few more risks, or at least pushed a little harder on the emotional front.

Would I recommend it? Maybe. Depends on what you’re in the mood for. But if you’re looking for something you’ll be thinking about long after the last page, this probably isn’t it.