The Last Cabin Girl (Detective Josie Thompson Series) by Tom Swyers – Review by Erica Shoebridge

The Last Cabin Girl by Tom Swyers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Last Cabin Girl is a tightly wound psychological thriller with a potentially unreliable narrator and dark twisty trail of clues. Josie is a single mom of two, desperately waiting for her divorce to become final so that she can escape her abusive ex-husband and the Podunk town she grew up in. While hiking one morning, she thinks she spots a body in the Mohawk River. However, with her terrible vision, past mental health troubles, and having cried wolf once before about dead bodies in this river, she is hesitant to report what she sees. Eventually a body is discovered, but the few clues as to the murderer seem to point to herself. Did she have something to do with harming the woman? Has she suffered a delirium (again) and acted on emotion? Or is something else at work here?

I really liked the portrayal of Josie, it felt interesting and nuanced. She is certainly a lot more fearful than many people, and it is difficult to work out if her concerns point to a dangerous mental disorder, or if she’s been a victim of gaslighting, or what the real story is. There is a lot that I definitely did not see coming in this book, and some very dark imaginings twisted into this plot, especially near the end. A great read I finished in one sitting.

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