{ "item_title" : "Last One Out", "item_author" : [" Jane Harper "], "item_description" : "THE INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL BESTSELLER A memorable journey that will pull at the heart, stiffen the spine, and thrill the reader. No one can ask for more than that. --David BaldacciFrom the New York Times bestselling author of Exiles and The Dry comes a captivating new novel set in a modern ghost town. Carralon Ridge, a once vibrant village in rural New South Wales, has become a shell of itself, its houses and buildings bought up and left to rot by the mining company operating at its borders. A decade into its slow death, surrounded by industrial noise and swathed in thick layers of dust, the skeletal town is all but abandoned, with just a handful of residents clinging onto what remains. After years of scorning those who left the Ridge behind as it fell into ruin, Ro never imagined she'd become one of them. But everything changed when she lost her son. Five years ago, Sam vanished while visiting during a break from college, leaving behind a rental car with his belongings inside. Sam had loved Carralon Ridge, and had been working on an oral history of the town to preserve its legacy before it vanished altogether. It wasn't long after his disappearance that the rest of the family began to crumble away too. But when Ro returns to Carralon Ridge to be with her husband and daughter on the anniversary of Sam's disappearance, she begins to suspect that something important was overlooked in his case. Because while nothing can stop Carralon Ridge from dying, someone seems to want to make sure that its secrets die with it.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/25/029/139/1250291399_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "29.99", "online_price" : "26.39", "our_price" : "26.39", "club_price" : "26.39", "savings_pct" : "12", "savings_amt" : "3.60", "club_savings_pct" : "12", "club_savings_amt" : "3.60", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "29.99" } }

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“The good old days” and “It ain’t what it used to be” may sound like cliché phrases, but these sentiments grow increasingly poignant as we age and nostalgia colors even the most challenging experiences. And when multiple generations face the demise of their beloved small town, and the emotions that come with it, things can get dangerous—even deadly. Jane Harper’s Last One Out presents a skillful multipronged mystery while exploring the nuance of leaving home, both the physical location and the memories of a place that, for all intents and purposes, no longer exists. 

Five years ago, university student Sam Crowley vanished during a visit to Carralon Ridge, his rural Australian hometown, leaving behind his laptop, car and thesis research on the town’s gradual takeover by a prosperous coal mining company. Since then, Sam’s physician mother, Ro, has moved to Sydney; his father, Griffin, works for the coal mine and rents the house he and Ro once owned; and his younger sister, Della, is successful but unhappy in her corporate job. When the remaining Crowleys reunite to commemorate what would have been Sam’s 26th birthday, Ro decides to further investigate her son’s disappearance, as well as the supposed suicide of Griffin’s cousin eight years prior. Could the two tragedies be related?

Bestselling author Harper previously worked as a print journalist in Australia and the United Kingdom. Her writing style is straightforward yet probing, perfect for a cast of characters who possess a variety of complicated feelings about Carralon Ridge’s past and uncertain future. Ro is an ideal protagonist: strong but flawed, endlessly questioning the remote town where she once thought she’d live forever, while desperately searching for closure on the fate of her beloved son. The only constant is change, and this satisfying thriller probes the haze of reminiscence and cautions against idealizing the past at any price.