Last Seen Leaving

by Kelly Braffet

Book Overview

As she did in her darkly thrilling debut, Josie and Jack, Kelly Braffet again explores the often ambiguous nature of love and danger in a riveting novel of suspense. When twenty-something drifter Miranda Cassidy wrecks her car one night on the way home from a bar, she seizes the accident as an opportunity to reinvent her life. Hitching a ride with a mysterious stranger, she finds quick work and a fresh start hundreds of miles away in an oceanside...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0618919767
• ISBN13: 9780618919765
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Can't stop thinking about this story

A unique story about a mother who goes looking for the missing daughter who does not want to be found...just yet. Braffet has a gift for lasering in on human emotion and creating distinct character voices. The mother and daughter were as different as...well, mothers and daughters often are. This is the touchstone of this well told story - the insight of two generations who are different, but not so different that they cannot love the other. And if that weren't enough, while the mother/daughter search and hide story is ongoing, there is yet another mystery unfolding in the background. One of the most satisfying novel endings I've read this year.

Braffet Strikes Again

Like Braffet's earlier book, Josie and Jack, this novel is an often chilling meditation on love, death, and family. Right from its awesomely creepy beginning - girl stranded on road, picked up by random possible nutjob (yikes!) - I couldn't put it down. Braffet is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors, and I can't wait to see what she does next. But in the meantime, I'm going to re-read Last Seen Leaving. It's that great.

great read from a rising star author

Just finished reading "Last Seen Leaving," the new novel by Kelly Braffet and I want to say: it's terrific. Dark, smart, thrilling, it follows a young woman named Miranda whose father disappeared in a mysterious plane crash over South America. She herself is constantly on the run, running from her past, her fears, intimacy...and possibly, a serial killer. This is a book about the secrets we keep from each other and ourselves, sometimes out of love, sometimes out of fear. Can't recommend this book highly enough!

A stylish, provocative thriller

Wow! Someone just drank a big bottle of Genius and her name is Kelly Braffet! I didn't think that she could possibly top her first novel, JOSIE AND JACK, a creepy love story that had style to burn. But she did. On the surface, LAST SEEN LEAVING is a thriller about Anne Cassidy's search for her lost daughter Miranda, and the dual story of Miranda's dangerous new life in a Maryland beach town. Dark subplots abound: a mysterious stranger with a fixation for Miranda; the still unresolved disappearance of Anne's husband, a CIA pilot; and a serial killer on the loose, who lovingly dyes the hair of his victims post-mortem. You just can't put it down. But it's also a truly thought-provoking piece of work that asks all kinds of questions about identity, about the masks we wear, and the faces our loved ones show us. What a great book.

An alternately thrilling and touching read

If you've read Braffet's first novel, Josie and Jack, her vivid prose and extraordinary knack for verbal and emotional illustration in Last Seen Leaving will come as no great surprise. ...Although it may be against the law of averages to have a relatively new author hit the nail so squarely on the head two times in a row. If you're looking to get swept away by a marvelously written and unforgettable story, do yourself a favor and buy them both.