Did you read The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda and need a plot summary, a list of characters, or a list of the missing people of Cutter’s Pass? Want to discuss the ending of The Last to Vanish? You are in the right place. Welcome to my Spoiler Discussion for The Last to Vanish!
Spoiler Discussion and Plot Summary for The Last to Vanish
Here’s what this post will contain. Here’s my spoiler-free review of The Last to Vanish.
Character List for The Last to Vanish
List of People Who Disappeared in The Last To Vanish
Full Plot Summary of The Last to Vanish
Who Was the Killer in The Last To Vanish?
Spoiler Discussion of The Last to Vanish
Character List for The Last to Vanish
Celeste: owner of The Passage Inn.
Vincent: Celeste’s husband, who died ten years ago.
Abby Lovett: manager of the Passage Inn
Landon West: journalist who disappeared in April.
Trey West: Landon’s brother, newly arrived to stay in Cabin Four.
Georgia: young employee at the Inn
Cory Shiles: A local tour guide. Had a relationship with Abby. Son of Marina and RayShiles
Sloane: River running guide
Jack Oliver: runs the Edge, the local outfitting store. Grew up with Cory and Harris.
Marina and Ray Shiles: run The Last Stop Tavern
Rochelle: works at the Sheriffss office
Patrick Stamer: sheriff in Cutter’s Pass.
Harris Donald: grew up with Cory and Jack. Does phone repair.
Samantha: wife of Harris Donald.
List of People Who Disappeared in The Last To Vanish:
Landon West: disappeared four months ago on 4/2/2022
Farrah Jordan: disappeared on 1/16/2019
Alice Kelly: disappeared on 9/2/2012
The Fraternity Four (Toby, Brian, Jerome, Neil): disappeared on 6/6/1997
Full Plot Summary of The Last to Vanish
At her job at the Passage Inn, in Cutter’s Pass, North Carolina, Abby checks in a new guest, Trey West.
Trey is the brother of Landon West, who went missing at the inn four months before. Abby gives him his brother’s former room.
On Trey’s second night, he tells Abby that he’s taken the room apart and found a flash drive that contains pictures taken by Farrah Jordan who vanished in 2019.
Abby agrees to hike the next day with Trey to the falls, the last place Farrah was seen.
The next morning they hike the Shallow Falls Trail. Near the falls, Abby notices a cairn or rocks with a flower next to it.
Abby takes Trey to talk to the sheriff. Since the phone lines at the inn have been out, she calls for phone line repair. Harris Donald, the repairman, says they lines have been tampered with.
Abby speaks to the sheriff, who says that the photos Trey found don’t contain any valuable information.
Still, Abby feels that just the fact that Landon hid the photos means something. Also, she remembers Farrah arriving and asking about the disappearance of Alice Kelly. Abby believes the disappearances ha e to be connected.
Abby looks at Farrah’s Instagram account and sees a message left by Alice Kelly’s sister, Quinn. She looks at Quinn’s account and finds a picture of Alice dressed to go for a hike.
Abby is horrified to recognize the orange backpack Alice is wearing in the photo. It’s a backpack that Abby got from the lost and found and has been using of for the last ten years.
She messages Quinn and asks her for more photos of Alice, who was last seen at the Last Stop Tavern after splitting from her hiking group.
The next morning, the front desk information binder is misplaced. That, in addition to the phone line tempering and a lost guest key, has Abby on edge.
Abby borrows her co-worker Georgia’s car to take the backpack to Cory, her ex. He tells her to get rid of it. Then she goes to talk to Harris, who tells her not to ask too many questions about Cory.
On Georgia’s car key ring, Abby finds a small silver key with an E on it. Abby thinks it’s a key to a locker at the Edge and goes to open it. The locker ledger claims that Abby rented a locker last April.
Inside the locker is a camera, Landon’s journal, and Landon’s cell phone. Abby puts them in a backpack and sneaks them out.
Trey comes to talk to Abby about a note he found in his brothers room at home: the inn’s phone number and 8-1, which Trey thinks is Georgia’s shift time.
Corey tries to burn Landon’s journal from the locker but Abby stops him. She notices that Landon has written: “The Fraternity Five?”
After Corey leaves, Abby charges Landon’s phone and listens to some interviews he recorded.
Georgia was the one who had Farrah’s camera. Some guests found it on a hike. Georgia checked the memory card and realized it had to be Farrah’s.
Landon was an intern for Georgia’s father. She didn’t think that Farrah took the photos.
According to Landon’s phone, he interviewed Ray at the Last Stop Tavern.
He also stopped by the police department and tried to get information, which chills Abby a bit since she realizes the police knew why Landon was there before he disappeared.
Landon’s last interview was with Abby. Then he’s talking to himself about the small group of people who was been in town for all the disappearances. Someone knocks on his door.
Georgia moves out and just leaves a note saying “sorry.”
Abby sneaks into The Last Stop after hours to look at an old photo of the Fraternity Four. She thinks Landon was wondering who took the picture. In the reflection of one of the guys’ glasses she can see a shirt with the logo of the Passage Inn. Abby wonders if either Celeste or Vincent took the photo.
Rochelle comes in and Abby asks her about the investigation into the Fraternity Four. In turn, Rochelle remarks to Abby she did a background check on Abby and couldn’t find any way she was Vincent’s niece.
Back at the inn, Abby wonders about the questions Landon was asking about the inn itself. He’d looked at framed blueprints, which Celeste immediately removed from the wall.
Abby goes into Celeste’s carriage house to find the blueprints. Celeste comes in and Abby asks her about the photo.
Who Was the Killer in The Last to Vanish?
Celeste admits to taking the picture of The Fraternity Four, who left the disposable camera behind. She says she offered to lead them on a hike and that the trip was an intervention for Brian, who was having substance abuse issues.
There was an argument during the hike. Brian brought a gun. Toby and Brian struggled and Toby was shot. Then Brian shot Jerome. Neil begged Brian not to kill him because he had a daughter, Abby.
Celeste went for the gun and shot Brian. Neil was badly injured. Patrick came looking for Celeste and helped her. Patrick and Vincent hid all the bodies in the mountain.
Harris shows up to check the phone lines. Just then Alice’s sister Quinn sends the names of the people in the extra photos she sent Abby. One was Alice’s ex-boyfriend James, a photographer. James is Harris.
Abby sends a text to Rochelle asking for help. She’s alone with Harris and starts asking him about Alice Kelly. He says they arrived on the trail and she fell and hit her head. He “brought her home.”
Farrah recognized him. And then Landon called him.
Trey shows up. Harris has a gun. Abby hits Harris with the fire poker. Trey gets the gun.
Afterwards Trey asks Abby for Landon’s journal but she says the police have it. She intends to burn it.
The bodies of Alice,Farrah and Landon are found on Harris’ property.
Spoiler Discussion of The Last to Vanish
So, there are THREE killers in the book:
Brian, who killed the other three in the Fraternity Four.
Celeste, who killed Brian in self-defense.
Harris: who says Alice’s death was an accident but then killed Farrah and Landon to cover up Alice’s death.
I liked the twist that Abby was the daughter of one of the Fraternity Four. But I struggled a bit with the whole intervention and gun thing, which all happened in narrative summary and didn’t really seem tied to the rest of the story.
But I also think that Abby’s connection to the Fraternity Four should have been revealed sooner, to give the reader time to absorb this and understand what happened a bit better.
I liked the Harris reveal. I wasn’t buying that Alice’s death was an accident, because if it was, I think he would have reported it.
What did you think of this one? And if you’ve read other Megan Miranda books, how do you think it compares?
If you are looking for other Spoiler Discussion Posts, you can find my full alphabetical list here!
Oh Im the first one 🙂
The one thing I struggle to understand is: how did the journal and the phone end up in that locker? And why did Georgia (was that her name?) leave Abbies name as owner of the locker?
Yay – welcome, Marie!
I feel like this book isn’t getting all the buzz as some of her others. I liked it!
Georgia hid them there. A guest found the camera and brought it to Georgia at the front desk. I think she realized the camera might be Farrah’s and contacted Landon (the reporter) whom she knew through her father.
Then, I think that after Landon then disappeared himself, Georgia was freaked out and decided to hide the camera and also Landon’s journal and phone. She wanted to hide the stuff away from the inn so chose the lockers.
I don’t think the book ever explained why Georgia put it under Abby’s name – maybe so no one would trace it back to Georgia? At one point Abby says she thinks Georgia didn’t trust Abby because she couldn’t be sure Abby didn’t have something to do with Landon’s disappearance, that nothing was safe in the inn. I guess Georgia couldn’t use a fake name because everyone in town knew everyone, so she chose Abby’s name.
I agree, it’s all weird. If Georgia is worried about what happened to Landon, why not give the cell phone and journal to the FBI, or his family, or something? When at the end, Georgia comes back to talk to Abby, she clearly feels guilty about bringing Landon into the case, and about his disappearance.
This book did not really work for me. I agree that the setting was great but honestly, this was such a good setup for a supernatural read. I am glad she did not go the cult route although this is a close call. I almost would have preferred alien abduction….
I know – my theories were more in that vein. I’ve read several books recently that took a supernatural turn so I thought this might as well. I wasn’t entirely happy with the ending. I’m not a huge fan of books where the murders are a coverup for something that was really an accident, and I think this falls into that category. I did love the twist of Abby being Neil’s daughter, though.
As a fan of MM’s writing (and having read all of her novels) I feel a bit let down by this one. I feel like this started out with great potential, but was rushed towards the end. MM typically has a gift for making her readers feel that the killer/answer was staring them in the face for the whole book if only we would read closer. This novel didn’t have that same feel. No amount of attention to detail could have helped the reader come to the conclusion that Brian was the Fraternity Four killer. The focus on the FF made Alice, Landon and Farrah’s stories seem like rushed afterthoughts. The two plots needed to be better stitched together or remain separate novels.
Love your comment and agree 100%. I dislike it when I am not given any of the clues needed, and we weren’t really given enough information to figure anything out. I did like the twist of Abby being Neil’s daughter, but I also agree that the two different resolutions were very loosely connected. And I still don’t understand why Celeste wouldn’t have just reported what happened – she did the best she could in a bad situation.
I found this book so hard to read. In fact, I couldn’t get through it. I came to this thread to get a general synopsis and even found that too far-fetched and hard to get through. I was wanting to really like this one. Oh well.
I hear you – I loved the idea of vanishing hikers but the plot was complicated!
I liked the book for the most part, but I also feel like the ending didn’t quite add up. I did not understand Harris’s motive for killing Alice. Harris did not know what had happened to the FF and he felt like an outsider anyway. He had no need to protect the town’s secrets. So if it WAS an accident and he covered it up– why? Why not run and get help? But also why was he chasing her ? To talk to her about what? Why was she not wanting to talk to him? Also, then why did he feel the need to keep killing to cover it up even more? Farrah and Landon were more interested in the FF deaths than Alice’s (or at least more interested in finding a connection between them). Ultimately the book was good, but the ending didn’t leave me feeling satisfied
I just finished the book & was totally caught up on the whole Alice/Harris interaction. I agree with you: if it was an accident why not get help? Why was she running from him when it was pointed out that Alice had actually lied to her friends about having to leave because she had a test the next day when she didn’t. If she lied because she was secretly planning on meeting up with Harris, then why run from him. Sounds to me he just straight up murdered her but why??
I don’t know but it’s a big thriller trope: the argument, the push, the accidental (?) hitting of the head, the cover-up. Maybe it was murder, maybe it was an accident, but I see it in a LOT of books. And I agree with you and Ever that this whole situation needed more explanation.
I liked the setting of this one a lot but for me there was too much covering up by Celeste/Patrick/Vincent and by Harris/James. And then more murders to cover up accidents that were covered up. It was just too much for me.