Spoilers for The Last Flight

If you read The Last Flight by Julie Clark and need a plot summary, the ending explained, or want to discuss (or find) spoilers, you are in the right place!

Plot Summary for The Last Flight by Julie Clark

First, a quick plot summary:

Political wife Claire Cook is plotting her escape from her abusive husband, Rory.

She’s pretending to head to a meeting in Detroit, but friends have helped her obtain fake ID that, along with some stockpiled money, they will deliver to her Detroit hotel. Then she’ll cross the border to Canada and disappear.

Former foster child and Berkeley chemistry student Eva Clark got on a bad path and ended up cooking drugs. She wants out, but there’s no quitting. The only way out is for her to vanish.

Claire’s husband unexpectedly takes over her Detroit trip and sends her on a humanitarian trip to Puerto Rico. She’s shocked but can’t really say anything.

Claire and Eva cross paths at the airport. Eva pretends to be a widow who is being investigated for the mercy killing of her husband and suggests that she and Claire switch tickets.

Eva will go in Claire’s place to Puerto Rico and Claire will go to northern California. Claire, feeling desperate, agrees.

There is a moment after they switch places when Eva thinks about NOT getting on the plane. Could she head out into the anonymity of New York City after her ticket is scanned and disappear?

Here are the Big Spoilers for the Last Flight by Julie Clark

The plane to Puerto Rico crashes. Claire is shocked and horrified that she escaped death and that Eva might have died instead.

Since everyone thinks Claire died in the crash, Claire decides that the safest (and only) thing she can do is assume Eva’s identity. She doesn’t know if she can trust her husband or Danielle, her assistant. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know that Eva is being surveilled by the DEA.

The hotel in Detroit gives Claire’s husband her package with cash and her fake ID. He now knows she was planning something. Even worse…

…crash investigators seem to think that Claire’s seat on the plane was empty. This makes Claire’s husband even more suspicious. Could Claire have faked her own death?

Meanwhile, Claire wonders about that empty seat. Did Eva got on the plane? If not, where is she?

Soon, Claire is also being followed by Eva’s drug kingpin boss, who wants to know why she’s living in Eva’s apartment. Liz, a neighbor of Eva’s, also tries to befriend Claire.

Claire gets inside information about her husband’s ex-girlfriend, who died mysteriously in a house fire. Did her husband have something to do with it?

Claire finally gets enough information on her husband to feel comfortable doing a CNN interview and exposing him as an abuser and possible killer. She also finds evidence that Eva was collecting on her boss.

Claire’s assistant Danielle was also “Ellie,” the daughter of Liz, Eva’s neighbor. Eva eavesdropped on a conversation that Liz and Danielle had about Ellie’s concern for her employer, Claire. Eva then decided to go to the airport, find Claire, and try to convince her to switch tickets.

Claire, finally free from her husband, goes back to California to start a new life.

In an epilogue, we watch Eva step onto the plane. She wasn’t in Claire’s seat because she wanted to ask to be switched to a window seat so she could have a view.

Do you think Eva got on the plane? DID EVA DIE???

We’re discussing this in comments (thanks, Marilyn!) so come join in and give your opinion.

Evidence for YES, Eva got on the plane and died in the crash

in the epilogue, she steps over the threshold of the plane. Airlines don’t like to let you off the plane once you’re on. And more compelling, we never have a POV from her after that.

Argument for NO, Eva did NOT get on the plane and she’s still alive:

In the part of the book where Eve has just switched places with Claire, she does think about the possibility of getting her ticket scanned, getting out of line and pretending to make a phone call, then sneaking back down the jetway.

Also, Claire makes a remark toward the end about “knowing I could never tell Danielle or her mother about what I believed really happened to Eva.”

Then there is the pink sweater.

After the crash, Claire sees a a photo of a blond woman in a pink sweater when she’s watching footage of the news conference.

Claire did give Eva her pink sweater and Eva does mention (as we discussed above) bleaching her hair blond and not getting on the plane.

Did Claire know something? Or did she just want to believe Eva didn’t die?

Did Eva die in The Last Flight? Tell me your opinion in comments!

What did you think of this book? I thought it was so twisty and suspenseful! Tell me in comments! And if you want to subscribe to the discussion (be notified of my reply so we can chat) just click the bell icon next to the comment box and add your email!

Loved this book and want something similar? Check this book out!

My Review With Spoilers for The Business Trip is here!

If you enjoyed The Last Flight, check out my review of The Lies I Tell, which is Julie Clark’s next book and join The Lies I Tell Spoiler Discussion.

Julie Clark also has a new book in 2025: The Ghostwriter