Last One to Leave

by Benjamin Stevenson

Seven strangers are invited to compete to win a clifftop mansion. The rules are simple: each contestant must have at least one hand in contact with one part of the house at all times. The last one to take their hand off, wins the house.

After 36 hours, a contestant is murdered. Soon they start to realise that it may not be the last person to leave the house that wins it, it may be the last person alive.

From the bestselling author of Find Us and Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone comes a locked room mystery where the door is open, but no-one wants to walk through it.

Genres: Audiobook, Mystery, Thriller, Fiction, Murder Mystery, Crime, Short Stories

4 pages, Audible Audio

First published June 7, 2022

Reviews

[Melany · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent read. It is a short listen on Audible so I listened between my morning walk and morning workout. I enjoyed the character interaction and build up throughout. However, the plot and paranoia then how the main character figured out what was going on wasn't 100% believable to me. Fell flat for me. I did like the idea of the story, reminds me of Mr Beast challenges on YouTube with a thrilling twist. Was a decent listen for my morning but nothing I'd suggest to others or listen to again.

[Nina (ninjasbooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you treat the plot as a hypothetical and not ponder if it might happen or not, I found the short story entertaining. Loving game shows might have added to my curiosity, but it wasn’t just that. I loved the questions back and forth. The paranoia that didn’t go to far, but palpable enough to keep you guessing. The way the main character figured out what was going on, wasn’t convincing, but it also added to the aaaahh factor so I was overall pleased!

[Tamar...playing hooky for a few hours today]

I was so excited to find this novella in the Audible+ catalog because I recently read and loved his book, Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone.

This book was so depressing that after 23 minutes I stopped. I will go back, maybe, especially if I think any humor, dark or otherwise (Stevenson is, after-all, a comedian), might be derived from the dire circumstances of a single father trying to raise his daughter with no income, and no prospects, under a looming threat of social services intervention, and the sick temptation of a gambling habit threatening to drag him down ever further. I can tell there might be something better or some light around the corner - maybe Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Golden Ticket - but after 20+ minutes I had to shut down.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

In ‘Last One to Leave’ Ryan, a mid 30s widowed father is trying to ensure his daughter lives a safe and happy life. After his wife passed away, Ryan turned to gambling to try and get by. When his daughter pitches a competition that he has been accepted into, with a chance to win lots of money, Ryan decided, albeit reluctantly, to give it a go. He finds it to be a competition between 7 contestants, the last to take their hand off of the wall wins the 4 million dollar house. The game starts off how you would expect but quickly turns into something more chilling. As decoys are deployed to make the contestants think, Ryan must figure out what is real, what isn’t and who dun it.

I enjoyed this book. It was a quick short story so it isn’t winning any awards but honestly the amount of suspense that Stevenson was able to create in 150 pages was impressive. While I didn’t love the ending, it felt a bit happy ending esk, it wasn’t out of the blue. I think it took away from the thriller aspect of the book, but didn’t take away from the overall enjoyment of the read.

I highly recommend this book if you’re into short thrillers, but do keep in mind, the ending is not like a typical thriller and ends up becoming more like a murder mystery… very Benjamin Stevenson.

[Madeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

An audible original.

Loved the premise of the story, but some things at the end fell apart.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Silly, but entertaining. Didn't enjoy the narration at all.

Free on Audible.

[Tammy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this story, and liked the idea that I got two novellas in one with this ‘flip’ version.
Benjamin Stevenson’s books are what I like to call ‘easy’ reads. They are not designed to overthink, they don’t take themselves too seriously. The perfect book to unwind after reading something a little heavier.
It takes a special skill to make a book seam that easy and seamless. A great ‘locked room’, who done it mystery, that lets you ‘play along, gasping at the right moment’ (in the words of Ben himself.), with all the right twists that fit all the pieces together perfectly.
Just the read for anyone wanting to chill between something else.

[TaylorJade · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

A contemporary reality challenge twist on a ‘locked room mystery’. I like to describe Stevenson’s work as a cosy mysteries, while they have serious crimes (ie.Murder) they are told in such a way that it’s light and you can just float along with the simple story. His protagonists do tend to blur together and the old school ‘telling of the mystery while everyone is gathered’ is a little trite but I had a good time and didn’t want to stop. Thank you Audible+

[Clayton Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a freebie and super short. And there are some major flaws in the reasoning of the small cast of characters, that were a little hard for me to get past. There were some things that . . . I just don't think the "smart"ish protagonists would ever do (except to advance the plot).

[Michael Sanderson-green · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mix of Ben Elton’s book of a similar theme and murder in paradise . A pleasant enough but full of holes.

[Chi Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

nice quick read, stopped reading for a little bit but glad i got back in and finished it. interesting, reminded me of escape room. the little twists in between were good but i feel like if the book was longer there would be more of a story to it. players have to keep their hand on the wall, last one standing wins a house. there wasn’t much else

[Ashlee (Ajax) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Type: Audio
Why: Free
Thoughts:
Interneting book..... I couldn't work out if I liked it or not haha! But I kept coming back everyday to listen to a bit more of this suspence game show vibe book with mystery.

[AMY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun! Twisty. 150 page, couple hour read. Detailed and clever enough to wonder how a thriller can be set up, established and solved in such a short time but it happened! Loved it. Can’t wait to read the other side.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing!!!!! I was riveted from start to finish! Very satisfying conclusion! I'm already checking more from this author!

[Lynette Ackman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good. Mixed feelings about the ending.

[Cassandra Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably a fairly close account of what really happens on reality shows!! And why I hate them!

[Louisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a thrilling read, I loved reading it so much!

[Yvette Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contestants are challenged to win a house, but there's more to this story than just a game. Clever.

[Rajesh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great 120 odd page closed door mystery novella from Benjamin Stevenson with a sweet little open ended finish.

[Cece · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started this novella as an adjunct to Scott Mariani's Tudor Deception..

It's only a few hours of audiobook, so I've listened to it all in one day. Suspension of disbelief required!!

[Kelly Maskell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great one. Listened in one day while I did my housework! The ending was a little unexpected and could have been a bit more gripping but it was still a really good story.

[Darinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A novella. Quick and twisty thriller.

[Thomas (ReadWithThomas) · Rating 4 out of 5]

“𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒊𝒕 𝒂 𝒎𝒖𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝒂 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒇𝒖𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒔? […] 𝑨𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒂 𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒌. 𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒍.”

After loving Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, I was super excited to see that he has two Audible Original short stories - this is the first that I listened to.

I love how Stevenson plays with the locked room mystery and gives it a modern take, focusing on a viral video gameshow on YouTube challenge: the last contestant to remove their hand from the wall will win the house in which they are playing, worth $2 million dollars. Stevenson offers a critique on viral videos and how outrageous the stunts that are pulled can be, as the seven contestants test their willpower throughout the game. Ryan, a single dad who makes some questionable choices and needs to make some money fast, is the character whose point of view we get and who acts as an amateur detective, who I didn't love at first but grew to appreciate. The other characters aren’t overly likeable, although that works well as they fight their way to the finish, with this social experiment exposing more than just selfishness. As Ryan questions back and forth what is real and what is part of the psychological gameplay, I found myself doing the same leading up to some overall great reveals as the pieces are put together (especially if you suspend some belief and just enjoy the ride).

Last One To Leave is a story of desperation, money and mind games. Although it takes a bit to get going, especially for a short story, its Black Mirror-esque premise and overall modern mystery make for an enjoyable listen.

[John Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read and enjoyed two of the authors previous books, 'Everyone in my family has killed someone '  (although my review seems to have gone missing) and 'Everyone on this train is a suspect' and like his clever originality. I was looking forward to this one which promised somethng different again.


I'm not sure that we have the sort of 'game show' featured here, in the UK and it was a bit of a case of suspending belief when the set up was explained and when contestants recounted previous experiences. However, the stage was set for us as the competitors were shown the set and had the rules explained.


As things happened in the house (the location of the game and its prize) neither we, nor  the players,  knew if they were real or part of the game


The story starts by introducing us to  Ryan, a widower struggling to bring up his daughter who becomes our eyes and ears on the game set. It is also down to him to explain everything at the end. I'm not sure that the armchair detective could come to the same conclusions. I certainly didn't.


Apart from the mystery to solve there is also the overriding question of who would win the big prize.


Overall, I enjoyed it but didn't feel that it achieved as much as it could have done. Maybe this was because it was quite short and certain areas could have been padded out more. Having said that ,I was quite pleased that it didn't go on any longer. Perhaps because of this my 3.5 score is rounded down.


2nd Oct 2025

[Peter Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this, the premise was so good. However, it was unfortunately boring in my opinion. I didn't find it engaging or exciting and that's why I unread books. I read psychological thrillers to escape the world and unfortunately I didn't feel like this book let me escape.

The start is quite good, engaging and relatively exciting. Unfortunately after the main event starts, it gets kind of boring and predictable. I also found the ending very confusing

I love the idea and I hate to leave a negative review here, but unfortunately this didn't really don't for me :(

[Nadim Mahmoud · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice plot, the author took his time in painting out the background of the key character
The one flaw is the change of his character from below average to Sherlock Holmes, too sharp unprecented in the build of the story

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

No idea why this has been classified as horror. There is absolutely nothing scary in there, not counting one dead body, which is not even a little creepy. It's a pretty good thriller/murder mystery though. The idea kind of reminds me of "Squid game" series, where desperate people try to win money and get over their heads when the competition is not what they signed up for, but thy play anyway.
It's a good, light listen, and yet it touches on a serious issue that most of us don't even consider while watching new youtube videos or liking and subscribing to instagram posts. People on social media and youtube are doing more and more crazy, bizarre things to get views. At some point it stops being enough to have some talent and show it, it stops being enough to post similar videos to what everyone else is doing. Eventually the online viewer starts to get more demanding. They have already seen lots of stuff on tv and in videos, creators need to come up with more and more crazy stunts, morally questionable topics, extreme ideas to keep the viewers interested and stay ahead of the competition. No one regulates it, laws are not even caught up to what is going on now, and the online trends change in a matter of days. The danger of the online creators going far over the line is real. What happens when at some point we will get vlogs from committing crimes, competitions with morally questionable rules and videos with people doing despicable things just to become more popular and score more views? They say that sex sells, but in the online society of today it's not enough anymore to show a little boob to make the viewer interested for a moment longer.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ryan's daughter convinves him to take part in a competition to win a cliff top mansion, organised by a group of sensational YouTubers. There are 7 competitors, and all they have to do is keep one hand in contact with the walls of the house at all times. The last one to remove their hand is the winner. All seems fairly simple and a matter of resolve, until one of the competitors is murdered.

This was a short, free listen on Audible. I've enjoyed other books of Stevenson's in the past, and this one was a reasonable listen too.

I really liked the premise of the book. The idea of the competition is clever, it sounds simple at first but as the characters in the book realise, it's not as straightforward as it sounds. When you add in the tricks the YouTuber's play to try and get the competitors to break contact I can imagine it making enthralling watching - sort of like car crash TV.

Being a short book we don't get a lot of time to get to know the characters well. Ryan seemed like a guy who was trying to do his best by his daughter, whist fighting his own demons. He was generally likeable and fairly non descript, up until the last few chapters of the book when he all of a sudden became a mastermind of deduction. This didn't seem to fit with the rest of the novel for me and made the ending seem of kilter, hence the 3 stars.

If you're looking for a plus catalogue book to listen to on Audible it's worth giving this one a shot, but I wouldn't spend a credit on it.

[Sandra Hernandez · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I listened to this book on audible. I love my mysteries, my thrillers and this one kind seemed interesting. It’s about five or six people who enter a competition that they don’t really know much about yet. They end up learning that they are in a competition and the winner gets the house they are in but you have to keep one hand on the wall the whole time the last one left standing wins the house. By the way this house is beautiful and expensive. But they do have a bag full of cash in one of the rooms for anyone who would rather take I think it was $2 million. The story is told in Ryan’s perspective he is a single father whose wife passed away from cancer he has one daughter who is the one who convinces him to do this competition. He has a gambling debt and is just struggling to get by.
I think if you read the summary it talks about people die trying to be the last one standing but in reality that’s not exactly how it worked. I think the summary is a little bit false. It is mainly is a group of people trying to win this house. And these young rich social media influencers are the one who created this competition and make it more psychological as they are trying to get you to lose. I won’t lie a murder does happen. The ending of the book is not so bad but I wish they would’ve done like a one year or two year later just to see how Ryan ends up
Overall did enjoy it

[Deborah (debbishdotcom) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although there are seven players in this game (and we meet them all) it's Ryan who's our narrator. A reluctant participant, he's doing it at the urging of his daughter Lydia. He's got debts he clocked up after his wife's death when he went off the tracks but now he's determined to make things right. So... we know he's a man of good conscience and honour. Which isn't the case for all of the participants.

The players drop like flies and there's a sense of competitiveness but not fear or danger until one of the players ends up dead.

What I enjoyed most about this read was trying to work the mystery out at the same time as Ryan. I had many questions. Was this all an elaborate set-up? Was there something more sinister at play or lurking beneath the hosts' or players' motivations?

I was still pondering this as Stevenson brings this to a climax, and enjoyed Ryan's unveiling of the mystery à la Hercule Poirot/Miss Marple, throwing in a couple of final twists for good measure.
Read my review here: https://www.debbish.com/books-literat...