Books: “The Last One at The Wedding” by Jason Rekulak

Some days you just don’t want to read a NYT’s 100-Best-Books-of-the-Century book, or a plow through a classic like Kakfa’s “The Trial.” For days like that, Jason Rekulak’s “The Last One at The Wedding” more than satisfies.

I stress “days” because you’ll need about two days tops to polish off this page-turner of a thriller. And, if you order it online and it’s delivered by UPS, that’d be even more appropriate because the novel’s protagonist happens to be a UPS driver.

Frank Szatowski is a fifty-something widower living in Stroudsberg, Pennsylvania. Long estranged from his grown daughter Maggie, he suddenly gets a phone call from her, inviting him to her wedding in New Hampshire.

To top it off, she reveals she’s getting married to Aiden Gardner, the eligible young scion of one of the richest tech families in New England (which Frank doesn’t know until he Googles the guy.)

Gobsmacked, Frank rents a tuxedo, invites his sister Tammy and her foster child Abigail to the wedding, and begins the six-hours drive north. Once he arrives, he’s taken aback: the wedding venue is a secluded and luxurious estate on a lake, complete with security guard check-in for the wedding guests and a private cabin for Frank and his family.

Yet Frank is suspicious. On the drive up he’d made a stop in town where he was

confronted by a local yokel who claims Aiden the groom murdered his daughter Dawn. When Frank brings up the matter with Maggie and the Gardners, he gets lame excuses and no straight answers.

Frank was looking forward to getting to know his prospective SIL. But that’s proving difficult because Aidan is scarcely around—three days before his wedding. Maggie doesn’t seem to have time for him either. Plus on the night of the rehearsal dinner, another young woman is found dead ron the premises. What’s wrong with this picture? What’s right is the real question.

“Last One” is divided into chapters: The Arrival, the Rehearsal, the Wedding—but it’s anything but a tome. In fact, the pace mounts so incredibly fast, you may need to put the book down and breathe at points. Or just read something more relaxing: like the headlines in your daily newspaper.

“Last One” is astute at illustrating the white-privileged lives of the haves as well as the anxieties of the blue-collar have-nots (the UPS drivers, the hair stylists)—the good guys in this tale.

There are more than a few moments in this thriller that strain credulity. But on the whole, “Last One” is well-written, fairly harmless fun which you’ll devour in a few sittings. Enjoy. I did.

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