The Last Renter - (The Archer Island) by Caleb Mason (Paperback)

About the Book

What do you know about that person in your short-term rental unit?

In The Last Renter: An Archer Island Thriller, a dangerous mental patient escapes to Archer Island seeking revenge against her abusive stepfather and holds her elderly rental hosts captive in their remote farmhouse.

Millicent Kilvert has led a tragic life of mental illness, culminating in her being sent to an insane asylum to live out her life. She manages to escape and after killing her mother heads for Archer Island in late-November as a big coastal storm rolls into Maine. She rents the attached bungalow in an old farmhouse owned by an elderly couple, Hilda and Evan Olson. Evan leaves his wife alone with the renter as he takes the ferry to the mainland to help their pregnant daughter move into a new home. Hilda and Evan are excited to become first-time grandparents and are unaware of their renter's past.

That first night as the storm rages, Hilda hears strange noises coming from the attached rental unit. When she creeps downstairs to investigate, what she finds will change her life forever. Will her husband Evan be able to make it back in the storm to save her? Can Hilda convince her hallucinating guest to let her seek help?

The Last Renter is a psychological thriller exploring serious dissociative mental illness and paints a sympathetic portrait of a tragically damaged young woman.

Book Synopsis

What do you know about that person in your short-term rental unit?

In The Last Renter: An Archer Island Thriller, a dangerous mental patient escapes to Archer Island seeking revenge against her abusive stepfather and holds her elderly rental hosts captive in their remote farmhouse.

Millicent Kilvert has led a tragic life of mental illness, culminating in her being sent to an insane asylum to live out her life. She manages to escape and after killing her mother heads for Archer Island in late-November as a big coastal storm rolls into Maine. She rents the attached bungalow in an old farmhouse owned by an elderly couple, Hilda and Evan Olson. Evan leaves his wife alone with the renter as he takes the ferry to the mainland to help their pregnant daughter move into a new home. Hilda and Evan are excited to become first-time grandparents and are unaware of their renter's past.

That first night as the storm rages, Hilda hears strange noises coming from the attached rental unit. When she creeps downstairs to investigate, what she finds will change her life forever. Will her husband Evan be able to make it back in the storm to save her? Can Hilda convince her hallucinating guest to let her seek help?

The Last Renter is a psychological thriller exploring serious dissociative mental illness and paints a sympathetic portrait of a tragically damaged young woman.

Review Quotes

Praise for Volume One: Thickafog

"In this stunning literary mystery, a gruff carpenter (Jon) becomes the primary suspect in the murder of his father. Mason burrows deep into Jon's battered psyche and paints nuanced portraits of his main characters without ever letting the intrigue slacken. Readers who like their whodoneits on the meditative side will love this."

-- Starred Publishers Weekly review

"Thickafog is insightful and beautifully written. There were so many things I liked about the novel, including the description of the island and how up-to-date the author is about all sorts of things."

-- Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

"Murder mystery Thickafog gets Maine island life right. We care about the characters. We want the mystery of Bobby's death cleared up, and we want to see Jon's life get straightened out. Mason keeps us engaged while twisting the threads of his story into a satisfying ending."

-- The Maine Sunday Telegram

"Through it all, the constant presence of the island fog--"thickafog," as the lobstermen say--plays a recurring role. The thick fog that rolls in and blankets the island, the fog in Jon's brain from his drinking, the fog of dementia that the "Island Queen" suffers from."

-- Clarke Canfield, The Working Waterfront

"Caleb Mason has skillfully created a believable world, a sense of place, with characters who are fully dimensional, as well as a suspenseful plot well-orchestrated."

-- Joyce Kornblatt, author of The Reason for Wings

"Thickafog reveals the humanity of its characters, with all their failures and triumphs, hatreds and redeeming love, and above all the ways a community can test and nurture and connect us to each other."

-- Wayne Karlin, author of eight novels including A Wolf by the Ears

"Crime and Punishment meets Demon Copperhead in this fast-paced philosophical novel that had me guessing until the final pages."

-- Anna Blauveldt, author of The Leavetaking and Awakening

About the Author

Caleb Mason is the author of The Isles of Shoals Remembered: A Legacy from America's First Artists' and Musicians' Colony (1992), about which Allen Lacy of The New York Times wrote: "Provides a fascinating look at an important time period in the American arts." Caleb has authored five previous novels, including Thickafog (2025). He also writes under the pen name Don Trowden and has published: Normal Family (2012); No One Ran to the Altar (2016); All the Lies We Live (2019), and Young Again (2022), co-authored with Valerie McKee. Caleb welcomes reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, as well as constructive comments on his social media outlets, where he is mostly to be found under the pen name Don Trowden.