The Last Run - by Rachel Weaver (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

On the bracing edges of Alaska, a single mother is driven to secure her legacy in a powerful novel of family, forgiveness, and finding one's place in the world by the author of Point of Direction.

It's been years since Ellie fished the Alaskan coastline--not since her mother died. But when she finds her father beat up behind the local bar, she learns he's done the unforgivable: gambled away the family's commercial fishing boat--her five-year-old son's inheritance and the life she longs to reclaim. For nefarious reasons of his own, the bookie gives them one season to earn the money to buy it back.

Ellie agrees to fish with her father, Pete, bringing her son, Drew, along as they chase the slim hope of paying off the debt. She's no stranger to backbreaking work and little sleep; what she's never been good at is accepting help--or trusting anyone, especially a secretive homesteader with demons of his own. Ellie's growing attraction and the dangerous waters are the least of her worries. She's hiding secrets from everyone and, as the date with the bookie draws closer, she is at risk of losing it all.

(c) 2026 by Rachel Susan Weaver, all rights reserved.

Review Quotes

"The Last Run isn't short on action, but in the end it's a human novel." --Anchorage Daily News

"A page-turning, authentic Alaskan tale that you'll want to devour in one sitting." --Alaska Magazine

"The Last Run is thrilling--a propulsive adventure story about a mother fighting to save her family legacy and her son, all while covered in fish guts, battling Alaskan storms, outwitting dangerous men, and coming to terms with her past. Rachel Weaver's Alaska is beautiful and punishing, and her stories make me want to chuck my phone in the trash and go fishing. Can't wait for the next one." --Tiffany Quay Tyson, author of The Past Is Never

"Rachel Weaver is among the very best writers who shirk the well-trod path of the male adventure hero to embrace a more flawed, more human, more whole character. Ellie Baker, our hero in The Last Run, negotiates not only the treacherous waters and rugged wilderness of Alaska, but the even more challenging terrain of motherhood and family, in the end learning that losing everything often means gaining what matters most." --BK Loren, author of Theft

"Weaver drops us with the force of a fifty-pound lead into the world of commercial fishing along the rugged coast of Southeast Alaska. With a steady hand and a clear eye, she renders a world of backbreaking work and razor-thin margins, where the sea makes no promises and neither do the people who work it. At the center is Ellie--tough, secretive, and doing what she's always done: holding everything together while letting no one close. A propulsive, deeply human novel from one of Alaska fiction's most sure-footed voices." --Brendan Jones, author of The Alaskan Laundry