Our Last Wild Days

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

In Jacknife, Louisiana, menace comes not only from the lurking 'gators, but from the secrets harboured by everyone in town...

From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a compelling, utterly immersive thriller

The Labasques aren’t like other families.

Living in a shack out in the swamps, they scrape a living hunting down alligators just to get by. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are trouble-makers, outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want living on your doorstep.

So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two rough-cut brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her ageing mother.

Loyal left town at the age of 18, having betrayed everything she valued most. Now, there may be no way for her to find forgiveness, but there may be restitution, if she can find out what really did happen to Cutter...

Set against the haunting beauty of Southern Louisiana, Our Last Wild Days is a compulsive, evocative novel about a tight-knit community and the secrets they want to keep hidden.

'Propulsive, bold and brutal...A truly atmospheric thriller.' Chris Whitaker, bestselling author of All the Colours of the Dark

'Bewitching... thought provoking, character driven crime fiction.' Paula Hawkins, bestselling author of The Girl on the Train

‘Sublime. The best thing I’ve read in ages.’ Will Dean, bestselling author of The Chamber

© Anna Bailey 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Critics Review

A propulsive, bold and brutal slice of Southern Gothic brilliance. Anna Bailey writes so beautifully about family, friendship, loyalty and betrayal, yet also delivers a tough and truly atmospheric thriller.
Chris Whitaker, author of All the Colours of the Dark and We Begin at the End
What lifts Anna Bailey’s marvellous second novel is the hothouse lyricism of their writing, which is as lush as the setting.
THE TIMES Book of the Month
A sweltering fever dream of a novel – brimming with atmosphere, tension, and a truly unforgettable cast of characters.
Colin Walsh, author of Kala
A bewitching slice of southern Gothic, in Our Last Wild Days, Anna Bailey cements her reputation for writing thought provoking, character driven crime fiction.
Paula Hawkins
Sublime. The best thing I’ve read in ages. Beautifully written and utterly immersive.
Will Dean, author of The Chamber
Astonishingly brilliant...The prose sings, the storytelling is exquisite. A rare, extraordinary talent.
CJ Cooke, author of A Haunting in the Attic
Bailey does a remarkable job of conjuring up the haunted swamplands of southern Louisiana… A particularly spicy gumbo of a thriller
Mail on Sunday
Raw and unflinching, Anna Bailey’s Our Last Wild Days is about the mystery of how anyone survives as much as it is the mystery of how one woman didn’t. In a beautifully observed story brimming with singular characters, small-town Louisiana still manages to steal the show.... a stunner.
Ashley Winstead, author of Midnight is the Darkest Hour
With a setting as atmospheric as Where The Crawdads Sing, and characters as memorable as those in All The Colours of The Dark, this is a stunningly written thriller and I savoured single page. Congratulations Anna - another blistering triumph to follow Tall Bones.
Nikki Smith, author of Look What You Made Me Do
Our Last Wild Days has everything I love in a suspense novel: a vivid and gritty setting, characters with sharp edges, atmosphere that seeps through the pages, and a dark, gripping mystery. Best of all is Anna Bailey’s exquisite prose, filled with lines worth tattooing and passages worth framing. This is a book that will sink into your bones.
Megan Collins, author of Cross My Heart and The Family Plot

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