Book Review for The Last Assignment by Erika Robuck

 

The Last Assignment by Erika Robuck

Published:  August 19, 2025 by Sourcebooks Landmark

Genre:  Historical Fiction, Photography, War

Taken from Goodreads:  From bestselling author Erika Robuck comes the perilous and awe-inspiring true story of award-winning photojournalist Dickey Chapelle as she risks everything to show the American people the price of war through the lens of her camera.

Manhattan, 1954.

Since her arrest for disobeying orders and going ashore at Iwo Jima almost a decade earlier, combat correspondent Georgette “Dickey” Chapelle has been unmoored. Her military accreditation revoked, her marriage failing, and her savings dwindling, Dickey jumps at the next opportunity. In the aftermath of a an assignment gone wrong, a flame is lit deep inside Dickey—to survive in order to be the world’s witness to war from the front lines.

Never content to report on battles unless her own boots are on the ground, Dickey and her camera journey with American and international soldiers from frozen wastelands to raging seas to luscious jungles, revealing one woman’s extraordinary courage and tenacity in the face of discrimination and danger. And it’s along the way, in Dickey’s desire to save the world, she realizes she might also be saving herself.

At a time when a woman's heroic spirit often gave way to homeland reality, Dickey blazed a trail for the revolutionary hearts inside us all.

My Thoughts: Erika Robuck is one of the best historical fiction writers I have ever read.  She takes a historical event or person that is not well known and brings it to life. I feel like I am right there seeing her story as I read it.  I traveled the world with Dickey and felt all the feelings she had as she worked to take the photograph that would end the wars. 

Dickey is living in a man’s world, traveling to dangerous places, all while taking pictures that tell the story of what happening.   I love her strength and grit.   She never backed away from a tough or dangerous situation, usually she moved towards them. 

The Last Assignment had me unable to put the book down.  I needed to know what would happen to Dickey next. 

Thank you Sourcebooks for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

Add to your MUST-READ list on Goodreads

Purchase your own copy on Amazon

Meet the Author (taken from her website):  Erika Robuck is the national bestselling author of historical fiction including THE LAST TWELVE MILES, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, and HEMINGWAY’S GIRL. Her articles have appeared in Writer Unboxed, Crime Reads, and Writer's Digest, and she has been named a Maryland Writer’s Association Notable Writer of 2024 and has won the Anne Arundel County Arts Council Literary Award for 2024. 

A boating enthusiast, amateur historian, and teacher, she resides in Annapolis with her husband and three sons.