The Last Frontier is a novel written by Scottish author Alistair MacLean, and was first published in 1959. It was released in the United States under the title The Secret Ways. This novel marks MacLean's first foray into the espionage thriller genre, and was inspired by the events surrounding the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Writing in the third person narrative, MacLean described the physical and political surroundings with more attention than he has in previous novels, and there are moments when MacLean purposely slows the action down to build character development.