The Only One Left by Riley Sager Published by Penguin on June 20, 2023
Genres: Fiction / Gothic, Fiction / Thrillers / Psychological, Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense
Pages: 400
Format: Hardcover
Source: Book of the Month
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Named a summer book to watch by The Washington Post, Boston Globe, USA Today, Oprah, Paste, Country Living, Good Housekeeping, and Nerd Daily
"Propulsive ... a dizzying Gothic whodunit."
—New York Times Book ReviewBestselling author Riley Sager returns with a Gothic chiller about a young caregiver assigned to work for a woman accused of a Lizzie Borden-like massacre decades earlier.
At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope
Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred.
Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life
It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined to a wheelchair, Lenora was rendered mute by a series of strokes and can only communicate with Kit by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night, Lenora uses it to make a tantalizing offer—I want to tell you everything.
“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said
But she’s the only one not dead
As Kit helps Lenora write about the events leading to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear there’s more to the tale than people know. But when new details about her predecessor’s departure come to light, Kit starts to suspect Lenora might not be telling the complete truth—and that the seemingly harmless woman in her care could be far more dangerous than she first thought.
My Review
Riley Sager has done it again. Now I say this Reader with only ever having read one other of his books which was Survive The Night. Spoiler I loved that book as well. I received The Only One Left from my Book Of The Month box late last year and recently have just read it. I was intrigued by this book because it is set off the coast of Maine and has a Lizzie Borden vibe to it. I would be lying though if I did not mention that BookTube and Instagram also influenced me to pick this gem up. I may have a slight problem with being influenced to buy books from BookTube and Social Media (smiling as I say that) on occasion but seriously what reader isn’t?
In this story, we follow Lenora Hope and her caretaker Kit. Kit is not the first person to take care of Lenora since her many strokes that have left her paralyzed and mute. Hold up though let me back up some. Lenora Hope was seventeen years old when her family was brutally murdered. She was suspected of killing her family because she was the only soul survivor of that night. However, there was never enough evidence to convict her of those crimes. Now at the age of seventy-two, she is still living in her childhood home where the murders took place. Sadly the poor girl never left.
You are probably thinking who on earth would want to work for someone who is suspected of committing these terrible crimes I mean seriously the woman is a serial killer right? I know that is what I was thinking when I picked this book up. Unfortunately poor Kit does not have much choice in the matter. You see the story takes place in a small town on the Maine coast. There are not many jobs around and it is the early eighties. Kit works for a company that sends out home caregivers to people who are unable to do daily everyday tasks for themselves. She has been a home caregiver for many years. Her last assignment did not go well and it resulted in her patient passing away. Kit was soon put on temporary leave from her employer since a case was brought up against Kit for negligence. Eventually, her employer reaches out with a new assignment and unfortunately, it is one that no other caregiver will take. It is the assignment to care for Lenora Hope. The care that Lenora needs goes above and beyond most cases in the sense that Kit will need to live in the home with Lenora. She will need to be available to care for her twenty-four hours a day and Kit’s room will be an adjoining room to Lenora’s. Talk about nerve-wracking especially since Lenora is the only person who could have and in fact, killed her family or so you think.
Once Kit arrives in the home she soon realizes things are not as they seem. It is as though the house is stuck in time including the uniforms of the staff members. The home seems to also be crumbling down around them and I do not mean that figuratively but actually, it is crumbling like cracks are forming in the walls and pieces are breaking apart. The problem with this happening is that the house is perched on a tall cliff overlooking the ocean. If the house goes it is going straight into the ocean. That is not the only thing however that Kit discovers as she soon realizes that the way Mary disappeared from the home is very unsettling. Mary was Lenora’s last caregiver and one night it appears that she left and didn’t take a thing with her. Suspicious indeed. No one has heard from her since. Where did she go?
As you can see above from the Google book description or even from the blurb on the cover Lenora and Kit hit it off. They hit it off so much that Lenora decided she would like to tell Kit everything from that night back in 1929. It is a story that she has not told anyone and one that she is ready to share. So Kit helps Lenora get to work on this by using the old typewriter in Lenora’s room. The typing is slow going but the story that is revealed is mind-blowing.
Riley Sager has a way of telling a story that keeps my interest. He has provided such twists and turns in this book that I just was not ready for but I am so glad he did it. If you are looking for a thriller with some gothic vibes, misunderstandings, and crazy twists then please pick this one up because I do not think you will be disappointed. Granted this is only my second book by this author but I can assure you Reader it will not be my last. Until next time Happy Reading.