With each partial reveal—even when we're led to believe that we know everything Emma knows—Sager hints that there's more to come. And in the end, the author delivers the kind of unpredictable conclusion that all thriller readers crave—utterly shocking yet craftily foreshadowed.

05/21/2018
The pseudonymous Sager follows his well-received debut, 2017’s Final Girls, with another gripping thriller. Tragedy strikes Camp Nightingale in Upstate New York when three girls vanish from their cabin in the middle of the night, leaving their younger roommate, Emma Davis, behind. Fifteen years later, Emma—an artist who constantly relives their disappearance through her paintings—is determined to uncover the mystery of her friends’ fate. When Camp Nightingale reopens for the first time since that summer, she returns as an instructor and is haunted by the past and possibly something even more sinister. Suspicion abounds as Emma’s memories of that summer lead her to hidden clues left behind in the wake of the girls’ disappearance. Sager intricately interweaves the past and present as Emma investigates further, realizing that not everyone she once knew can be trusted. A major twist toward the end compensates for the triteness of one of the big reveals. Sager remains a writer to watch. Agent: Michelle Brower, Aevitas Creative Management. (July)

Praise for The Last Time I Lied

“The author delivers the kind of unpredictable conclusion that all thriller readers crave—utterly shocking yet craftily foreshadowed.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Sager’s second thriller is as tense and twisty as [his] bestselling Final Girls (2017), but this one is even more polished, with gut-wrenching plot surprises skillfully camouflaged by Emma’s paranoia and confusion, the increasingly creepy setting, and a cast of intriguingly secretive characters.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Breathtaking—brightly written, scalpel-sharp, and altogether inspired. This swift, red-blooded thriller set my pulse thrumming.”—A. J. Finn, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window

"Sleekly written and involving . . . [The ending is] a startling, film-noir turn of fate."—The Wall Street Journal

“Another gripping thriller . . . intricately interweaves the past and present. . . . Sager remains a writer to watch.”—Publishers Weekly

“An edge-of-your-seat thriller full of twists and intrigue, The Last Time I Lied had me riveted from the first page to the stunning conclusion. A fantastic read—eerie, sharp, and all-around captivating.”—Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Stranger

“A haunted summer camp. A lake darker than midnight. This chilling tale will keep you awake long after you’ve turned the last page.”—Liv Constantine, national bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish

“Gripping and intense. Riley Sager paved his literary road with Final Girls. With The Last Time I Lied he tears up the pavement. One of my favorites of 2018 so far.”—J. D. Barker, international bestselling author of The Fourth Monkey and The Fifth to Die 

“Final Girls was outstanding, but dare I say it, The Last Time I Lied is a next-level thriller. Crisp writing, perfect pacing, and with tension that never lets up, Riley Sager’s latest propulsive tale is a one-weekend read that will leave you chilled to the bone.”—Jennifer Hillier, author of Jar of Hearts

“No review will do this book justice. The author has done a fantastic job creating a tale that leaves you breathless. If not a fan yet, read this and you will be one for life!”—Suspense Magazine

“Read under the covers with the flashlight on.”—Family Circle

“A heart-pounding mystery.”—Bustle

"[The Last Time I Lied] might just be the perfect summer book.”—Providence Journal 

“Need a good mystery to tide you over while you wait for season two of Big Little Lies?”—Apartment Therapy

“If you liked Final Girls, you will love Sager’s latest novel, which is a touch better and nearly impossible to put down. . . . Even veteran readers of psychological suspense will be blindsided by the jarring conclusion.”—The Real Book Spy

“Nothing short of spectacular . . . Sublime writing . . . and through a deliciously satisfying ending, [Riley] answers each question.”—Star-Ledger (Newark)

“Riley Sager has done it again! The Last Time I Lied hooks you in from the opening words and never releases you until the stunning conclusion. It’s an ideal summer read that allows you to participate in the action and try to determine what is true and what is a lie in the face of one of the most clever and unpredictable narrators in recent memory.”—Bookreporter.com

"Sager strikes a pitch-perfect balance between horror elements and a lighter suspense plotline in his newest book, and the result is an endlessly entertaining summer binge-read. Pick up The Last Time I Lied for its gorgeous cover, stay for its addictive and twisty story of years-old secrets and a summer vacation gone very wrong."—Crime by the Book

“Promises to be just as good [as Final Girls] for the beach (and even better for the edge of a lake).”—CrimeReads

“The Last Time I Lied has all the earmarks of a campy Friday the 13th-type horror flick, but Sager elevates the story with a strong lead character and a grounded, realistic threat.”—BookPage

“This story has so many twists and turns, the reader will be shocked by the truth of what really happened.”—The Parkersburg News and Sentinel

“The Last Time I Lied . . . is every bit as riveting as Final Girls.”—The Big Thrill

“The summer camp setting is beautifully haunting.”—Woman Around Town

Mixing the past with the present, Riley Sager delivers another twisted psychological thriller about three girls who go missing at camp. Emma Davis, a camper at Camp Nightingale when the three disappeared, grows up to be a successful painter despite being haunted by the mystery of what happened to her friends. Narrator Nicol Zanzarella depicts Emma's thoughts gently and in character. Her slow, almost eerie, delivery echoes the suspense of the story. An intimate tone in her voice enhances the listening experience and adds suspense. When a similar calamity happens at camp years later, Emma is once again at the center of the mystery and is obsessed with finding out the truth. It's during this progression that Zanzarella especially captures Emma's confused thoughts. D.Z. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

2018-04-16
More psychological suspense from the author of Final Girls (2017).Anyone who grew up watching horror movies in the 1980s knows that summer camp can be a dangerous place. It certainly was for Emma Davis during her first stay at Camp Nightingale. The other three girls in her cabin disappeared one night, never to return. Fifteen years have passed, years in which Emma has revisited this ordeal again and again through her work as a painter. When she's offered another opportunity to spend a summer at the camp, Emma barely hesitates. She's ostensibly there to serve as an art instructor, but her real mission is to finally find out what happened to her friends. Thrillers are, by their very nature, formulaic. Sager met the demands of the genre while offering a fresh, anxiety-inducing story in Final Girls. The author is less successful here. Part of the problem is the pacing. It's so slow that the reader has ample time to notice how contrived the novel's setup is. Emma is clearly unwell, so her decision to go back to the site of her trauma makes some sense, but it's hard to believe that the camp's owners would want her back, especially since she played a pivotal role in turning one of them into a suspect and nearly ruining his life. As a first-person narrator, Emma withholds a lot of information, which feels fake and frustrating; moreover, the revelations—when they come—are hardly worth the wait. And it's hard to trust an author who gets so many details wrong. For example, Emma's first summer at Camp Nightingale would have been around 2003 or so. It beggars belief that a 13-year-old millennial wouldn't be amply prepared for her first period, but that's what Sager wants readers to think. There's a contemporary scene in which girls walk by in a cloud of baby powder, Noxzema, and strawberry-scented shampoo, imagery that is intensely evocative of the 1970s and '80s—not so much 2018. The novel is shot through with such discordant moments, moments that lift us right out of the narrative and shatter the suspense.Sophomore slump.