04/17/2023

Sager (The House Across the Lake) again creatively toys with thriller mainstays in this gothic riff on the sinister caretaker trope. It’s 1983, and home health aide Kit McDeere is desperate for work after her previous client overdosed on fentanyl from a bottle Kit left within reach. While McDeere avoided prosecution, she’s still suspected by many—including the police—of having deliberately killed the woman. Broke, Kit has no choice but to accept a new assignment that her boss warns is especially difficult: serving as the caregiver for the paralyzed 71-year-old Lenora Hope. Like Kit, Lenora is considered a murderer by many in their small Maine community: when she was 17, Lenora’s parents and sister were killed in the family’s mansion, leaving her as the sole survivor. As Kit bonds with Lenora, she becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth about her family’s deaths, and increasingly unsure of her client’s innocence. Sager offers his usual array of jaw-dropping twists, which startle despite being fairly clued. Fans of Daphne du Maurier will enjoy this superior nail-biter. Agent: Michelle Brower, Trellis Literary. (June)

Praise for The Only One Left and Riley Sager:

“As is often the case with Sager’s novels, trying to predict where the many twists will take you is fun (and maddening), but some of the most interesting parts of the story lie in the people you meet along the way. The mystery is as tantalizing to us as it is to Kit, but The Only One Left is also an exploration of family, of love, of loneliness. It even asks an examination of true-crime obsessiveness and when tales overtake reality.”
—USA Today

“Sager offers his usual array of jaw-dropping twists…. Fans of Daphne du Maurier will enjoy this superior nail-biter.” 
—Publishers Weekly

“Claustrophobic and haunting, this is Sager at the top of his game.” 
—Booklist

“Riley Sager fans can count on the author to deliver page-turning thrillers like The House Across the Lake and Lock Every Door, and The Only One Left is no exception.”
—Country Living, "23 Best Spring Books for Adults to Add to Your 2023 Reading List"

“Another vivid female narrator from bestseller Riley Sager . . . whose signature corkscrew plots keep twisting until the last cutting sentence.”
—Oprah Daily

“This twist on the Lizzie Borden murders has it all: A reclusive woman who was acquitted of brutally murdering her family living in a big, decrepit house; a new caretaker hiding secrets of her own. And, most importantly, there are a number of twists you won’t see coming.”
—Katie Couric Media

“Riley Sager furthers his reputation for innovative, highly original plots in The Only One Left.”
—Shelf Awareness, "Best Books of the Week"

“Spooky and gothic (plot points involving things like rusty old typewriters abound here), Sager certainly knows how to entertain. If you don't get around to it this summer, it would be a perfect spooky szn read.”
—Glamour

“For horror fans looking for no shortage of twists and turns in their books, check out The Only One Left.”
—Men’s Health, “The 69 Best Horror Books of All Time”

“Perennial thriller favorite Riley Sager is back with another page-turner this summer, this one riffing on one of America’s most famous and most notorious true crime cases. . . . The kind of book you’ll stay up late into the night trying to finish.”
—Paste Magazine

“Riley Sager’s spellbinding The Only One Left captures you in its snares from its first tantalizing pages. A Gothic house of horrors, it carries you along effortlessly before delivering a symphony of twists so shocking it took my breath away.” 
—Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of Beware the Woman and The Turnout

"Riley Sager is one of my favorite authors, and The Only One Left might be his best yet. Not only is it a deliciously Gothic thrill ride featuring two of my favorite things (Creepy Houses and Murderous Ladies), but it also asks big questions about grief, loss, and the secrets we keep even from those closest to us. Fun, scary, and so absorbing I almost missed a flight because I was trying to read just one more chapter, The Only One Left is one hell of a read!"
—Rachel Hawkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs

“The Only One Left is Gothic horror at its very best—a crumbling mansion by the sea, dripping with blood, secrets, and forbidden romance—and it’s a thriller that will keep you guessing to the end. Riley Sager, king of twists, has done it again. I couldn’t put this book down.”
—Ana Reyes, New York Times bestselling author of The House in the Pines

“Haunting and incredibly nuanced with enough twists to make your head spin, this is Sager at his best. The Only One Left is a chilling, one-sitting read!”
—Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of Just the Nicest Couple

"Page after page, Sager feeds our voyeuristic hunger to know every deep, dark, bloody detail in those rare cases that capture our attention and our imagination. I'll say it: Kit is, hands down, my favorite heroine in the Sager-verse and The Only One Left is a terrifying treat for all of his fans (like me!)."
—Chandler Baker, New York Times bestselling author of The Whisper Network and Cutting Teeth

“The Only One Left might just be Riley Sager’s creepiest novel yet.”
—Book Riot

“Always master of suspense, Sager had me gasping out loud and listening for sounds in my house. I loved this book and it may even be my new favorite of Sager’s.”
—Mystery and Suspense Magazine

“The Only One Left, a title that clearly speaks to Lenora Hope, is yet another classic from Riley Sager and will have his countless fans reeling and squealing in delight with each passing chapter.”
—Bookreporter.com

"Deliciously creepy." 
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“The latest dependable airport bookstore grab and name in summer suspense.”
—The Chicago Tribune

“Sager is a master of the twist and the turn.”
—Rolling Stone
 
“[Sager’s novels are] all creepily atmospheric, easy to read without being fluffy, and fun as hell.”
—Vulture

"Suspense master."
—USA Today

06/09/2023

It's been 54 years since Lenora, bloody and screaming, was found at Hope's End mansion. Her parents slaughtered, her sister hanging. No one knows what happened, and Lenora isn't talking. Flash forward to the '80s: Kit is fresh off a scandal of her own, in desperate need of a job. When her employer comes back with a last-chance offer as a caretaker, there are strings attached. The client is Lenora, now elderly, paralyzed, and unable to speak. And Lenora's previous caretaker? Disappeared. Can Kit work for a woman who may or may not be a murderer? Or will she give up everything, resigned to living with her father? Almost immediately, the tense atmosphere steadily, if slowly, builds, soon bringing a palpable sense of unease. The crumbling, gothic setting heightens Kit's urgency to find the truth about Lenora, even as her own scandal slowly comes to light. Interspersed within the story is Lenora's painstakingly typed account of her family's murders, teasing information to come. While readers may find the final reveal too coincidental for belief, even avid Sager (The House Across the Lake) fans are unlikely to see it coming. VERDICT A solid addition to Sager's oeuvre.—Elisha Sheffer

2023-04-24
Sager returns with his take on a gothic whodunit set on the coast of Maine.

The year is 1983. Kit McDeere is a disgraced home caregiver who has one chance to redeem herself: She's assigned to look after the ailing, elderly Lenora Hope, a local Lizzie Borden figure. Back in 1929, Lenora allegedly murdered her parents and sister, and now, along with her remaining staff, she resides at Hope’s End, the Gothic mansion on Maine’s crumbling cliffs where the murders took place. Lenora can't speak following a series of strokes, but with Kit’s help, she can type, and she wants to tell her story once and for all, confiding in Kit what happened on the night of the infamous murders. The novel moves between Kit’s narration in the present and Lenora’s typewritten account of her life leading up to the incident. Early on, the novel evokes such genre classics as “The Fall of the House of Usher” and Rebecca, establishing a moody atmosphere and intriguingly suspicious characters. However, this novel lacks the psychological realism of its influences. Sager doesn’t play with gothic tropes so much as he simply traffics in them. The first half of the book is tense and propulsive, but in later chapters the narrative takes so many outlandish turns so quickly that it borders on camp. Characters act in ways that are clichéd and implausible, and they are given cartoonish dialogue to match their behavior. Villains confess easily, in long speeches that strain credulity, and a subplot around paternity takes on the flavor of a telenovela. Multiple scenes involve characters emerging from doorways to reveal they were there all along. (Gasp!) That said, the novel reads quickly and provides a thrilling, if goofy, ride for those with a high tolerance for plot hijinks and a fondness for Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak.

An entertaining thriller if you can give yourself over to its sillier plot devices.