In Riley Sager’s latest chilling thriller, THE ONLY ONE LEFT, a young caregiver is assigned to a reclusive and infamous murder suspect, Lenora Hope. One evening in 1929, Lenora is the last one standing after the massacre of her family in their mansion on the cliff’s edge. With a bloodstained nightgown and a bloody knife in her grasp, Lenora is the only suspect, but she’s never proven guilty. Now Kit McDeere must care for the enigma while dealing with her own demons. Will anyone survive the secrets that are contained within the crumbling mansion called Hope’s End?
Kit has few options as a home health aide since the suspicious death of her own mother, so she takes the only job available to her, which is caring for Lenora Hope. Kit remembers the schoolyard chants about the mass murder as well as the rumors about Lenora, but Kit has her own secrets and desperately needs a job. Lenora’s last nurse left suddenly under suspicious circumstances. Lenora is mute, confined to a wheelchair, and only has the use of her left arm, but her bright green eyes radiate a keen intelligence and Kit starts understanding and fearing Lenora. Kit soon learns that she and Lenora can communicate through typewritten sentences on an old typewriter. As the words start to flow, Kit realizes she may learn the truth about the Hope family massacre, but is she prepared for the fallout?
THE ONLY ONE LEFT is trademark Riley Sager as Lenora’s story unfolds with plenty of twists, turns, and buried secrets coming to light. The crumbling manor on Maine’s coast is the setting for unspeakable horrors as a wealthy family victimizes each other and drives one member into madness. There are secret romantic trysts, sibling rivalry, family dysfunction, jealousy, rage, and violence. It is a chilling, atmospheric, gothic thriller with a mansion filled with shadowy doorways, footsteps at night, and blurry figures in windows. Kit is a flawed and relatable character as she deals with her past while trying to establish a new life. Lenora is a complicated, multi-faceted character that never appears trustworthy. Do we believe her or fear her? Readers are left wondering whether Kit will become a victim or a savior. There are plenty of secondary characters with complicated backstories and motives that enhance the mystery.
Highly entertaining and addictive, THE ONLY ONE LEFT will keep readers guessing until the explosive conclusion when secrets are exposed, lives are irretrievably changed, and the foundation of life at Hope’s End literally crumbles. Highly recommended for fans of chilling, atmospheric, twisty thrillers.
Bestselling 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 HopeHung her sister with a ropeNow 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 knifeTook her mother’s happy lifeIt’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 saidBut 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.
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