In 1929 Lenora Hope carried out the crime of the century, stabbing her father and mother brutally to death before hanging her sister and setting their mansion ablaze. Police were unable to find any evidence tying her concretely to the crime and were unable to prosecute her, but that did little to dissuade the rest of the town from memorializing her guilt with a rhyme that would terrify and delight school children in equal measure for decades, cementing her status as their resident Boo Radley. The fact that Lenora hadn't been seen outside the Hope family mansion in nearly 70 years has done nothing to assuage that guilt or dial down the fear that her very name struck in the hearts of all those who had to deal with her.
Caregiver Kit McDeere finds herself on her own last chance and stuck in an assignment to be Lenora's replacement caregiver after her previous nurse disappeared in the night. As much as Kit dreads being in the presence of the infamous Lenora Hope, she can't help but find herself drawn into the woman's orbit. The longer they spend together the more Kit begins to suspect that not only is Lenora more capable than she lets anyone believe, but that there is much more to the Hope family murders than the general public has ever been made aware of. Kit quickly becomes determined to unravel the mysteries that Lenora and her household staff have devoted their entire lives to burying, but if she isn't careful she might find herself being the next loose end that needs to be tied up...

I have been a Riley Sager stan since the beginning, eagerly circling the release date of each new novel and waiting with bated breathe to read each new story, and I have to say that I think "The Only One Left" is Sager's best story yet. I was absolutely riveted by the story from the very first page, the pacing was tight and the suspense and gothic atmosphere ratcheted up with each successive chapter. I tore through this novel, not at all anticipating the ending but loving each new twist and secret that was revealed along the way,

"The Only One Left" is the perfect end of summer book club book and will spark conversation and excitement among readers of all backgrounds. I would specifically recommend this novel for anyone who wants to get their true crime friends into reading thrillers (especially for fans of "I'll Be Gone in the Dark.), for anyone who has a special interest in how crimes were prosecuted and solved before police could accurately rely on forensic evidence, and for anyone whose hometown has its own version of the boogeyman that they are ready to swap stories about when the lights are low and the air turns a little crisp. Special thanks to NetGalley and to Dutton for providing an Advanced Reader's Copy of "The Only One Left" in exchange for an unbiased review!

Riley Sager is in peak form in his newest novel, The Only One Left. Set in a remote mansion on the cliffs of Maine, the novel follows Kit as she takes on the only job she can get - as caregiver for the town's local spooky story, a Lizzie Borden-esque Lenora Hope. Lenora was accused of killing her family in a series of brutal murders in 1929, and now, 54 years later, she is mostly incapacitated and requires full time care. Although she can't speak, Lenora begins to share her story with Kit the only way she can - by typing with one finger. Kit soon becomes entangled in a decades-old mystery while simultaneously trying to solve the much more recent disappearance of her predecessor. The Only One Left is classic Sager, relying on horror tropes without leaning into them too heavily, and more twists and turns than readers can ever guess. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, especially the POV of our main character, as well as the interspersed tidbits of Lenora's life story. Highly recommended for fans of Sager's other works, as well as anyone looking for a good entry into mystery/thrillers. Perfect summertime reading.

Whew! That was a wild ride!

My third Sager and now my favorite, this book had twist after twist after twist and so many of my favorite thriller elements.

Things you will find in this book:

-Gothic, cliff side mansion
-Family secrets and lies
-Lizzie Borden-style family Murder
-Untrustworthy characters
-Letters

The first half of the book is super atmospheric and the second half is more back to back action and suspense. I truly thought I saw where this was headed, and I was wrong on all counts. While parts of it reminded me of another thriller I read recently, there were so many unique elements as well that kept my eyed peeled to my kindle.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and would recommend to any thriller lover.

Thank you to #netgalley for my advanced readers copy

This book is available everywhere now

In the 1920’s Lenora Hope murdered her family. At least that’s the story that the school-aged children have been chanting about ever since it happened. The locals all know about the Hope family massacres, and although the police couldn’t prove that Lenora really was the one to kill her family, everyone has decided that it’s truth.
Now it’s the 80’s and Lenora is confined to a wheelchair and in need of full-time care, but she can’t seem to keep a caretaker. In fact, her last caretaker mysteriously left in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again.
Kit McDeere is a home health aide who made a detrimental mistake in her work and is now doing everything is her power to keep her job, including taking the job at Hope’s End that no one else seems to want. Lenora is nonverbal and uses a typewriter to communicate when she can muster up the strength to use her hand to type. No one is more shocked than Kit when a message on the typewriter one day reads, “I want to tell you everything.” No one except Lenora knows the true story of what happened that fateful night when she was a teenager and now Kit may be the first to find out.
It's not long before Kit begins to realize that maybe Lenora is only sharing half-truths with her. She also hears noises and begins to see things that she can’t explain, and she wonders if there’s more to Lenora than meets the eye.
Kit is determined to see this story through, no matter the cost. Someone is manipulating her surroundings and Kit must uncover the truth before she runs out of time.
“The Only One Left” is another absolutely thrilling read by Riley Sager. Don’t hesitate to put this on your must-read list!

Received as a free ebook from NetGalley, the publisher, and the author.

I'm a huge Riley Sager fan and was so excited to be able to read this ARC. It did not disappoint. Suspense, murder, thrills, twists and turns, murder, and a mystery. The setting was an older house that was great at its peak before the depression and has slowly been falling apart over the years. A gated house, an expanse of green lawn, an ocean view, the sound of waves, and elegant ballroom. It seems like an ideal and perfect life, or is it.

It may also seem great, but is it really. A caregiver is needed for the elderly resident who is unable to talk, move, etc, and requires round the clock care. Kit McDeere jumps at the chance of her first job back after being suspended for being the prime suspect in the death of her mother. Kit is more than ready to get out of that house and leave her father behind who never talks to her and acts like she's not enough there. Kit comes to realize that her Lenora Hope are more alike than she initially realized. Both are prime murder suspects in their parents deaths. As the days progress and Kit meets more of the mansion staff, hears the stories, she realizes there is more than meets the eye at the mansion and she sets out to discover what happened that fatal night of the mansion murders and her mother's own death.

I couldn't put it down. I stayed up way too late just to be able to keep reading this book. I was not disappointed. I don't know how Riley's mind works, but the stories created are interesting, the characters draw you in, and you just need to know what will happen next.

Recommended for Riley Sager fans, murder, mystery, mansions, medical, caregivers, oceans, family stories, secrets, adoption, and inspecting older homes, and learning their history.

I liked the very gothic/Rebecca-esque setting and overall creepy haunted house vibes. We are doing a locked in/claustrophobic kinda mystery. Our Female lead isn’t an idiot. Hope’s End (the house) is a character in and of itself (blood carpet stains and all). There were two really GOOD twists at the end.

Now some big dislikes. The first 75% is pretty slow/boring. When I usually pick up a Riley Sager book I tend to read that damn book all in one sitting, however it took me almost a week to read this, v sad.

Lots of the characters have no personality/blend together and serve no purpose other than silly red herrings. The *biG* killer reveal was suuuuuper dumb and we have an excessive amount of twists that were totally unnecessary that all happen at the very end (whyyy???)

Riley Sager writes unbelievably wild thrillers that on paper should not make a lot of sense or even work, quite frankly. This is third Sager book I've read and the third where I have gone "WTF?" at the ending, and yet I still keep coming back for more. This one takes place in the 80's, because a post cell-phone/internet world would have unraveled this fairly fast. Still, it somehow works. Kit is a 20-something with no real ambition or drive. She doesn't know what she wants to do with her life and she's killing time in her small town by working as a home health aide. She gets assigned to care for the notorious Lenora Hope, a women who killed her entire family in the 1920's. Lenora can't talk and she's stuck in a wheelchair after a series of strokes, but it soon becomes clear she does have something she wants to communicate to Kit, and that is what exactly happened the night she supposedly murdered her whole family. Lots of twists and turns, this one is a page turner, and as long as you don't think too much about it, or really expect a deep character study, this is enjoyable. It's the popcorn summer movie of books.

This book!!! I did not think Riley Sager could do any better, but this is now my FAVORITE book of his 10/5 stars!!!!! You will not be able to guess everything and you will be so caught up in the story, you won't be able to put it down!!! Best book of the year! great book club pick too.

If you are looking for a thriller that you will NEVER SEE THE END COMING, this is the one!

The Only One Left is full of twists and turns, honestly overflowing with them. So much overflowing that I decided to take a star away because the twists seemed like there was no way they could all be true. I want a thriller that is believable, even if it doesn’t tie up all loose ends with a pretty bow.

Our protagonist Kit is a strong, like-able, root for her success woman! I wanted her to figure out the true murderer the entire time, and hoped she would also be innocent in the end. Lenora is such a dynamic character. I wish she had been more transparent- I found myself screaming “just tell us what happened!” Of course that would make for a much shorter novel 😁

Does this make the list of my all time favorite Riley Sager novels? No, but that is only because he is held to a higher standard than most in my book. Sager will remain an auto-buy author for me until the end of time.

Read this is you want
🔪 Whodunnit that will keep you guessing
💗Strong female MC’s
👻Spooky elements
🖤🖤Uniquely written in dual POV
📚Short chapters- you’ll tell yourself “just one more” until you finish this binge-able read!

4/5 ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion (and for pulling me out of my bookslump).

TW- mention of suicide and infant death.

One of my new favorites from the king of thrillers. I adored the characters and plot twists throughout The Only One Left and will be recommending to everyone.

This book was a fast-paced, tense read with lots of plot twists and a big mystery to figure out. I've read a few of Riley Sager's novels (Home After Dark, etc.) and appreciate the relatively short chapters and first person POVs. The mystery in this novel that makes up the plot is whether or not Lenora Hope is actually the one who murdered her family or not, and who in the present might want to keep that information secret. The reveals were definitely unexpected - I never would've guessed who was who and what actually happened that night. Although towards the very end, I did feel that there just a bit too many plot twists. Kit's personal relationship with the murders verged into the ridiculous, but at least it made for some good reading!

It's giving gothic horror.
Which I didn't expect but do love in thrillers.
The atmosphere, the slow build, the pay off at the end.
This wasn't my favorite Sager, but it was good! And I did enjoy it.

If you like well plotted thrillers that cross the line between domestic suspense and something a bit darker, then Riley Sager is the author for you. His second novel, The Last Time I Lied (2018), is a favourite of mine, and most of his other books have also been very good.

Sager used to write small town police detective thrillers under his own name of Todd Ritter, but moved into the domestic suspense arena with the Riley Sager pseudonym and his very successful first novel, Final Girls. All of the Sager novels feature engaging first person narrators, who are far from perfect and usually suffering from violent traumatic instances in their past. Although he is a male, Sager seems to perfectly capture the tone and style of his younger female narrators and makes them into credible, well-fleshed out characters.

In The Only One Left Sager introduces another well crafted, fragile character in the form of home-health aide, Kit McDeere. It is 1983 and Kit, despite for money, arrives at the decaying Hope’s End, a dilapidated cliffside mansion on the Maine coast, to care for the notorious Lenora Hope after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night.

Lenora is infamous as the supposed murderer of her parents and sister back in 1929. The police were never able to prove Lenora’s guilt and she has never spoken publicly about that night, apart from denying that she was responsible. She has not set foot outside Hope’s End since then and is now in her seventies and confined to a wheelchair. Lenora has been 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.

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.

The Only One Left is an enjoyable mixture of cold case mystery and present day danger. The opening sections are a little slow, but the suspense soon builds and the final chapters deliver plenty of surprises and excitement amidst the collapsing remains of the once grand house. I thought I had elements of the story worked out, but the final revelations certainly caught me off guard.

Sager’s portrayal of Kit is a highlight, and the gloomy presence of Hope’s End adds a good deal of creepy atmosphere to the story. Sager’s novels sometimes skirt the edges of supernatural horror, but this time around the story is more firmly grounded, apart from the occasional ghostly whisper.

Some suspension of disbelief is required, but I do not think that many readers will mind. Good fun, and a convincing recreation of past times in the 1920s and the early 1980s.

Another solid hit, justifiably. I loved the creepy feeling of the old cliffside house, the characters, the twists- so much! I am in awe of the authors imagination and expert ability to transfer what he admires to the page for us to enjoy. So good!

Riley Sager (Author) Is back, ladies and gentlemen! This book was awesome. I haven't had a book of his give me the feels like this since Home Before Dark This was a gothic masterpiece. I loved it so much. Lenora Hope is the town boogie man with her house built on an eroding cliff. She supposedly killed her whole family in 1929. Fast forward, it's sometime in the 1980s, and she is in need of a new caregiver. Enter Kit who also has her own sordid past. "He picked me because he won't mind if I kill her." I loved all the twists and turns. What an awesome ride. Would love for this to be a movie.

Thank you so much to @Netgalley and the publishers for an advanced reader's copy for an honest review.

𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑶𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝑳𝒆𝒇𝒕
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲: Gothic thriller, whodunit, the Lizzie Borden story, Verity, all the creepy feelings in an eerie estate!
𝗣𝘂𝗯 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗲: June 20 (TOMORROW!)

𝗔𝘁 𝘀𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻, 𝗟𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗮 𝗛𝗼𝗽𝗲
𝗛𝘂𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲
𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮 𝗸𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗲
𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿'𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲
"𝗜𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘀𝗻'𝘁 𝗺𝗲," 𝗟𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗮 𝘀𝗮𝗶𝗱
𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗲'𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱

As someone who loves horror, I always look forward to Riley Sager’s yearly releases! And I’m so honored to get a copy of this book early so I could share with all of you how amazing it is before it’s available in stores!!! Thank you @duttonbooks for sending me a copy!

If you are interested in true crime, I’m sure you have heard of Lizzie Borden, the alleged first female serial killer. When I found out that Sager’s newest book will be inspired by this story, I was so excited to get my hands on it!

So basically, we have the affluent Hope family and their grand estate established on a cliff overlooking the water. One night, all of the Hope family were brutally murdered and only Lenora was left alive unscathed which makes her the prime suspect for her family’s murders. However, there was no significant evidence to convict her of said crimes and so she was able to be set free…

That’s all I would say. 😂 Friends if you love to be scared, definitely read this one!!

The setting? Creepy
The urban legend backstory? Scary
The characters? All suspicious (great for whodunits!)
Footsteps and strange noises at night? Check!
Ouija boards and creepy schoolyard chant? Double check!

It delivers you a plot twist after plot twist that leaves you flipping pages late at night even if you want to catch up on some sleep from a busy weekend. 😂 It gives off Verity vibes as well so if you loved that book, I’m sure you’d love this one too!

I can’t wait for all of you guys to read it!!!

💭 So I’ve heard that the actual Lizzie Borden house is now a functioning AirBnB, will you guys ever decide to stay? lol
☕️I would but only with a big group lol

3.5 Stars rounded up.

Kittridge McDeere is a home-health aide who takes her job very seriously. She back at work after being suspended because her last assignment didn't end well. And now she's told she's caring for Lenora Hope, a woman who has been accused of murdering her family in 1929. Kit heads to Hope's End, a sprawling cliffside manor in disrepair. Lenora is wheelchair bound, paralysed on one side and doesn't speak. She can communicate with Kit by slowing typing out answers on an ancient typewriter. And she offers to tell Kit everything about that fateful night when her family was brutally murdered.

Every character in the story has an agenda, every person is just a little off, and when Kit finds out the last caregiver disappeared in the middle of the night she's desperate to find out what happened. There's some great twists which kept me guessing in the beginning while some are very predictable. Unfortunately, two-thirds of the way through the story started to drag, motives and actions seemed repetitive and I ended up skimming chapters to get to the end. Overall, a good read if somewhat slow.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! What a ride! This one gave me Verity and Lizzie Borden vibes. It kept me guessing until the last page.

“At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope”

The Hope family murders have scandalized the community since 1929. The police could never solve the case and Lenora seemed to get off scott-free. She lives in “Hope’s End” and is paralyzed and non-verbal.

“Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother's happy life.”

When Kit McDeere arrives at Hope's End to care for Lenora. Lenora makes a enticing offer--I want to tell you everything. And she does. This one had twist after twist. I read it in a day!

Kit McDeere has accepted a job as a home-health aide taking care of Lenora Hope, who was the only survivor of her family's murders in 1929 and whom many suspected was the murderer. Now in her seventies, Lenora is in a wheelchair and unable to speak after a series of strokes, but with the help of a typewriter, she says she wants to tell her story to Kit. Kit finds the house to be creepy as it has slowly deteriorated and crumbled. As Lenora types out her story, Kit thinks there's something going on between all the occupants of the house and she's trying to determine what really happened the night of the murders. Overall, a twisty mystery set in an atmospheric mansion with a cast of characters who all seem like they have links to the family's murders.

I loved this book! As a fan of any book that has a house or a building as one of the main characters, the cover told me right away that this was going to be a book I had to read. The Lizzie Borden vibes added a historical relevacy to this tale of a family brutally murdered with only the oldest daughter alive to tell the tale. But the tale can't be told because Lenora now in her 70s can't talk or walk and only has the use of one hand. Local in home caregiver, Kit with a troubled history of her own is given the assignment to care for Lenora. Can she overcome her bias instilled from the schoolyard chant she grew up hearing and professionally care for this murderous legend? When Kit discovers that the previous caregiver, who mysteriously left one night, had encouraged Lenora to type with her one good hand, Kit starts to learn secrets of this deterioating house on the cliff. Can Kit get Lenora to tell her the truth before the house becomes a part of the ocean? This book is a 4.5 star read rounded to 5 for me. Gothically erie with twists that came slow at first with an intensifying frequency, I found myself riveted by this page turner. The only reason it is not a pure 5 is because after awhile there were too many twists, giving me a bit of twist fatigue. However, I will definitely be reading all of the author's backlist and can't wait to read his next. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an advanced copy for an honest review.