Riley Sager's The Only One Left - a blazing summer read!

Reviewed by Michelle Souliere

I’ve been a fan of Riley Sager since I read Home Before Dark.  While it won't be considered by most to be a masterpiece, it was a super-fun read, and really well-written, both of which I needed at the time.  Last summer I tried another one of his titles, The Last Time I Lied, and liked that one even better!

 

When I heard his next book was to be set in Maine, I was very excited to say the least. 

 

The Only One Left was released June 20^th, closely following the paperback release of his prior novel, The House across the Lake (which I will probably be reading next!).  I devoured the book in two or three days, not my usual speed (most books take me weeks, a chapter or a few at a time before bed).

 

In other words, it’s a page-turner.

The Only One Left is set in 1983.  Kit McDeere is back on the job after a six-month suspension from her position as a home health aide, once again cleared for work.  Of course, this does not mean most clients will want to hire her, as her boss well knows.  When she’s handed her first assignment so quickly, she’s a little surprised.

 

When she finds out who her client is, she is even more surprised.

 

She is being sent to Hope’s End, a massive estate in a remote and very exclusive part of her small Maine town known as the Cliffs.  The home is owned by Lenora Hope, the only survivor of one night in 1929 when the other three members of her family were murdered.  Kit has grown up hearing playground rhymes about that night.

“It wasn’t me,” Lenora said

But she’s the only one not dead

Kit asks her boss, knowing there's little hope, “There’s nothing else available?  No other new patients?”  Her boss is unsympathetic.  “Since she was never proven guilty, then we have no choice but to believe she’s innocent.  I thought you of all people would appreciate that.”

She knows he’s right.  And she needs the job, needs the money to get out of town after this.  She’s done with being stuck here where everyone looks at her sideways, either wondering what really happened or having already made up their minds about her themselves.  She’s spent the last 6 months trapped at home with her father, who isn’t talking to her either.  Something has to change.

 

And so she drives up to the Cliffs to take up residence at Hope’s End, as the caretaker for a woman who cannot speak or move any of her limbs except to tap out “yes” or “no” answers. 

 

As she settles into her new daily routine, she gets to know the other staff to varying degrees, some her age, others older.  To some extent, they all know the history of this place and its owner.  But no one knows the whole story.  And no one knows where her predecessor disappeared to, either.

 

The Only One Left is a rocket ride, but doesn’t feel like it.  The mysteries in the book overlap each other, drawing the reader through each of the stories a morsel at a time, as all the known local stories fall apart in the face of new information and revelations, one after the other.

 

I was originally excited about the Maine setting, but this is not really a Maine-centric book.  However, don’t let that stop you from reading it!!!  It certainly didn’t stop me.  It’s a fun and engrossing summer read, perfect to take to the beach, sit in a hammock, or a shady garden nook.  Or even read on your lunch break, although I’ll warn you, you’re not going to want to put it down when it’s time to go back to work!

 

P.S.  For those of you who have enjoyed Riley Sager’s books and may have run out of his titles to read, I would highly recommend you also give Simone St. James a try, especially The Sun Down Motel and The Book of Cold Cases.