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A review by theboundless_bookworm
The Only One Left by Riley Sager
4.0
"The Only One Left" by Riley Sager is a riveting psychological thriller that sets readers into a mess of uncertainty and suspicion. The story follows Kit McDeere, a home-health aide whose job reinstatement was to care for a stroke patient, Lenora Hope. It could have been just another patient to take care of, but Lenora is no ordinary invalid - she was the primary suspect in killing her family in 1929. Even though Kit wanted nothing to do with Lenora, no other company would hire her after a controversy that placed her on suspension. As Kit explores her duties while contemplating her patient's past, she soon discovers Hope's End holds deep, dark secrets. However, Kit grows even more uneasy when she discovers the corpse of Lenora's former caregiver humped beneath the sand. Her next thought was, "I could be next."
The narrative started slow, but that didn't keep me from being gripped as a complex web of lies unraveled. Sager knew how to engage his readers. He didn't gamble by throwing in just one particular trope - he must have thrown everything together from the "unreliable narrator" to the "femme fatale." As if he wasn't satisfied, Riley then plays his trump card: a finale that defies reader expectations, laced with twist after twist of all twists.
This book is probably Sager's best. When you thought you'd guessed the culprit, Sager shifts the narrative, and you're back to zero. In this "whodunit" novel, everyone is a suspect. There's no denying the suspenseful atmosphere of the book, even with my sporadic irritation with the protagonist. From the suspicious characters to a trail of red herrings, "The Only One Left" is one of this year's most well-crafted thriller novels.
The narrative started slow, but that didn't keep me from being gripped as a complex web of lies unraveled. Sager knew how to engage his readers. He didn't gamble by throwing in just one particular trope - he must have thrown everything together from the "unreliable narrator" to the "femme fatale." As if he wasn't satisfied, Riley then plays his trump card: a finale that defies reader expectations, laced with twist after twist of all twists.
This book is probably Sager's best. When you thought you'd guessed the culprit, Sager shifts the narrative, and you're back to zero. In this "whodunit" novel, everyone is a suspect. There's no denying the suspenseful atmosphere of the book, even with my sporadic irritation with the protagonist. From the suspicious characters to a trail of red herrings, "The Only One Left" is one of this year's most well-crafted thriller novels.