2023 Dragon Award for Best Horror Novel (nominee)
THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Named a summer book to watch by The Washington Post, Boston Globe, USA Today, Oprah, Paste, Country Living, Good Housekeeping, and Nerd Daily
"Propulsive ... a dizzying Gothic whodunit."
—New York Times Book Review
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 Hope
Hung her sister with a rope
Now 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 knife
Took her mother’s happy life
It’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 said
But 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.
Genre: Horror
Named a summer book to watch by The Washington Post, Boston Globe, USA Today, Oprah, Paste, Country Living, Good Housekeeping, and Nerd Daily
"Propulsive ... a dizzying Gothic whodunit."
—New York Times Book Review
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 Hope
Hung her sister with a rope
Now 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 knife
Took her mother’s happy life
It’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 said
But 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.
Genre: Horror
Praise for this book
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
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