Kit McDeere is a caregiver, or at least she was. After a patient died on her watch she was suspended for 6 months with the jury out on whether her actions were careless or worse, deliberate.
Everyone has their own view and no-one is really very keen to have Kit looking after them, so her agency, not really wanting to keep her on their books, offers her the job that no-one else will accept.
Leonora Hope is paralysed apart from some function in her left arm and hand. She has had a series of strokes and no longer speaks. Leonora Hope is also widely believed to have killed her mother, father and her sister in their gothic, cliff-side house, Hope’s End Mansion, decades ago in 1929.
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’.
With nowhere else to go, Kit takes the live in job. She meets Mrs Baker, a Mrs Danvers like housekeeper, who assures her that Leonora is now incapable of causing harm to anyone.
After giving Kit careful instructions for Leonora’s care she takes Kit to her room, where Kit finds that her predecessor’s personal effects are still all over the room. Mary had to leave suddenly, Mrs Baker explains, but Kit is unnerved. Who leaves their personal effects and even their precious medical bag behind, however much of a hurry they are in?
Riley Sager’s book has a number of mysteries for the reader to get their teeth into. Did Kit help her patient to die? What happened to Leonora’s previous nurse, Mary? Did Leonora kill her parents – and if she didn’t – who did?
When Kit discovers a typewriter and realises that Leonora can use her good hand to type one fingered, the two develop a means of communication and slowly the picture of what happened to Leonora starts to emerge.
The story is told in two timelines and from two different perspectives. Kit’s and Leonora’s typed narrative.
But is Leonora a reliable narrator? How far do we trust Kit? Both questions are difficult because neither of these characters is particularly well fleshed out. All we know is that Kit has had an inappropriate relationship and Leonora has been accused of the mass murder of her family.
Sager’s setting is appropriately gothic with a decaying mansion, family portraits covered over in black crepe and the isolation of the residents of Hope’s End Mansion which sits on a rapidly crumbling cliff edge.
But honestly, this book relies on a series of pretty massive coincidences and I can’t in all conscience say that I was entirely surprised by the outcome. This is a story full of the most unlikely twists and turns and while I can suspend disbelief, this plot is just so far-fetched that I can’t begin to tell you that it is plausible.
Sorry, but this one just isn’t for me.

Kit McDeere ist seit 12 Jahren als Pflegekraft tätig. Nach einem gravierenden Versagen wurde sie sechs Monate ohne Lohn von der Arbeit freigestellt und musste wieder bei ihrem Vater leben. Nun, nachdem der Vorgang geklärt ist, darf sie wieder arbeiten. Da sie trotz aller Bemühungen keine andere Stelle finden konnte, muss sie wieder für dieselbe Agentur arbeiten. Ihr wird eine 24h Pflege angeboten, für die 71-jährige Lenora Hope, die nach einer Reihe von Schlaganfällen vor einigen Jahren kaum noch kommunizieren kann und auf einen Rollstuhl angwiesen ist. Unterkunft und Verpflegung sind eingeschlossen. Ihre Vorgängerin war unter mysteriösen Umständen einfach verschwunden. Lenora lebt in Hope´s End, einem der Häuser direkt an Cliff, das von vergangenem Reichtum kündet. Kit ist sehr überrascht über das Arbeitsangebot, sie hat Lenoras Namen seit Jahren nicht gehört. Bis heute wird gemunkelt, dass sie 1929 ihr Eltern und ihre Schwester ermordet haben soll. Der Fall wurde zur Gruselgeschichte für die Kinder. Sie gab damals an, dass sie während den Morden geschlafen hat und ihre Familie später tot auffand. Aber sie konnte auch nicht angeben, wer ihre Familie sonst getötet haben könnte und warum sie selber verschont blieb. Die Stadt war von ihrer Schuld überzeugt. Auch wenn Kit sich dabei nicht wohlfühlt, wird sie das Angebot wohl annehmen müssen, schließlich konnte Lenora nie etwas nachgewiesen werden.

Zum Beginn des Buches ist man direkt mitten in den Ereignissen. Es dauert nicht lange bis es zur ersten überraschenden Enthüllung kommt. Man taucht immer tiefer in die Geheimnisse der Familie ein, die Gefahr steigt stetig. Die Anzahl der Verdächtigen nimmt zu, aber richtige Beweise sind rar. Es werden interessante Parallelen zwischen Kit und Lenora deutlich. Kit ist als Protagonistin sympathisch und nachvollziehbar.

Durch die Aufteilung des Romans in die Erzählungen aus Kits Sicht und die Niederschriften von Lenora fließt die Geschichte gut voran. Durch die abgehängten Bilder, die Mördertour, die Urnen und die alten Blutspuren kommt leicht gruselige Stimmung auf. Gut beschrieben wird die düstere Atmosphäre im Haus, in dem die Zeit stehengeblieben scheint. Haus und Cliff werden fast zur eigenen Figur.

Das Ende hält einige Überraschungen und Wendungen bereit und hat auch einen spannenden Showdown zu bieten. Außerdem werden alle Fragen und Aspekte geklärt. Es geht weit über das hinaus, was andere Romanenden zu bieten haben.

Das Buch konnte mich sehr gut unterhalten und mit seiner intensiven Atmosphäre gefangen nehmen.

This is possibly my new favourite from Riley Sager. It was so tense and dark throughout and the twists just kept coming. It had a very gothic / haunted house vibe which I loved, and the writing was so fast paced and bingeable.

Wow! I am completely blown away. This book kept me guessing throughout. I had so many theories and all of them were incorrect. What a great and unusual thriller. Riley Sager at his best!

5/10

I've learned not to have high expectations for modern thrillers as they often rely too heavily on unrealistic plot twists, resulting in unbelievable characters and storylines. Last night, upon finishing this book, I refrained from writing a review until today, as I didn't want to be critical.

I approached "The Only One Left" with cautious optimism. Thank you Hodder & Stoughton via Netgalley for ARC.
Although the story kept me engaged, I found the characters unlikable and the events disturbing and hard to believe. There were gaps in the plot that left me questioning the author's choices. For example, why was there a need for a time gap of over half a century when a shorter interval would have made the story more believable? Additionally, the characters' actions, such as the sisters' intense animosity towards each other, often felt unrealistic. The portrayal of the careless, wealthy mother also struck me as foolish. Despite these flaws, I hesitate to be overly critical or spoil anything, this book still has its merit.

At seventeen, Lenora Hope
Hung her sister with a rope

Until one night, she snapped.
Stabbed her father with a knife
Took her mother’s happy life

Kit is a caregiver and because of her last patient, she was tried and unemployed. In this harsh circumstance, she has to accept a new caregiver job on the Cliffs where ridiculously rich people live there. The position that no one else agrees to do it. Lenora Hope had a stroke many years ago and required constant care, she also was responsible for family murders fifty‑four years ago, but the police were never able to prove it.

"Lenora Hope is the one patient nobody— not even the police—will mind if I kill."

Kit has no choice, is headed to Hope's End to look after Lenora, who is in her seventies and unable to speak due to a series of strokes. Lenora can only communicate with Kit by typing sentences with only her left hand on an old typewriter using one working finger. Everything messes up when Lenora taps out a message to Kit: "I want to tell you everything."

There are two narratives to keep track of, one involving Kit and the other Lenora. It gradually becomes apparent that there are details about the events that everyone is unaware of. Is it possible that Kit is still at risk?

Ah, Riley Sager as I like his writing the best; gritty, spooky and unpredictable.

I absolute loved The Only One left and read it into two sittings. I simply couldn’t get enough of it and just like Kit, I wanted to know the truth.

Although I did suspect one of the twists, everything else was such a nice surprise and kept me on the edge.

For anyone who has read Home Before Dark and enjoyed it, this is definitely in the same vibes although different. But those two are definitely the ones I would bag together within Sager’s bibliography and I’m happy to say they’re my two of my favourites for sure.

Sparing a Thought for the Only One Left

Riley Sager redeemed himself with this book. It’s no secret that I thought his last book was a little… weird. But with The Only One Left, we have a return to form with a more old-school psychological thriller.

Set in Hope’s End, with a slew of creepy characters, the story centres on a local mystery that’s been reduced to a children’s chant:

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

Disgraced carer Kit is sent there to look after the ailing Lenora Hope and possibly find out what happened all those years ago. Atmospheric from the start, we get our very own “Murder Tour” of the property, slowly uncovering the history of the place. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that the truth might lie closer to home…

I absolutely loved the setting and dynamic of the cast. The slightly dysfunctional lead made for a delightfully unreliable narrator. Throwing in a series of characters that couldn’t be trusted merely added to the tension.

Though far from perfect, with dialogue that read a little too modern for the 80s, there was certainly sufficient (/crazy amount of) *drama* to keep me engaged. And while some of the twists were easy to spot, it was still packed with the kind of tropes I love. Because who doesn’t want to feel trapped in a remote location with a bunch of unlikeable people and strange goings on…? But maybe that’s just me 😉

Ultimately, this was a fun escapist read that’ll give you a chill this summer.

Rating: 4/5 bananas

This was really interesting and more slow-burn psychological thriller than I'm used to from this author. It reminded me of Verity a little bit for a while at the beginning but ended up turning into something completely original. The twist at the end I didn't see coming which is always very satisfying and the author made it make sense even though it was completely left field. Really good!

Wow! Now that is how you write a thriller.
Riley Sager delivers one of the reads of the year with The Only One Left - a riveting, page-turning, gothic thriller that tells the story of a small town's own Lizzie Bourdon and a down-on-her-luck caregiver charged to look after her.
Sager proves again to be a master storyteller, unfurling this one like a gothic horror story of the 1960s – think Scream of Fear (1961) – where all is not as it seems.
So much could be said about this book but really, the less you know going in the better.
All I can say is that I hope Sager got a good deal on all those rugs he pulls out from under you.
Brilliant stuff!

This book was a wild ride, especially there at the end!

Sager's most recent novel follows a caregiver named Kit whose strained work circumstances result in her latest assignment- becoming a nurse for the alleged murderer, Lenora Hope. As Kit begins to spend more time with Lenora at her eerie estate, she starts to wonder how much truth there is to the rumors that have circulated the area since Lenora's family members were murdered in 1929.

This book constantly kept me guessing, with many of the plot twists completely catching me off guard. I really enjoyed reading Lenora's typewriter entries and thought it was brilliant of Sager to use them so strategically throughout the story.

All in all, I'd have to say this is probably one of Sager's best so far. He's quickly become an auto-buy author for me, and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next!

Another incredible read by Riley Sager!! Twist after twist up until the very last page. The storyline and characters kept me hooked I didn’t know who was bad or who was good half the time. I would highly recommend!

Kit McDeere is a home healthcare aide on the Maine coast. After she breaks a health aide golden rule and leaves her own ill mother’s fentanyl prescription unlocked overnight which leads to her mother’s death - she is on thin ice with her employer and her father. After a suspension from work, the only hope she has to continue working is ironically at ‘Hope Manor’ where she would care around the clock for the infamous Lenora Hope. Lenora, who allegedly killed her entire family back in the 1920s in that very mansion and due to illness, is now left mute and immobile in her 70s. The truth in the end is not what Kit - or anyone - would have expected.

Rating this one 4.5/5 ⭐️. Perhaps my favorite Sager yet! The twists are probably impossible for anyone to guess and I just loved the creepy old mansion and paranormal vibes!

Thank you so much to Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for the e-ARC!

WOW!! WOW!! WOW!! Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

OH MY FREAKING GOSH!! MIND BLOWN!! PLEASE EXCUSE ME WHILE I PICK MY JAW UP OFF THE GROUND!! RILEY SAGER HAS DONE IT AGAIN!! THIS IS MY FAVORITE THRILLER FOR 2023!! ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

What a creepy and engrossing Gothic suspense thriller!! The eerie atmosphere, decaying mansion on a cliff, high tension, twisted characters and haunting footsteps/noises had me gasping for breath and sent chills down my spine! The suspense had me flipping the pages so fast and I thought I had it figured out but NOPE! There are so many twists and turns that my head was spinning! I absolutely loved this MASTERPIECE!!

In 1929, three gruesome murders occur at the decaying Hope's End mansion and here is the rhyme that children would sing that accused Lenore Hope of killing her family. She was never convicted because it could not be proven.

"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"

In 1983, Lenore had suffered multiple strokes leaving her in a debilitated state with only being able to use one hand. The last caretaker left suddenly and now Kit will take her place. Kit has her own dark and twisted past and remembers the little rhyme she would sing in school. Can Kit handle this assignment of being Lenora's full time caretaker? Did Lenore kill her family as everyone thinks? Lenore decides she wants to tell Kit everything that happened. The typewriter and using one hand is how Lenore communicates the story to Kit. Can Lenore be trusted though?

Overall, I was completely engaged until the very end! I highly recommend this book and it deserves ALL the stars!!🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

An atmospheric and fast paced read, and I can definitely say with confidence that this is the best Riley Sager read from the most recent releases (Survive the Night and The House Across the Lake really didn't work for me). However I still feel like something is missing compared to some of my favourite Sager books.

The first half of this was very promising, however I felt the second half moved too quickly and I found the reveals a little underwhelming. I also felt it was missing the uneasy feelings that I've come to look for in a Riley Sager novel.

However, I have faith that this is a step back in the right direction for my preference with his works, and I will definitely continue to pick up more from this author.

I've read nearly all of Riley Sager's books minus The Final Girls and Last Time I Lied so I was exciting to see an arc available for his latest book.

The Only One Left is a gothic thriller set in an eerie clifftop mansion called Hopes End where Lenora Hope resides.

In 1929 the Hope family were massacred with only Lenora surviving and becoming the prime suspect, decades later Kit McDeere who faces her own personal scandal becomes Lenora's carer.

Two woman both accused of murder are brought together in unlikely circumstances and it's up to Kit to clear her own name as well as learn the truth of what really happened on that one fateful night in 1929.

This story is full of twists and turns, it's atmospheric and although primarily set in Hopes End it is engaging.

I did think one part of the book was a bit cheesy (no spoilers) but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Absolutely fantastic! I've read all of Sager's books and I can easily say this has slotted into my top three! It took a little while to get into but once the story started I honestly couldn't stop reading. The characters were fully formed and I had no problem imagining the clifftop mansion due to Sager's writing style.

And the twists, some I figured out earlier on but some came as a complete shock which I loved! I really found each twist believable too, which isn't always the case in thrillers, these weren't just thrown in for the sake of it.

My favourite part was actually Hope End, I LOVED that it was slowly crumbling away with the cliffs edge throughout the story. It would be a place I'd want to visit had it been real.

My full review will be up on my bookstagram - @_readingwithrebecca

This is a story about a woman who goes to work as a carer for an elderly, disabled woman who was accused of murdering her family 50+ years earlier.  I know fiction does not need to be believable but this book is so totally outlandish and over the top it is more fantasy than thriller.  I would still recommend it to other readers who I am sure will love it if they are looking for a bit of escapism, even though it wasn't the book for me.  Enjoy!

I'll start out by mentioning that I have read multiple Riley Sager books by now and that I did not like them - in fact, I should probably stop requesting ARCs of his books, but I never learn and keep trying to figure out why people like his books so much.
Anyways, I did not like The Only One Left either. What a surprise /s


Sager seems to often set up his books in a very similar way. For example, TOOL (haha) has
a broke, unlikable fmc
who finds herself in an isolated location,
who has very few close / healthy relationships,
and there's some random dude thrown into the story who isn't really important for the plot, but the protagonist needed someone to hook up with.
Glad the recycling works for Sager, I guess.

The characters were unlikable, and Kit (the main character) wasn't an exception. Kit also constantly made very dumb choices, which made it frustrating to read from her POV.

Another thing I found a little annoying was the repetition of certain words, such as murder (99 times), or terrace (93 times). I found that a bit much, even in a book that's all about murder.

The plot in itself sounded good in theory, but it ended up being on one hand boring, but on the other hand it felt like there was too much going on.

And then there was the plot twist (the plot twists?). I personally got flashbacks of my experience reading The House Across the Lake. Let me explain: Sager went for somewhat surprising plot twists, but they made very little sense, then the whole story got completely convoluted and just too damn much. And that's TOOL's ending in a nutshell. Completely ridiculous and messy.

I do have to admit that I didn't find the writing terrible, so that's one positive thing I can say about the book. I mean, the plot dragged up until the very end (and until the unhingedness began), but the writing style in itself was alright.

So, final thoughts:
Would I pay money for this book? Absolutely not.
Did I like this book? Nope.
Will I keep reading the author's books so I can rant about them to my friends and family? Well... probably.

Seriously though, Sager's fans will probably like this book, it just wasn't for me.

This was definitely one of Riley Saver’s best novels to date. It had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. There were so many twists and turns I felt like I was on a roller coaster.

I really enjoyed the whole cast of characters, I feel like pretty much every one of them was necessary to make the story whole. Kit was a great unreliable main character, with her whole backstory.

Overall this book just made me love this author even more than before. I already can’t wait for his next work to be available.

Thanks so much to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for sending me this ARC to read and review.

I am already familiar with Riley Sager's work after receiving 'Survive the Night' as a gift from a student last year, so I was very excited when I saw The Only One Left on Netgalley. The blub was also incredibly intriguing:

A HEART-POUNDING GOTHIC THRILLER FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
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.

So, as I am a huge fan of all things Gothic and mysterious, this was definitely calling out to me!

We learn very early on that Kit is a carer, out of work, following the death of her own mother whilst in her care. Kit seems to be a very troubled character; her father no longer seems to want her around, her boss can't wait to get rid of her, the police don't believe her. However, lack of evidence has meant that Kit has remained out of prison but has now been ostracised in her own life.

Her boss finds her a new assignment (and ultimatum: take this or leave your job permanently) that will take her to crumbling and somewhat infamous mansion, Hope's End. Her job: to care for the now bed-bound, incapacitated and voiceless Lenora Hope, alleged killer of her millionaire family, 50 years prior to the opening of the novel. The story apparently takes inspiration from the real-life tale of Lizzie Borden, accused of murdering her father and step-mother in quite gruesome circumstances in 1892. Similarly, due to lack of evidence Lizzie, just like Lenora and Kit, was never convicted of the crime!

Perhaps one of the biggest characters in the novel is the wonderfully atmospheric crumbling Gothic-style mansion, Hope's End. The name itself almost acts as a warning to steer well-clear! It stands on the very edge of a precipice, leaning dangerously towards the Atlantic Ocean. The house is reminiscent of Daphne Du Maurier's Manderley from 'Rebecca' and, indeed, the housekeeper bears an incredible resemblance to the domineering presence of Mrs Danvers. The house seems to breathe and embody the tragedy of decades before and we can't help but wonder how the denouement of the novel will play out - will there be a final showdown between house and humans whereby the truth of the matter is lost forever?

Kit soon uncovers many mysteries within the house and the book quickly turns into an exciting whodunnit - I'll not put my questions here as I don't want to give away any of the plot!

However, I am reluctant to give this book 5 stars. Towards the end of the story, I did feel that the plot took a bit of an obscure turn, and things were beginning to feel a little far-fetched. This affected my overall reading experience as I felt that things were just ever so slightly too preposterous to believe. Then, just when I thought about giving up, Sager pulled it back! Then it swung pendulously between credibility and implausibility to the final page of the novel.

Nevertheless, I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone who particularly enjoys a good spooky mystery with intriguing characters that will keep you guessing to the end (I never saw the final twist coming!). The characters are well drawn with their own individual strengths and flaws. We can't help put commend Kit's tenacity throughout, as well as detesting the actions of supporting characters and, no matter who killed them, we can't help but feel that the Hope murders were somewhat deserved!

This book is released in the UK on 4th July 2023.