So, the novelist known as Riley Sager has released a new thriller/mystery in The Only One Left. Like previous volumes from Sager, it doesn't quite stick the landing, but the rest of the performance is strong enough to make up for that.
Now, as I mentioned on FB as I was reading, the book starts off strongly in Gothic tradition, and veers sharply into Hagsploitation (AKA Grand Dame Guignol) before synthesizing into a curious mix of both. We'll return to this in a sec.
We spend the book following Kittridge McDeere as she becomes a caregiver in 1987 for the local Lizzie Borden, along with typewritten pages from her patient, as her patient narrates past events.
So, Kit gets assigned (after a 6 month suspension) to caregive for Lenora Hope out at the Hope's End mansion on the Maine coast. Lenora, in 1929, was accused of slicing her father's throat in the Billiards room, stabbing her mother in the hall, and hanging her sister Virginia from the chandelier. However, there was no evidence to prove the accusations, so Lenora was never punished. However, Lenora did get polio and lose use of her legs, and a stroke took her speech and use of her right arm.
Kit, as it turns out, was suspected was suspected of killing her last patient, either through neglect or actual malice, as a bottle of opioids was left by the bed, and the patient somehow swallowed all of them before dying.
In the meantime, Hope's End is built on the side of a cliff that's slowly trying to become part of the Atlantic. The only servants in the house are Mrs. Baker, former governess to Lenora and Virginia; Archie, the chef who's been with the family since the late 20s; Jessica, the young maid; and Carter, the young and handsome groundskeeper. We find out Lenora's most recent nurse, Mary, packed up and left in the middle of the night. Or so everyone assumed until Kit finds her body in the sand at the base of the cliff. In the meantime, we find out through Lenora's slowly typed memoirs the horrors of growing up in the house, and becoming pregnant out of wedlock with a servant's baby.
The plot thickens quite a bit, as every secret about what happened the night of the murders and the aftermath get revealed. Most of it, yeah, makes sense and has support in the prose. However, the final twist really doesn't, and is a bit like having aliens show up in a western. (Well, that an a throwaway line of the last page, which feels a bit like a chef throwing an extra seasoning into the broth just to make sure nothing is wasted.)
While the Sager books are hit or miss for me, this is one of the better efforts, and I found myself quite enjoying the crumbling mansion on the cliff and its secrets.
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