The Only One Left by Riley Sager

"Here we give young women accused of terrible deeds the benefit of the doubt."

We are back with another TikTok recommendation. This one is The Only One Left by Riley Sager. In 1929, within the walls of a mansion on a cliff in Maine, all but one member of the very wealthy Hope family is brutally murdered. Who could it have been except the one remaining family member, a seventeen-year-old girl. Fifty-four years later, when the details of the tragedy have been reduced to a school-yard rhyme, Kit, a caregiver in her late twenties who grew up with those words ringing in her ears, has been called to care for that now seventy-one-year-old survivor. Having been accused of something terrible herself, Kit is determined to find out what really happened to the Hope family.

Oh, boy! This gothic mystery didn't seem quite right for this sizzling time of year, but I pressed on and I'm so happy I did. It took me a couple of chapters to settle into the mood of the book, and it was a little difficult for me to remember at first that the current day was in the early 80s, but once I did, I was invested. There were a couple of twists that I guessed ahead of time, but others that took me completely by surprise. There were details that I clocked as significant, that still didn't add up until Sager was ready for me to know what it all meant. As the pages turned, the story folded in and over on itself in such a satisfying way. I can't remember which creator recommended this book, but I really enjoyed it!