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.
I’ve had some experience with this author’s work before, and while the premise is usually very good, my impression is that it doesn’t usually quite live up to my expectations. However, this time, it really did. The number of twists and turns were outrageous, and they were just on the brink of acceptable plausibility too, which was impressive for the number of times I had to experience that suspenseful emotional whiplash. Even though I picked this book up on a whim, I’m so glad I did, and honestly I’m not surprised I finally found one of Riley Sager’s books that I really enjoyed.
The Only One Left is based off a very charming schoolyard chant reproduced above, about the tale of Lenora Hope murdering her whole family at age seventeen. Our protagonist, Kit, who isn’t perfect herself, finds herself working to take care of the now very old Lenora Hope. Lenora had been sequestered away in her gigantic palatial home for over fifty years, and no one has seen her since. When Kit meets her, she finds out that Lenora only has the use of her left hand. But still, she can use it to communicate and tries to tell Kit the truth of what happened all those years ago. But is she telling the truth? And what secrets just beg to remain buried?
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Down the Rabbit Hole 