Title: The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
Publisher: Dutton
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery, Suspense
Length:384 pages
Book Rating: B+
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss
Summary:
In the latest thriller from the bestselling author of Final Girls, a young woman returns to her childhood summer camp to uncover the truth about a tragedy that happened there fifteen years ago.
Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. But the games ended the night Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin into the darkness. The last she–or anyone–saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.
Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings–massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. When the paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale, she implores Emma to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor. Seeing an opportunity to find out what really happened to her friends all those years ago, Emma agrees.
Familiar faces, unchanged cabins, and the same dark lake haunt Nightingale, even though the camp is opening its doors for the first time since the disappearances. Emma is even assigned to the same cabin she slept in as a teenager, but soon discovers a security camera–the only one on the property–pointed directly at its door. Then cryptic clues that Vivian left behind about the camp’s twisted origins begin surfacing. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing mysterious threats in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale and what really happened to those girls, the more she realizes that closure could come at a deadly price.
Review:
Two truths and a Lie. The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager is a suspenseful mystery. The Last Time I Lied is a twisty-turny psychological page-turner. The Last Time I Lied is not reminiscent of ’80s slasher movies that take place at summer camp. Can you guess which one is the lie???
Fifteen years ago, thirteen year old Emma Davis attends her first summer camp where she is befriended by her roommates Vivian, Natalie and Allison. However, instead of fond memories of an idyllic summer adventure, Emma is haunted by the unsolved disappearance of her roomies. Emma is tormented by this defining moment in her life and she tries to work through her guilt and anxiety through her paintings. She is surprised to learn Franny Harris-White plans to re-open Camp Nightingale and she wants Emma to join the staff as an art teacher. At first reluctant to return to the camp, Emma instead accepts the offer in order to try to uncover the truth about what happened to Vivian, Natalie and Allison.
Emma is off-balance as soon as she crosses the gate to Camp Nightingale and she never quite recovers her equilibrium. She is assigned to the same cabin she occupied that fateful summer and she makes several unexpected discoveries as she explores her surroundings. In the midst of eerie sightings and strange occurrences, Emma’s disquiet quickly turns to paranoia especially when she learns that Franny and her son Theo have been digging around in her past. This apprehension does not prevent her from trying to unearth clues that will hopefully discover what Vivian was doing before she and the other girls vanished without a trace.
Interspersed with events in the present are chapters that provide keen insight into Emma’s experiences at Camp Nightingale fifteen years earlier. These flashbacks gradually reveal vital information about the days leading up to the girls’ disappearance. The tension increases as incidents in the present begin to mirror events from the past. Emma is not exactly the most reliable narrator and as she begins to question her sanity, the suspense builds to a fever pitch.
Weaving seamlessly back and forth in time, The Last Time I Lied is an incredibly riveting mystery with a clever, atmospheric setting and unique storyline. Emma is not quite an unreliable narrator but readers will find it difficult to completely trust her observations and conclusions. Camp Nightingale is a rustic retreat in the middle of nowhere and the ghost stories about its origins give it a very creepy vibe. With plenty of twists, unexpected turns and brilliant misdirects, Riley Sager brings the novel to a completely astounding conclusion that is absolutely unexpected. An engrossing mystery that fans of the genre are sure to enjoy.
