The Last Time I Lied

by Riley Sager

Mystery

Book Description

Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their tiny cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. The games ended when Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin in the dead of night. 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. The paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. When Francesca implores her to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor, Emma sees an opportunity to try to find out what really happened to her friends.

Yet it’s immediately clear that all is not right at Camp Nightingale. Already haunted by memories from fifteen years ago, Emma discovers a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca and, most disturbing of all, cryptic clues Vivian left behind about the camp’s twisted origins. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing threats from both man and nature in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price.

MY THOUGHTS:

4 out of 5 FLEURS DE LIS

The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

This novel kind of blurs the line between YA and adult. There are alternating sections between the current life of 28 year old Emma Davis, and the summer 15 years ago when she was a witness to her 3 summer camp bunk mates vanishing without a trace. Against her better judgment, Emma returns to the newly reopened camp as an instructor. She hopes to find some closure to the event that’s been haunting her, and to find out the truth.

I was hooked from the beginning chapter, and I knew I had to find out the truth about what happened to the missing girls. Emma has not been coping well with the night from 15 years ago; she did a stint in a psychiatric facility, she sees the faces of the girls in random places, and she’s been painting them over and over again, trying to clear herself of the blame she feels for their disappearance.

Emma is haunted, and it’s the defining aspect of her personality. The most interesting character in this book though is only seen through Emma’s memories of the past. Vivian, one of the 16 year olds who went missing, was a whirlwind of charm and bite, a girl who knew what she wanted and how to get it. Viv was the queen bee, and Emma felt pleased to be taken under the wing of a girl three years older. The relationship between them was complicated though, and helped shape the events of the night of the disappearances.

The final chapters of this book are fantastic; there are twists I definitely didn’t see coming and the action felt believable. The end left me wanting more, but I think the way things played out was perfect. I would absolutely read more books by this author.

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About the Author

Riley Sager is the pseudonym of a former journalist, editor and graphic designer who previously published mysteries under his real name.

Now a full-time author, Riley’s first thriller, FINAL GIRLS, became a national and international bestseller and was called “the first great thriller of 2017” by Stephen King. Translation rights have been sold in more than two dozen countries and a film version is being developed by Universal Pictures.

Riley’s next book, THE LAST TIME I LIED, will be published in July. It was inspired by the classic novel and film “Picnic at Hanging Rock” and one horrible week Riley spent at summer camp when he was ten.

A native of Pennsylvania, Riley now lives in Princeton, New Jersey. When he’s not working on his next novel, he enjoys reading, cooking and going to the movies as much as possible. His favorite film is “Rear Window.” Or maybe “Jaws.” But probably, if he’s being honest, “Mary Poppins.”

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