# The Only One Left

The Only One Left is a 2023 murder mystery/horror novel by American author Todd Ritter, writing under the pen name Riley Sager. The plot concerns a woman who takes a job caring for elderly invalid Lenora Hope, who was accused decades ago of murdering her parents and younger sister. She slowly unravels the truth behind the Hope murders and a missing nurse.

## Plot

Kittredge "Kit" McDeere is a 30-something caregiver accused of fatally overdosing her mother, who was dying of painful stomach cancer. The only job she can get is acting as a home health aide to Lenora Hope, an old woman who, like Kit, was once accused of murdering her family. The job is open because the previous nurse, Mary Milton, disappeared one night the week prior, leaving all her things behind.
Kit takes the job and moves to Hope's End, Lenora's decrepit mansion. She meets the servants: housekeeper, Mrs. Baker, Archie, the cook, Jessie, the maid, and Carter, the groundskeeper. The latter of whom believes himself to be the illegitimate grandson of Lenora Hope and thus heir to the Hope family fortune.
Within days, Kit realizes that Lenora wishes to tell her story. Since Mrs. Hope is mute and paralyzed, save for the use of her left hand, Kit assists Lenora with typing out the story of the Hope family via a typewriter. The story focuses on Lenora, her sister, Virginia, and the fate of their family. The text of Lenora's confession appears in the form of interstitial chapters interpolated throughout the novel.
After hearing movement in Ms. Hope's room, Kit has a frightening encounter on the terrace outside the bedroom. Nearly falling to her death, Kit discovers the body of Mary Milton on the beach below Hope's End. Detective Vick, the man who investigated Kit over her mother's death, questions her. Kit realizes that Lenora typed out her full story to Mary Milton, revealing an affair she had with a man named "Ricky." This affair resulted in Lenora getting pregnant and giving birth. After discovering the truth behind the night of the Hope family murders, Mary was killed.
After interrogating one of the former employees of the house, Bernice Mayhew, she learns that the woman she knows as "Lenora" may not be Lenora at all. Kit confronts Mrs. Baker, who admits to being the real Lenora Hope. The real Mrs. Baker took the baby to Canada, married, and raised him as her own. He married, had a child, and died in 1982. The woman Kit knows as "Lenora" is actually Virginia, who was forced to switch places with her sister. The real Lenora bribed their family doctor to declare Virginia dead, thus receiving both girls' trust funds. With this money, she left Hope's End under a false name and traveled the country while her sister, Virginia, was forced to endure the legacy of being the Hope family murderer all while being confined to her bedroom.
Eventually, Kit realizes that Mary took a blood sample from Lenora for the purpose of performing a paternity test, hoping to determine that Carter, the groundskeeper, is indeed the grandson of Virginia Hope. The test reveals that he is not related to the Hopes. On a drive away from the manor, desperate to flee the news that the woman Kit has been caring for, Virginia, lied about the true identity of Ricky and thus likely did kill her parents, Kit and Carter discuss the intricacies and inconsistencies of the past. After realizing that Carter is not the grandson of Virginia, Kit becomes convinced that he murdered Mary Milton, Virginia's former nurse. She kicks Carter out of the car and rushes to her childhood home. There, Kit discovers that her own father has Virginia's confession, the one she typed and gave to Mary. Kit realizes that her father, Patrick McDeere, is "Ricky," the father of Virginia's child.
Simultaneously, Virginia narrates and reveals the true fate of her parents. Her father, displeased with his daughter's hidden pregnancy and illegitimate child, pays off Ricky and sends the infant away with the real Mrs. Baker. In her hurt, Virginia threatens the lives of her father and Ricky. Her mother intervenes and stabs Virginia's father. Ricky and Virginia flee the room. Virginia's mother finds them on the grand stairway where they learn that she has stabbed herself. Desperate to die, Mrs. Hope insults Ricky, sending him into an anger during which he stabs and kills her. Ricky leaves Hope's End. Virginia, filled with sorrow, attempts to hang herself in the ballroom. Her sister, Leonora, did not witness the events of the evening and believes Virginia killed their parents. She leaves her sister hanging there, removing the chair to make the scene appear to be a murder rather than a suicide. Virginia, despite hanging from the chandelier, is alive. The police find her and she spends the next fifty years living as a mute paraplegic, damage inflicted by the hanging.
In the present, Patrick goes to Hope's End and attempts to kill Virginia, who is the only person who knows that he stabbed the girls' mother, Evangeline Hope, but Lenora prevents it. Patrick admits to Kit that it was he who helped his wife commit suicide, and Kit is innocent.
The cliff on which Hope's End sits collapses and begins taking the house with it. Kit rescues Virginia with the help of Patrick. Lenora and Patrick walk back into the toppling house and are killed as the house falls into the sea.
Virginia goes to live with Kit. Three months later, Virginia leaves Kit's home without notice. A few months go by when Kit receives a letter from Virginia, explaining that she was in fact, not paralyzed and had full bodily function since four months after her attempted hanging by suicide during the time of the original murders. She reveals that she has left to travel the world with Jessie, who is revealed to be her granddaughter, the daughter of her long lost son. Along with the letter, Virginia sends two tickets to Paris, one for Kit and one for Archie to join the two in Paris.
Kit remains Virginia's friend and travel companion until Virginia dies at the age of 101. The novel ends with Virginia Hope's obituary.

## Release

The Only One Left was published on June 20, 2023.

## Reception

Reviewers noted the strong influences of the Lizzie Borden incident, Daphne du Maurier's novel Rebecca, and Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Fall of the House of Usher".
Early reviews were generally positive. Becky Meloan in The Washington Post called it "hair-raising" and "edge-of-your-seat entertainment", while Publishers Weekly approved of its "jaw-dropping twists" and called it a "superior nail-biter". Book critic Felecia Wellington Radel, writing in USA Today, felt the characters and Hope's End itself were some of the best parts of the book, and called the book a "thrilling page-turner".
Other reviews were less supportive. Danielle Trussoni in The New York Times called the novel "a dizzying Gothic whodunit" and a "propulsive mystery". She wrote that the book had "Sager’s signature breakneck pace" but also pointed to plot twists that "stretch believability".