“Even a prison becomes comforting if it’s the only thing you know.”
The Only One Left is a 2023 mystery-thriller by Riley Sager. Nominated for Best Mystery & Thriller in the Goodreads Choice Awards, the story follows Kit McDeere in 1983 who arrives at Hope’s End, a cliffside mansion where the Hope family were massacred in 1929. Now in her seventies, Lenora Hope was the sole survivor of the murders and most assume she is responsible. Then, one night, she suddenly offers to tell Kit ‘everything’. As she helps Lenora recount the events leading up to the Hope family massacre, it becomes clear to Kit that there is more to the story than meets the eye, and that the old woman in her care may be more dangerous than she first thought. If you’re a fan of dark, gothic and atmospheric murder mysteries set in remote settings, join us today at What We Reading for the best books like The Only One Left!
The House Across The Lake – Riley Sager
Where better place to start in a list of books like The Only One Left than with another one of Riley Sager’s best works, The House Across the Lake? Similar to The Only One Left, this is a quick-moving mystery-thriller jam-packed full of shocking twists and revelations.
Casey Fletcher is a recently widowed actor who has moved into her family lake house in Vermont, eager to escape a streak of bad press. With a pair of binoculars, she begins to spy on Tom and Katherine, the glamorous couple across the lake from her. But after she saves her from drowning one day, Katherine vanishes and Casey begins to realise that their marriage is not as perfect as it appears. With striking characters and shocking psychological suspense, Casey dives into Katherine’s disappearance, uncovering a web of dark truths and revealing how looks can often be misleading.
The Teacher – Freida McFadden
The Teacher is a 2024 mystery-thriller book by Freida McFadden, bestselling author of The Housemaid. In it, she introduces readers to Eve, a high school maths teacher who has a loving husband, Nate, who also works as a teacher. Addie is a student attending the same high school, Caseham High, whom everyone believes was romantically involved with a teacher who lost their job the year prior.
Eve knows all too well how deceitful and manipulative Addie can be. And she’s begun worrying about the late nights her husband has begun to spend working, and about how many of the young girls have a crush on him. Like The Only One Left, this psychological thriller is full of shocking twists and turns with readers never fully sure whose narrative they’re able to trust.
Daisy Darker – Alice Feeney
After years of purposefully avoiding one another, Daisy Darker’s family are reuniting for Nana’s 80th birthday at her crumbling gothic house on a tiny island. Brought together again, when the tide comes in, they know that they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight long hours.
One by one, each bringing their own secrets, the family arrives. Then, at the stroke of midnight, Nana is found dead. An hour later, another family member follows. With one member of the party killing them off one by one, the Darkers are forced to look back into their pasts and face their present crisis before the tide retreats and all is revealed. A suspenseful murder mystery, Alice Feeney’s Daisy Darker is the perfect homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None and a great go-to for any fans of Riley Sager.
The Family Game – Catherine Steadman
Similar to The Only One Left, Catherine Steadman’s The Family Game is another mystery book that dabbles in shocking family secrets and not knowing who it is you’re meant to trust or suspect. After agreeing to marry her boyfriend, Edward, rising novelist Harry is introduced to his enigmatic and uber-wealthy family, the Holbecks.
Drawn in by the wealth and glamour, the Holbecks appear to welcome Harry with open arms, until she encounters Robert, the magnetic head of the family. During their first meeting, he gives her a cassette tape in which he appears to confess to a shocking crime. As she struggles to adjust to the Holbecks’ strange assortment of traditions, Harry is thrown further into her investigations into why Robert gave her the cassette, and what the truth behind this apparent confession really is.
Check Out Our The Family Game Book Review
The Soulmate – Sally Hepworth
Gabe and Pippa Gerard live in a picturesque sleepy village in a cosy cottage with sloping lawns, walking paths and beautiful flowers. Perched on the edge of a cliff, it has become a popular spot for people to take their own lives. For months, Gabe has come to their rescue, literally talking them back from the edge.
Until, one day, he doesn’t. And when Pippa discovers that Gabe personally knew the latest victim, all manner of questions begin to spiral. Why did the victim jump? Was she pushed? And has the love of her life, her perfect soulmate, been lying to her? Similar to The Only One Left, Sally Hepworth’s The Soulmate is a mystery-thriller novel that delivers a suspenseful unravelling of dark secrets and reveals how sometimes the most convincing lies are the ones we tell ourselves.
The Last Word – Taylor Adams
Emma Carpenter lives with just her golden retriever, Laika, for company. Her only contact with other people comes from her old neighbour Deek and via text with Jules, the owner of the house she is house-sitting for. One day, she reads an overly-gruesome and poorly-written horror novel by an author named H.G. Kane. In response, she posts a 1-star review online but soon finds herself drawn into a mud-slinging match with none other than the writer himself.
And, after a series of strange and disturbing incidents begin to plague her during the night, she begins to wonder whether this disgruntled author may be stalking her. These fears only grow as she digs deeper into Kane’s life and work, learning that he has published sixteen other tales of stalking and murdering. But, how has he found her? Who exactly is he? And what is he capable of?
No One Can Know – Kate Alice Marshall
Emma hasn’t told her husband much about her past, apart from that her parents are dead and she hasn’t spoken to her sisters in years. After her husband loses his job and their bank balance slips into the red, she is forced to reveal one of her secrets: her parent’s old stately mansion. Owning it with her sisters, the pair can’t sell it, but they can live in it. But, returning home means she is forced to reveal another secret: her parents were murdered. And some say Emma was the one who did it.
Emma and her sisters have never spoken about what happened that night. Now, her return to the house may be the thing to lure them back together. But, as old town secrets are once again brought to light, it becomes clear that the things they have left unspoken may be the things that put them in grave danger again. Like The Only One Left, Kate Alice Marshall’s No One Can Know is a mystery book that unravels a shocking and dark family history against a grand, eerie and gothic backdrop.
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
