The Only One Left: A Novel

I thought the premise of the book was really interesting. I have experience working with the elderly and I knew it would be easy for me to sympathize with the main character and her patient in that regard. I also grew up hearing a lot about Lizzie Borden, so the idea of a Lizzie Borden sort of character in Lenora caught my attention for sure. Overall I did enjoy the book, but I had some issues with it. Very Mild Spoilers: I found the main character Kit to be incredibly impulsive. She made some really irresponsible and poorly thought out choices. Despite dealing with consequences from these impulsive decisions, she never learns to stop making them, which was frustrating. I also got a bit of twist fatigue at the end, where it was just twist after twist after twist coupled with big exposition dumps and I was tired of trying to retro-fit the new twists with the information we had before. It was neat to remember some lines or events that took on a new meaning after a twist, which I appreciated. I think if the twists had been a little more spread out it would have been more engaging throughout the book instead of it all being a whammy at the very end. Also, despite there not being any detailed sex scenes on the page, there are a lot of mentions of sex, casual sex, and infidelity. I didn't expect that going into the book, and I think some of it was unnecessary.

Once partially through the book, I was hooked. Lots of twists kept me going.

5+ Stars ~ I LOVED this book!

Why in the world this sat on my bookshelf for so long is beyond me! This has been the best book I have read so far in 2024.

I had no idea where this was going until it got there. This is the best book yet by Riley that I have read. I am happy I invested my time and money. I highly recommend this to all mystery and thriller readers.

Rarely does a who dunnit take me by surprise. You will not see this one coming!

I really enjoyed this book! Loved how the writing was done! I definitely recommend!