The Only One Left by Riley Sager: Everything to Know About the NYT Bestselling Gothic Thriller

The Only One Left by Riley Sager turned an old Maine schoolyard chant about a decades-old family massacre into one of 2023’s biggest Gothic thrillers, debuting straight onto the New York Times bestseller list. If you’ve already read it, Sager’s tenth novel just hit shelves this August — so there’s a next read waiting. Here’s everything worth knowing about the book, plus where to buy your copy in Bangladesh.

Book Details

What The Only One Left Is About

It’s 1983, and home health aide Kit McDeere badly needs work after a controversial incident with her last client. The only job she can get is one nobody else wants: caring for Lenora Hope, a paralyzed, mute 71-year-old woman confined to Hope’s End, the decaying cliffside mansion where her family was murdered in 1929. Lenora was seventeen at the time and has been suspected — but never convicted — ever since.

Unable to speak after a series of strokes, Lenora communicates only by tapping out sentences on an old typewriter. One night she makes Kit an offer: she wants to finally tell the full story of what happened that night. As Kit helps her write it down, new details surface that suggest Lenora might not be the only one with something to hide — including about the nurse who fled the job right before Kit arrived.

Content note: the book centers on a historical multiple-murder within a family, including a teenage victim — not depicted graphically, but worth knowing going in. This isn’t disclosed on the product page itself.

Also Worth Knowing: Riley Sager Just Released a New Thriller

There’s no film or TV adaptation of The Only One Left as of this writing. But Sager fans have something else to look forward to: his tenth novel, The Unknown, released August 4, 2026 — a supernatural-tinged thriller that reportedly weaves in references to his earlier books, including this one.

Worth knowing too: “Riley Sager” is a pen name. The author is Pennsylvania-born Todd Ritter, who’s published under Sager since his 2017 debut, Final Girls, which won the ITW Thriller Award for Best Hardcover Novel.

Why It’s Worth Reading

• Instant New York Times bestseller, named a “summer book to watch” by outlets including The Washington Post, Boston Globe, and USA Today
• Bestselling author Megan Abbott called it “a Gothic house of horrors” in her cover blurb
• The New York Times Book Review praised it as “a dizzying Gothic whodunit”
• Dual-timeline structure (1929 and 1983) builds toward twists that catch most readers off guard
• Fans of “creepy old house, dark family secrets” thrillers like Verity will find familiar territory here

Where to Buy The Only One Left in Bangladesh

The Only One Left by Riley Sager — 299৳ at Ki Chai Shop

• Cash on delivery available
• Nationwide shipping to all 64 districts
• Secure payment options

More Gothic Thrillers Worth Reading Next

• What Lies Between Us by John Marrs — another dark domestic thriller built around a family’s buried secrets
• Browse the full Thriller category at Ki Chai Shop