The Last Time I Lied
"In the new novel from the bestselling author of Final Girls, The Last Time I Lied follows a young woman as she returns to her childhood summer camp to uncover the truth about a tragedy that happened there fifteen years ago. 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
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Painter Emma Davis was thirteen when her three older bunkmates at Camp Nightingale walked into the Adirondack woods one night and never came back. Fifteen years later, the camp's owner reopens it and asks Emma to come teach art. Three new girls move into Dogwood, the same cabin.
The Last Time I Lied was written by Riley Sager and published in 2018. Sager has written numerous standalone thrillers including Final Girls, Lock Every Door, Home Before Dark, and The Only One Left.
The Last Time I Lied is psychological thriller more than horror, with an isolated summer-camp setting and mounting unease about events 15 years before. Most readers find it suspenseful rather than frightening.
The Last Time I Lied is 384 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Last Time I Lied takes most readers 6 to 8 hours to finish.
The Last Time I Lied is a standalone novel by Todd Ritter, not part of a series.
The Last Time I Lied is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.