Last Time I Lied ★★★★

Riley Sager, Ebury Press, R290

Emma Davis is a New York artist whose giant paintings of twisted trees conceal beneath their thickly applied oils the portraits of three teenage girls — Vivian, Natalie and Allison — who disappeared from the summer camp cabin they shared with 13year-old Emma and were never seen again. Fifteen years later the elderly heiress who owns the land decides to reopen Camp Nightingale and invites Emma to teach art to the daughters of the elite. Emma’s decision to return to the place that haunts her is prompted by a search for closure as well as the crazy hope of finding clues that may have eluded investigators at the time. As jagged pieces of the story start fitting together, it begins to emerge that Emma is not the most reliable of narrators, nor is she the only one with secrets. Sager is a genius at building suspense and the final revelation is a total shock.