All 8 Best Riley Sager Books Ranked With Reviews

#2 of 8: Home Before Dark (2020)

Plot: In Home Before Dark, Maggie returns to her childhood house, which was made famous by her father’s memoir, describing it as a haunted house of horrors. Maggie’s family fled the house after living there for only three weeks after a series of ghostly encounters.

Skeptical Maggie was only five then and remembers nothing as she plans to renovate and sell the home. After a grizzly discovery, the house gains notoriety once again. Maggie goes on a quest to determine the true history of the horrors, and dark secrets are revealed.

Review: Home Before Dark uniquely feels like both a slow burn and a page-turner. It was also nice to get the perspectives of both an adult Maggie and that of her father’s book sprinkled in. The ending surprised me, and it truly delivered ghostly thrills.

While some readers thought the “ghost” descriptions in this Fall thriller book were unrealistic, I thought Sager ultimately explained them in a way that made sense.

Lastly, as so many readers have said, I agree that you will never think of The Sound of Music the same way again.

#3 of 8: Survive the Night (2021)

Plot: In Survive the Night, it’s 1991, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie is in a car with Josh, a man who might be a serial killer. They met via a campus board, both looking to share the drive home.

Charlie is wracked with guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend — the third victim of the Campus Killer. She’s also an unreliable narrator struggling with mental health issues.

Josh claims to be heading home to care for his sick father. There’s something suspicious about him, though, and as they travel across the highway in the dead of night, she begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer.

Review: This entire book is filled with suspense, and its game of cat and mouse keeps you on the edge of your seat. This is particularly true since it plays out when the only call for help could be made on a pay phone in a place where there’s nowhere to run.

It kept me super engaged, and I could not solve the mystery. I also thought the ending tied the book together really cohesively.

#4 of 8: Lock Every Door (2019)

Plot: In Lock Every Door, Jules feels like she won the lottery when she gets a job apartment sitting at the renowned New York City building, The Bartholemew.

But the building’s rules are odd: no visitors, no nights spent away from the apartment, and no disturbing the other rich and famous residents. Things get even weirder when another apartment sitter in the building goes missing and leaves a note saying, “Be careful.”

Jules digs into the building’s sordid past, which leaves her fighting for her life.

Review: I loved the descriptions of the historic building in Lock Every Door! While there was a major twist I wasn’t expecting, I did have some correct suspicions halfway through, and I also hoped for more resolution about Jules’ past. Overall, though, it was a satisfying and unique thriller.

#6 of 8: Final Girls (2017)

Plot: In Final Girls, Quincy became a member of the so-called “Final Girls Club” when she went on a college vacation and was the only survivor of a horrific murder massacre.

There are two other members of this club: Lisa, whose nine sorority sisters succumbed to a college dropout’s knife, and Sam, who fought and survived against the “Sack Man” during a shift at the Nightlight Inn. Despite the media’s attempts, they never met.
 
Flash forward ten years, and Quincy is doing well. As a result of her trauma, she can’t recall the events of that fatal night. Then, Lisa is found dead, and Sam appears at Quincy’s doorstep. Sam’s presence and Lisa’s death force Quincy to face the past, and it comes with a whirlwind of consequences and suspense.

Review: I found Final Girls to be immersive and unique. I could not guess the ending either. Sam’s character was a bit annoying, but overall, I enjoyed this thriller.

#7 of 8: The Last Time I Lied (2018)

Plot: The Last Time I Lied is the story of the game “Two Truths and a Lie” gone wrong. A group of girls played it as teenagers in their cabin at camp. But the game ended the night Emma watched the others sneak out into the darkness, never to return.

A decade later, Emma is a rising artist, painting massive canvases of her vanished bunkmates. The camp owner invites her to return as a painting instructor, and seeing an opportunity to discover what happened to the girls, Emma agrees.

Upon arriving, Emma sees familiar faces and is even assigned to the same cabin. But, when strange things start happening, she finds that digging into the past can cause serious threats in the present. The closer she gets to the truth, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price.

Review: Overall, I enjoyed this book, but I could guess “what happened” very close to the beginning. There was also an additional plot twist at the end that I found to lack believability. That being said, many readers disagree with me and love this one.

#8 of 8: The House Across the Lake (2022)

Plot: In The House Across the Lake, a recently widowed actress passes time at her family’s Vermont lake house, watching the glamorous couple in the house across the lake through binoculars.

When she befriends the woman she spies on, it becomes clear that the marriage isn’t perfect after all. Then, when the woman suddenly vanishes, the actress becomes consumed with discovering what happened to her. She uncovers even darker truths in the process.

Review: The first half of this thriller felt too similar to other popular thriller books, such as The Girl on the Train and The Woman in the Window. Also, while I don’t necessarily dislike supernatural elements, the supernatural turns this particular story took felt odd. That being said, perhaps these elements will work better for you.

Final Thoughts

While readers differ regarding the best of Riley Sager’s books ranked, one thing is clear: they are all twisty thrillers that satisfy your cravings. This particular backlist catalog is great to dive deep into because the books are all so different.

I recommend you start with The Only One Left, which is my favorite and is widely considered to be Sager’s best novel.