In the Last Time I Lied, a girl wakes up in a cabin at a summer camp for girls. It is the silence that awakens her at least an hour before dawn. Her three roommates are gone leaving behind their belongings. As the girl searches the camp frantically, she envisions a multitude of dire reasons for her friends’ disappearance.
Fifteen years later, Emma Davis is holding her first gallery showing of her paintings of the missing girls. The wealthy owner of the camp asks her to return to the camp for its reopening. Emma agrees with the underlying purpose of finding out what really happened all those years ago. When Emma returns to camp, her story is told alternating between present day and fifteen years earlier.
Emma is a classic unreliable narrator. She was only 13 at the time of the incident. She admits to lying at the time and has vowed never to lie again—except to herself.
Having read the author’s wonderful debut, Final Girls, I was expecting some twists but Last Time I Lied coasts on a slow boil of dread until the whipsaw conclusion. It has the languid pacing of a gothic mystery like Rebecca. If you like ghost stories and southern mysteries (though this is set in New England), this thriller is for you. 5 stars!
Thanks to the publisher, Dutton Books, and Edelweiss+ for an advanced copy.