The Last Time I Lied, by Riley Sager
Summary
“Because the lake’s been lowered by drought, the farthest-reaching branches scrape the bottoms of the canoes, sounding like fingernails trying to scratch their way out of a coffin.” Wow, this was an unexpected pleasure! The book starts slowly; we get to know Emma and get used to the wonderful writing style Sager employs: “I’ve heard Randall boast to potential buyers that my surfaces are like Van Gogh’s, with paint cresting as high as an inch off the canvas. That’s the nature I try to capture with my scrapes and bumps and whorls of paint.” We also learn what and, partly, why she paints and, thus, get a first glimpse at the shadows in Emma’s life: Even after 15 years she still feels guilty about the disappearance of her friends and though neither kind nor extent of her guilt are clear at this point, we get a very good idea at the monstrous kind of feelings Emma harbours. It also feels like yesterday.” Thinking about that sentence, remembering the momentous events in my own life (first love, marriage, first child…), I found myself nodding agreement with that sentiment. Our route now set, I open the compass app downloaded to my phone the morning I left for camp, rotating until it points northeast.
