Riley Sager Books in Order: All 10 Thrillers and Where to Start
Riley Sager has written ten thrillers, and every one of them is a standalone. If you've ever stood in front of a bookshelf wondering where to begin with the author of Final Girls, this guide lays out all ten in publication order, from Final Girls (2017) to The Unknown (2026), with a quick note on who each one suits.
This is the complete list of Riley Sager's thrillers (10 novels, as of October 2026), not a curated selection. It leaves out the Kat Campbell mysteries that Todd Ritter wrote under his own name, and Things Half in Shadow (2014), which he wrote as Alan Finn. Everything below is spoiler-free, and prices on Amazon India change often, so check the current price before you buy.
Riley Sager books in order: quick reference table
Here is every Riley Sager thriller at a glance. Swipe sideways on a phone to see the whole table.
| Reading order | Book | Year | Series or standalone | Main setting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standalone #1 | Final Girls | 2017 | Standalone | Three women known as the "Final Girls" |
| Standalone #2 | The Last Time I Lied | 2018 | Standalone | Camp Nightingale, a summer camp |
| Standalone #3 | Lock Every Door | 2019 | Standalone | The Bartholomew, a Manhattan apartment building |
| Standalone #4 | Home Before Dark | 2020 | Standalone | Baneberry Hall, a haunted house |
| Standalone #5 | Survive the Night | 2021 | Standalone | A late-night drive across the country in 1991 |
| Standalone #6 | The House Across the Lake | 2022 | Standalone | A family lake house in Vermont |
| Standalone #7 | The Only One Left | 2023 | Standalone | Hope's End, a cliffside mansion on the Maine coast |
| Standalone #8 | Middle of the Night | 2024 | Standalone | A New Jersey childhood home |
| Standalone #9 | With a Vengeance | 2025 | Standalone | A luxury overnight train in 1954 |
| Standalone #10 | The Unknown | 2026 | Standalone | A spiritualist commune on a Vermont island |
Sources: Wikipedia: Riley Sager and the publishers' pages for each book. Dates are first publication years. Riley Sager is the pen name of author Todd Ritter.
Do you need to read Riley Sager's books in order?
No. There's no series and no shared main character, so each book stands on its own and you can start with almost any of them. In a USA Today interview about The Unknown, Sager talked about small easter eggs that link his books, so reading them by release date is a fun bonus, not a requirement.
All 10 Riley Sager thrillers in order
1. Final Girls (2017)
Quincy Carpenter is one of three women the media calls the "Final Girls": each was the lone survivor of a horror-movie-style massacre. Years later, Quincy has built a calm, careful life, until one of the other Final Girls is found dead and the third turns up on her doorstep.
Read it if: You love slasher-movie energy and a narrator who may not be telling you everything.
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2. The Last Time I Lied (2018)
Fifteen years ago, artist Emma Davis was a teenager at Camp Nightingale when three girls from her cabin walked into the woods and never came back. Now the camp is reopening, and Emma returns as a counselor, hoping to finally find out what happened.
Read it if: Summer-camp mysteries and secrets buried in the past are your thing.
3. Lock Every Door (2019)
Jules Larsen is broke and out of options when she lands a paid job as an apartment sitter in the Bartholomew, one of Manhattan's most famous and secretive buildings. The rules are strict and the pay is too good to be true. Then another sitter goes missing.
Read it if: You like creepy-building thrillers with a slow build and a wild final act.
4. Home Before Dark (2020)
Maggie Holt's father wrote a bestselling "true" memoir about the haunted house the family fled when she was a child. Maggie doesn't believe a word of it. When she inherits Baneberry Hall, she moves back in to renovate it, and the house starts to feel a lot like the book.
Read it if: You want a haunted-house story told as a book within a book.
5. Survive the Night (2021)
It's 1991. After her friend is killed by the so-called Campus Killer, college student Charlie Jordan accepts a ride home to Ohio from a stranger she met on the ride board. Somewhere on the dark highway, she starts to wonder whether the man behind the wheel is the killer.
Read it if: You want one tense night, a road trip and a 90s thriller-movie feel.
6. The House Across the Lake (2022)
Recently widowed actress Casey Fletcher is hiding out at her family's lake house in Vermont, drinking too much and watching the glamorous couple across the water through binoculars. When the wife suddenly disappears, Casey is sure she knows more than anyone else.
Read it if: You enjoy Rear Window-style thrillers with a narrator nobody quite trusts.
7. The Only One Left (2023)
In 1983, caregiver Kit McDeere takes a job looking after Lenora Hope, an elderly woman who has been blamed since 1929 for murdering her family at their cliffside Maine mansion. Lenora wants to tell her side of the story at last, but the house and its staff have other ideas.
Read it if: Gothic mansions and decades-old family murders are your comfort reads.
My take: This one kept me up till 3am. Read my full spoiler-free review of The Only One Left.
8. Middle of the Night (2024)
Thirty years ago, Ethan Marsh's best friend vanished from the tent they were sleeping in behind Ethan's house on a quiet New Jersey street. Ethan has never forgiven himself. Now he's moved back into his childhood home, and strange things start happening in the middle of the night.
Read it if: You like suburban mysteries and a dark secret hiding in a "perfect" neighbourhood.
9. With a Vengeance (2025)
In 1954, Anna Matheson lures the six people who destroyed her family onto a luxury overnight train from Philadelphia to Chicago, planning to make them confess before the journey ends. Then one of the passengers is murdered, and it's clear someone else on board wants revenge too.
Read it if: You love a locked-room mystery on a train, in the spirit of Murder on the Orient Express.
10. The Unknown (2026)
In 1926, five women vanished from New Avalon, a spiritualist commune on an island in Vermont, leaving only their dresses hanging from an oak tree. A century later, struggling actress Marin Keane is cast in a film about the mystery, and the cast's research trip to the island goes very wrong.
Read it if: You want his newest book, with séances, an isolated island and a cast that starts disappearing.
What to expect from a Riley Sager thriller
If you haven't read him before, the books share a recognisable shape. Each one takes a classic scary-story setup, such as a slasher film, a summer-camp mystery, a haunted house or a train murder, and gives it a twisty, modern-day spin. According to Wikipedia, The Last Time I Lied was inspired by the film Picnic at Hanging Rock, and Wikipedia's page on Home Before Dark notes that Sager references The Amityville Horror in that book. Expect isolated settings, secrets from the past and a narrator you can't quite trust.
Content notes: The books are built around murders and disappearances, with violence and some scary scenes. My review of The Only One Left lists the specific content warnings for that book.
The best Riley Sager books, by what you like
People often ask for the best Riley Sager book, and the honest answer depends on what you enjoy. This is a quick guide based on each book's premise, not a ranking:
- Slasher-movie energy: Final Girls.
- Haunted houses and gothic mansions: Home Before Dark and The Only One Left.
- Secrets in a close-knit place: The Last Time I Lied (a summer camp), Lock Every Door (an apartment building) and Middle of the Night (a quiet street).
- Tense, closed-in settings: Survive the Night (one night on the road) and With a Vengeance (an overnight train).
- A narrator you can't trust: The House Across the Lake.
- His newest: The Unknown, with séances and an island.
Where should you start with Riley Sager?
- Brand new to Riley Sager: Start with Final Girls, the one that started it all.
- Love haunted houses: Try Home Before Dark or The Only One Left.
- Want a fast, tense read: Go for Survive the Night.
- Want a classic whodunit: Pick With a Vengeance.
- Want the latest: The Unknown is his newest, and it stands alone, so you don't need to read the others first.
Which Riley Sager book got you hooked?
Tell me in the comments which one you started with (no spoilers, please!).
Reading all ten in order? Keep track with the Series & Sequels page in my printable thriller reading journal, or log every book in the Google Sheets thriller reading tracker.
Want more twisty reads? Try 10 Thrillers With Twists You Won't See Coming, 8 Domestic Thrillers Where the Real Danger Is at Home, or my guides to Freida McFadden's books in order and Dan Brown's books in order. If you like twisty psychological thrillers, you might also like my spoiler-free Verity review.
Want more thriller picks?
Follow me on Instagram @abi._.rambler for quick reviews and recommendations, and visit my Linktree for links to every book I've read and recommended.
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