Get all of Riley Sager’s books in order so you know exactly which one of these books to read first or next. This helpful list includes my updated ratings and recommendations of each and every one of his popular psychological thriller, mystery, and horror novels to date. You’ll also get a free printable PDF of his books to track your reading. Let’s get literary!
List of Riley Sager’s Books in Order
Below are all of Riley Sager’s books in order of publication date:
- Final Girls (2017)
- The Last Time I Lied (2018)
- Lock Every Door (2019)
- Home Before Dark (2020)
- Survive the Night (2021)
- The House Across the Lake (2022)
- The Only One Left (2023)
- Middle of the Night (2024)
- With a Vengeance (June 10, 2025)
Alternatively, get the list of Riley Sager books ranked.
Reading Order: You do not “have to” read the books by Riley Sager in any particular order. They are all standalone novels that are not part of a series and have no connection.
Where to Start: Final Girls is Riley Sager’s first book, and Middle of the Night is his new book. The Only One Left is my favorite Riley Sager book, and it is widely considered to be his best novel.
Plots of Riley Sager’s Psychological Thrillers
#1 of 9: Final Girls (2017)
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.
#2 of 9: The Last Time I Lied (2018)
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.
#3 of 9: Lock Every Door (2019)
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.
#4 of 9: Home Before Dark (2020)
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.
#5 of 9: Survive the Night (2021)
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.
#6 of 9: The House Across the Lake (2022)
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.
#7 of 9: The Only One Left (2023)
The Only One Left is a chilling 1980s Gothic fiction tale about a tarnished caregiver named Kit. She must work for a woman named Lenora, accused of a gruesome family massacre in 1929, in her spooky cliffside estate called “Hope’s End.” Lenora, the fear-inducing “Lizzie Borden” of her Maine town, has been rendered mute by a stroke but wishes to tell her side of the story over a typewriter.
#8 of 9: Middle of the Night (2024)
Middle of the Night is about a man who returns home after experiencing trauma there decades earlier, when his best friend, Billy, was kidnapped from their tent at night and never found.
There, strange occurrences plague his mind at night, and he begins to suspect it’s Billy. So, he reunites with old friends and family to uncover what happened to Billy.
From the publisher:
In 1942, six people destroyed Anna Matheson’s family. Twelve years later, she’s ready for retribution.
Under false pretenses, Anna has lured those responsible for her family’s downfall onto a luxury train from Philadelphia to Chicago, an overnight journey of fourteen hours. Her goal? Confront the people who’ve wronged her, get them to confess their crimes, and deliver them into the hands of authorities waiting at the end of the line. Justice will at last be served.
But Anna’s plan is quickly derailed by the murder of one of the passengers. As the train barrels through the night, it becomes clear that someone else on board is enacting their own form of revenge—and that they won’t stop until everyone else is dead.
With time running out before the train reaches its destination, Anna is forced to hunt the killer in their midst while protecting the people she hates the most. In order to destroy her enemies, she must first save them—even though it means putting her own life at risk.
Printable PDF Checklist of Riley Sager’s Books
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About Riley Sager and His Fiction Books
about
Riley Sager is the pseudonym for Todd Ritter, the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author. He is a Pennsylvania native who resides in New Jersey. He is married and has referred to his husband on Instagram.
Since 2017, Riley Sager has written psychological thriller novels. His books are known for having female leads and incorporating murder and plot twists into their storylines. To date, none have been turned into movies.
Final Thoughts
You do not need to read Riley Sager’s books in order. They are all standalone thriller novels that you can read in any order. His 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, my favorite and widely considered Sager’s best novel.
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remember, it’s a good day to read a book. – jules
