THE LAST ROOM ON THE LEFT

When a woman takes a caretaking job at a remote motel, she begins to wonder if she’s losing her mind. Sound familiar?

This take on The Shining—which is referenced on Page 3—opens as Kerry arrives at the empty, snow-covered Twilite Motel, in a sparsely populated area of upstate New York. She’s chosen to spend a month in this isolated location so she can write more and drink less. When she arrives, however, she doesn’t find the property in the state she expected. One room shows evidence of a recent party and someone—the prior caretaker or a forgotten guest?—possibly still in residence. As she tries to find the potential squatter, she’s horrified to discover a dead body buried in the snow. Due to the recent storm, power is out, and Kerry’s on her own with her dreadful discovery. As she trudges through the snow looking for help, she meets the owners of neighboring properties, each of whom seems more suspicious than the last. She also learns that the previous month’s caretaker was none other than her estranged best friend, Siobhan. Meanwhile, evidence keeps disappearing from the motel, making new acquaintances—and Kerry herself—doubt her sanity. As she tries to figure out what nefarious events occurred before she arrived, she grows increasingly concerned that she might be her own worst enemy. The book is told from Kerry’s perspective, with chapters narrated by Siobhan woven throughout. Full of creepiness and tenable red herrings, the story is solidly engaging, with the author offering just enough breadcrumbs to hint at the truth without giving anything away too soon. Both narrators are presented as potentially unreliable, and their voices can be hard to tell apart; also, drunkenness is overused as a device. Still, the setting of the secluded motel is evocative and entirely eerie, and the story is sufficiently dire to keep readers engaged. As the characters try to make sense of their situation while also tackling weighty issues like addiction and self-doubt, things eventually become clear.

A fast-paced thriller that plays up the disorientating nature of isolated locations.