Only One Left; The Cuban Heiress

 

Riley Sager's books are always terrific, and I really enjoyed this one. 

Set in the 1980s, Kit is a home healthcare worker. She was suspended for six months for leaving medication out and her last patient (who happened to be her mother) took the bottle and died. The police, and Kit's boss, suspect she assisted her mother with her suicide, but Kit swears she is innocent. After an investigation fails to prove any wrongdoing on Kit's part, she is cleared to come back to work and her boss assigns her to Leonora Hope. 

Leonora Hope is the only surviving member of the Hope family. In 1929, her parents and sister were brutally murdered. The killer was never caught, and most people, including Kit, think that Leonora killed her family and got away with it. Leonora is paralyzed after a series of strokes and can only move her left hand, but she is able to type, and she types something that chills Kit to the bone: she wants to tell her. Everything. 

What follows this is a bunch of twists and turns and a final conclusion that was satisfying. 

I enjoyed the first two books in Cleeton's Cuban series, but this one isn't about the Perez family, so it wasn't what I was expecting. It wasn't bad, but it also didn't thrill me like the first two did.

Elena is in disguise on the cruise ship Morro Castle, which is headed to Havana from New York in 1934. Also on board is her husband, Raymond, who believes she died in a fire back in New York--a fire he deliberately set to try to kill her in order to steal her money. Raymond is there with his fiancée, Catharine, who is actually pretending to be a wealthy heiress. She's really Elena's maid who is helping her get revenge on Raymond. Complicating matters is Harry, a sly pickpocket that Catherine falls for. It was interesting enough, if predictable. The real life story of the Morro Castle is very interesting and I'd like to learn more about it.