The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

 

This was to be Emma's first away camp and she can't wait to go to Camp Nightingale for the summer, a camp set on the family land of a wealthy benefactor.  Arriving late, there are no more spaces in the cabins with girls her own age so Emma is put in with three older teenagers.  Allison and Natalie are typical teenagers and Vivian is the camp's Queen Bee, the girl who everyone wants to know and who can make or break a girl's summer with just one word.  

Vivian decides to take Emma under her wing and Emma is delighted.  She also has her first real crush on the camp owner's gorgeous son, Theo.  Of course, he has no interest in a thirteen year old but a girl can dream.  But Emma's dreams turn to nightmares.  The other girls sneak out one night and they don't return.  After searching fruitlessly for them for several days, the camp is closed down and all the campers sent home.  The three girls are never found.

Fifteen years later, Emma is surprised to get an invitation to lunch from the camp owner.  She finds out that the woman is planning to reopen Camp Nightingale and wants Emily to come and be an art instructor for the summer.  Emma has been painting huge canvases of the trauma for years and needs to find something else to work on.  She agrees to go back to the camp for the summer.

But things start to turn out the same.  Emma is forced by lack of space to room not with the other adult instructors but with three teenagers.  Theo is back for the summer along with his younger brother with his fiancée attached.  Several of the other instructors are girls from that fateful summer.  Worst of all, Emma's new roommates go missing one night as well.  Can she find them along with the secrets Camp Nightingale is hiding?

Riley Sager is known as a thriller writer and there are often supernatural elements in his novels.  In this one, Emma's first time at camp is played off successfully with her second time.  She starts off doing well and as the days go by, the strange happenings she encounters takes her back to that summer fifteen years before that threatened to ruin her entire life.  Vivian is another strong character from that first summer even with the tragedy that entered her life.  The tension is built slowly and the resolution is satisfying.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.