The Only One Left

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Interlude 1-Chapter 6

Chapters 7-14

Interludes 5-8

Chapters 23-30

Interlude 11-Chapter 37

Interludes 14-19

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Book Club Questions

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Discussion Questions

Interludes 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Interlude 5-Chapter 19 Summary

In Interlude 5, the typist looked for her best friend, Archie. She was distressed by knowledge of her father’s affair, and hoped Archie could comfort her. When she climbed onto the terrace railing, a stranger’s voice cautioned her against falling over. Perturbed by the familiar tone that this member of the staff took, the typist got defensive about his condescension. He introduced himself as Ricky.

In the present, Lenora refuses to answer Kit’s questions, because that would mean recounting events out of order, and the chronology is essential to understanding how events unfolded. Kit again hears the strange nighttime noises that sound like someone moving around Lenora’s room. In the morning, the house has palpably shifted several inches toward the cliff. Lenora again denies that anyone has been in her room, but Kit suspects Lenora is not being completely honest. She refuses to allow Lenora to type any more pages until Lenora explains who was in her room last night. Lenora types her dead sister’s name: Virginia.

Kit calls Mr. Gurlain and asks for reassignment. He repeats that if Kit quits at Hope’s End, she cannot work for Gurlain Home Health Aides at all. Stepping out onto the terrace, Kit is again struck by the house’s severe state of disrepair. Then, she looks over the terrace railing and is horrified to see the corpse of Mary Milton lying on the rocks below.

Detective Vick decides that Mary died by suicide, based on a note found in her uniform pocket. Kit suggests he talk to Lenora, who was closest to Mary. Kit is humiliated when Lenora refuses to type answers to Vick’s questions, and is then incensed when Detective Vick accuses her of toying with him in retaliation for his earlier investigation of her. When Detective Vick leaves, Kit confronts Lenora, furious. Lenora types out an apology, insisting that, for their safety, their writing project must remain a secret.

Interludes 6-8 Summary

In Interlude 6, the typist details her romance with Ricky. Their secret meetings became progressively physically intimate. Ricky was frustrated with his lot in life and his belief that he is entitled to more; the typist dreamed that together they might explore the world beyond Hope’s End. Meanwhile, her sister taunted her to find out whom the typist was seeing, assuming it was Archie, to the typist’s relief.

In the present, Jessie, like Kit, believes that Mary’s death was an accident; she resents Detective Vick’s assumptions about Mary’s mental state. Kit presses Jessie for information, and Jessie reveals that she also knows about the typing that Mary and Miss Hope did together, but not about its content. Jessie gives Kit the latest homemade audiobook, one of a series of cassettes she has recorded for Miss Hope. Miss Hope, who believes that Mary was murdered, confirms that she finished telling Mary everything about the murder on the very night Mary disappeared; Mary had hidden the manuscript in her room. Kit doesn’t find the manuscript, but instead discovers an empty spot where Mary’s suitcase must have been, concluding that Mary must have taken the manuscript in her suitcase when she left Hope’s End. Kit calls Detective Vick, imploring him to consider that Mary was intentionally pushed off the terrace because she became privy to information that made her a liability. Detective Vick patronizes her, suggesting that Kit has deluded herself into creating this scenario to assuage her guilt over her mother’s death. Carter, eavesdropping on Kit’s phone call, confesses that Mary was trying to help him. Carter shows Kit a photograph dated September 1929, depicting Lenora Hope, noticeably pregnant.

For the first time in the Interludes, the typist addresses Mary directly, hinting for the first time that the typewritten material is Mary’s, and not Kit’s. The typist describes Ricky’s excitement when she told him she was expecting a child. Frustrated that he could not support them, he promises to change that. She insisted that they could use her money: Her maternal grandparents, disgusted with Winston Hope, structured their will to make Lenora and Virginia Hope their sole beneficiaries upon their 18th birthdays. Ricky pride would not allow him to accept; in a flash of anger, he ridiculed her.

Interludes 5-8 Analysis

Despite her Class Status, Resources, and Privilege, Virginia Hope was very unhappy as a teenager. With her mother Evangeline emotionally and cognitively absent because of an addiction to laudanum, her sister Lenora competitive and cruel, and her father Winston narcissistically stifling any love or loyalty in the family dynamics, Virginia had no experience of healthy relationships when she met Ricky. Ricky, far more worldly and experienced, convinced her that he loved her and that becoming sexually involved was the best way to continue their romance—something he could do with ease because even Miss Baker, whose professional role should have included educating Virginia about sex, was more occupied with Winston Hope than her charges. In Virginia and Ricky’s romance, the novel explores one aspect of How Chauvinism and Paternalism Dictates Women’s Fates: While Virginia could see glimpses of Ricky’s true nature from the tension in their relationship over her wealth, and the bitterness and resentment with which he mocked her social position, she was too used to being browbeaten by men in authority to stand up to him or speak up for herself.

Another side of the same theme arises when Detective Vick, a friend of Kit’s father, arrives at Hope’s End to investigate Mary’s death. Instead of collecting evidence, he dismisses Mary as mentally unstable, predetermines that she died by suicide, and offers sanctimonious advice about Kit’s mental state. Despite his lack of acuity—he cannot even keep straight the fact that Kit never met Mary—Vick is an official in the police force and an authority figure in town. Vick expects to be respected simply because he is a man; when Kit refuses to be bullied, he lashes out. His response is patronizing, as though it were a crime to question the integrity of a law enforcement official. Because she is from a very small town, Kit has no other resources within law enforcement to turn to as she learns about the Hope murders. Whenever she tries to enlist Detective Vick’s help, he cannot stop himself from drawing misogynistic conclusions, or treating Kit with contempt and pity. As Kit struggles with guilt over her decision to leave her mother’s medication unlocked, her involvement in the Hope mystery gives her confidence and a stronger sense of self. By bending the rules of the household to provide her patient greater freedom and comfort, and by pushing past obstacles to discover the truth, Kit fights a larger systemic issue: powerful men confidently declaring themselves the arbiters and judges of women.