If there’s one thing that is clear to readers from the very first page of Chapter One, it’s that Maggie Holt loathes her father’s memoir a work she simply refers to as The Book. Through alternating timelines, plenty of jump scares, and some truly creepy twists and turns, author Riley Sager directs his bestselling thriller skills to the beat of a classic haunted house tale.

Given that her parents have always refused to talk to her about what really happened all those years ago, Maggie also hopes that returning to Baneberry Hall will help her uncover the truth about her father’s motivations for selling what she believes is a bogus story. She is (ironically enough) a restorer of homes, and is determined to renovate and sell Baneberry Hall. Now, 25 years later, Maggie returns to Baneberry Hall on a job. Twenty days later, the family fled from the house with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a wild ghost story for the police - a story that Ewan Holt turned into a notoriously famous memoir called ‘House of Horrors’. When Maggie Holt was five years old, her parents purchased Baneberry Hall: a sprawling Victorian mansion nestled in the Vermont woods. If you’re looking for a spooky new thriller to add to your October TBR list, Riley Sager’s ‘ Home Before Dark’ might just be the fast-paced Halloween read you need. And now that yet another person has died within these walls, it’s finally time to tell the truth.”

Home before dark riley sager summary