Mystery writer Riley Sager talks about his new novel

• Scott LaMar
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  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.

 Lancasteronline

Riley Sager

Airdate: June 26, 2023

New York Times best-selling author Riley Sager’s latest thriller novel – The Only One Left – was just published last week. Set in the 1980s, there are twists and turns into who committed 1929 murders at a cliff side Maine mansion and an ending that will surprise the reader.

Sager appeared on The Spark Monday and described The Only One Left storyline,”The case of Lizzie Borden inspired the case in the book. Lenora Hope, when she was 17, her whole family was murdered. And everyone thinks that Lenora did it. And there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that she did or didn’t do it. And so she just sort of hid away in this mansion alone for decades and decades and decades. And now it’s 1983, and she’s in very poor health. She can’t speak, she can’t walk. She really can’t do much of anything on her own. So she needs help. So a home health aide named Kit McDeere comes in to help her and take care of her. And she has some issues of her own. All my characters have issues. But Lenora can communicate using her left hand by typing on a typewriter. And so one night to Kit she types “I want to tell you everything.” And so that’s the crux of the story. And the plot of the book Is Kit helping Lenora type, the story of what happened the night her entire family was murdered. So she learns so many secrets.”

Sager is a native of Danville in Pennsylvania and he was a journalist before he started writing novels,”I kind of always wanted to be a writer. And even when I started in college. I went to Penn State, and my senior year of college just started trying to write a thriller. And I spent years writing and it’s been never published, but I just always thought it would be something interesting to do. I love reading, and as a kid I thought it would be a pretty cool job to be able to create stories that other people love. But it’s not easy.”

Sager has now written seven novels.

On the program, he said he treats writing like a job, making the time to write, adding his publisher expects a book-a-year.

Riley Sager appears at Midtown Scholar Bookstore in Harrisburg Tuesday, June 27  at 7 p.m.