I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
In 1998, four girls from a South Carolina small town college disappeared without a trace, including Lindsey’s older sister Jessica. Jessica was the absolute center of the family’s universe, and to say she was their father’s favorite would be a gross understatement. The shadow of her disappearance and the dysfunction left behind still drives Lindsey’s life twenty-four years later. Now an adult in her 30’s, Lindsey is a successful hotel manager who lives at home not because she has to but because the trauma their family endured is still so strong they can’t seem to break free of it.
Then a decades-old decomposed body is found by Doll’s Eye Lake (best atmospherically-creepy-as-hell name I’ve seen in a while). A popular cold case podcast catches wind of the activity and brings the whole investigation from the disappearances back to light, turning Lindsey’s life upside down. The perspective of an adult is different than that of a little girl, and with the unwanted help of a jaded journalist in town to poke old wounds (who just happens to also be an attractive older man), Lindsey discovers there’s much more to the mystery of her sister’s disappearance.
The Lake of Lost Girls wins on the disturbing atmospheric thriller level, from the little details and Lindsey’s discoveries (again, Doll’s Eye Lake) to the hints and foreshadowing that Lindsey follows down her path. I enjoyed the time bounces between Jessica’s college life leading up to the disappearances and the present day. I also thoroughly enjoyed the flaws and complications in the lead characters which make the story less straightforward and the main players more unpredictable.
Katherine Greene is a pen name for A. Meredith Walters and Claire C. Riley, who have done an excellent job weaving the many facets of the necessary crumbs of thriller/mystery plot right along with the character arcs, so the story moves along at a fast pace and switches timelines without losing any of its heart along the way. I thought the aftermath of the disappearances on Jessica’s mental health and the spiral leading to her own disappearance was particularly well done, and that lead up to the reveal of the ending made it satisfying.
I did predict a few big points along the way, including the gist of the end (of course I’m not saying what they were here, that’s no fun for anyone, and I’m a weirdo who can be hard to surprise). For that reason alone, I gave this one four stars (thrillers get five stars out of me if I can’t predict a darn thing). I enjoyed the hell out of this one and I could see it as a Lifetime or Netflix movie.
The Lake of Lost Girls will be available in all the usual places on November 5, 2024.
No Pithy Phrase 