Book: The Lake Victim by Parker Vale
Reviewed by Tessara
Rating: 3.5/5
20 years after the tragic drowning death of their sorority sister, five friends gather to spend a week at the lake house where she died. Claire has spent years hiding from the husband who tried to have her killed and the dangerous people who ultimately ended his life instead, but when Sloane invites her out to the lake for a reunion, she decides to go against her instincts and join the friends for a ‘girl’s trip.’ But when she arrives, it quickly becomes clear that everyone else in the house is hiding something, something about the night that Grace died, something they have never told the others—or anyone else. Though the drowning was ruled accidental, Sloane has always believed that someone killed Grace, and she knows Claire will not stop pulling until she unravels the thread that reveals the truth, once and for all. Besides Claire, everyone in the house is a suspect, and someone is watching, waiting to see who can implicate them. By gethering them all together, Sloane may well have endangered them instead.
Thoughts: This was a quick and easy read. I figured out the killer around a quarter of the way through, unfortunately. It was also a little perplexing to watch all these grown women ignore their own instincts for so long. (I did anticipate there might be a big twist coming, which did not occur, I must admit.) And one of the five women felt a little superfluous; it might have tightened up the narrative to cut one of them, since the chapters rotated point of view and this led to a bit too much repetition, as the women spoke in pairs or each independently observed something without discussing it with anyone else. The mystery is not very deep in this one, but I nevertheless enjoyed the read.
Thanks to the author for providing an advance reader copy; all opinions in this review are my own.