“You withhold and withhold and withhold until that mental dam breaks and all those bad urges come spilling out, often causing harm in the process.”
The House Across The Lake by Riley Sager follows Casey Fletcher, a widowed actress who is trying to stay out of the public eye and some bad press. She’s gone into hiding at her family’s lake house in Vermont. She spends the majority of her time watching the house across the lake with her binoculars, while drinking (she is an alcoholic). The couple across the lake, Katherine and Tom, keep her captivated. Katherine was a former supermodel and Tom is a powerful force to be reckoned with. Eventually, Casey and Katherine become friends. As the story progresses, it becomes clear that not everything is as it seems on the isolated lake in Vermont. The setting, Vermont in the fall, provides a character all in itself.
The longer Casey watches the house, the more concerned she gets about what may happen to Katherine. It seems as though Casey is obsessed with Katherine and the house across the lake, but maybe she has reason to be? The few people left in Casey’s life are worried about her current activities. It does seem as though she is unnecessarily obsessed with the home on the other side of the lake.
As the reader, it was interesting to see the mystery unfold. I don’t want to give too much of a summary in a review for a thriller as I don’t want to give anything away, but it needed some description. I thought the plot twists unfolded slowly and with enough intrigue for me to wonder what in the world was going on. I haven’t read many thrillers, but this one had so many twists that made me scoff out loud while reading. It also gave me the creeps as I read it late at night.
Then when I was swimming in a lake the next day, the major mystery that drives the entire plot and story made me scared for a moment and thankful that I had just finished the book and that I wasn’t going to go back inside and finish it that night, after swimming. That’s all I have to say about it.
If you want an atmospheric fall in new England whodunit kind of story with frequent plot twists that will keep you guessing, then I would recommend The House Across The Lake, which I think works as a summer read, despite it taking place in fall. Though, of course, you can read it anytime of year, but it suits both summer and fall.