Published: July 7th, 2022
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Genre: Suspense, Psychological Fiction, Horror Fiction
Format: Hardcover, Kindle, Audiobook
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this unexpected, darkly atmospheric thriller. Thank you to Ollie at Hodder & Stoughton for the invitation to take part and the gifted copy of the book.
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SYNOPSIS:
The master of genre-bending suspense is back with a brand new edge-of-your-seat thriller.
Recently widowed actress Casey Fletcher has escaped to her family’s lake house for peace and quiet. She’s been happily losing herself in her thoughts and several bottles of bourbon, until the glamorous couple across the lake catch her attention. They look so perfect – just like Casey and her husband used to be.
But is anyone what they seem?
Casey has a detective sat at her kitchen table.
She has a man bound and gagged upstairs.
Casey will uncover dark truths so life-changing that nothing will ever be the same again.
International bestselling sensation Riley Sager is back with his most ambitious thriller yet. With his trademark blend of sharp characters, psychological suspense and gasp-worthy twists, The House Across the Lake will shock readers from the first page to the last.
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MY REVIEW:
“The last thought I have before spiralling into unconsciousness is a memory of the sound that woke me up. With it comes recognition.
I now know what I heard.
It was a scream.”
Wow. What on earth did I just read? Riveting, unexpected and surprising, this was a wild and crazy ride that I couldn’t put down. Punchy, sharp and oozing with foreboding, the writing is compelling. Moving between dual timelines, I loved how we would get a short, sharp and ominous ‘Now’ section that ended on a cliffhanger before jumping to a longer ‘Before’ section, notching up the tension and leaving us on the edge of our seats.
This was my second time reading a Riley Sager book but I was an instant fan and couldn’t wait to read more. This book had a different feel to his last book, more of a traditional thriller. While I was enjoying it, it seemed predictable and I thought I had it all figured out. Then, bam! With one twist he takes the story from zero to sixty, turning everything on its head and changing everything you thought you knew. It instantly became all the more tantalising and I couldn’t read fast enough. One of my favourite things about thrillers is when an author shocks you with something completely unexpected and seemingly out of left field but when you look back you can see the clues carefully hidden on the pages, which in this case are small hints of the paranormal. In the hands of another author it could have been a ridiculous turn, and I think it will be a bit of a marmite book because of this, but I thought Sager pulled it off expertly and made the unbelievable feel possible.
“The lake is darker than a coffin with the lid shut.
That’s what Marnie used to say, back when we were children and she was constantly trying to scare me. It’s an exaggeration, to be sure. But not by much. Lake Greene’s water is dark, even with the light trickling through it.
A coffin with the lid cracked. “
I love an unreliable narrator and Casey certainly fits that bill Flawed and tortured, she’s drinking herself into oblivion each day to numb the pain of her husband’s death and being back at the place that haunts her, where his death happened, is far from helping. She craves an escape, and alcohol offers that. I liked her and enjoyed her drunken and paranoid musings, even though she obviously needed to get sober and stop watching and obsessing over the Royces. The other characters are equally as compelling and unreliable, leaving the reader constantly second guessing themselves and adding to the suspense.
Atmospheric, unnerving, twisty and completely over the top, this is perfect for anyone who enjoys a thriller that is a little bit different.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
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MEET THE AUTHOR:
Riley Sager is the New York Times bestselling author of six novels, most recently Home Before Dark and Survive the Night. His first novel, Final Girls, has been published in 30 countries and won the ITW Thriller Award for Best Hardcover Novel. His latest book, The House Across the Lake, will be published in 2022 by Dutton Books.
A native of Pennsylvania, he now lives in Princeton, New Jersey.
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BUY THE BOOK:
Waterstones | Amazon | Bookshop.org
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Thanks for reading Bibliophiles 😊 Emma xxxx
Please check out the reviews from the other bloggers taking part in this tour.
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