Thank you net galley for the opportunity to read and review this book! This book took me a while to get into and was slow for me at first but about half way through it started picking up! It had a spooky and creepy vibe going that I liked and I’m glad I got to read it.

A great story that kept me hooked till the end I couldn't put down.
Great plot, great characters and great world building.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Lake of Darkness by Scott Kenemore is a great read! A real engrossing page-turner and worth the time of a read!!

Lake of Darkness is my first horror novel by Scott Kenemore and it definitely won't be my last. I liked the author's overall style, but I will admit that I was somewhat underwhelmed by the story itself. It's set during WWI on the south side of Chicago during WWI and is a procedural horror thriller with a supernatural element. It sounds really cool and has the potential to be great, but for me it didn't quite manage to live up to all of it. Like I said before though, I still want to try more from this Kenyon College alum. I'm especially interested in picking up Zombie, Ohio in the future.

If you’re a Chicago native, you would’ve heard stories about the South Side of Chicago.. such stories don’t start suddenly unless there’s a deep history buried.. i realised it when I read “Lake of Darkness”.. the entire story plot happens in an alternate history.. the author has weaved together aspects of crime, fantasy and history beautifully. There’s something for everyone in this novel. Thrilling!
Thank you NetGalley, the author and publisher for reader’s copy of this book. This review is my own and is not influenced in any way.

Scott Kenemore’s Lake of Darkness was one of those books with which I struggled to figure you how much I liked it, although it hooked me in quickly and it had admirable elements, I was unsure to what extent the odd blend of genres worked. It’s a combination of horror novel, police procedural and supernatural thriller with racial tension lurking in the background. The procedural part dominated the story and, unfortunately, was rather one paced as the main character attempts to solve a series of rather grisly murders after being put in charge of the investigation by the mayor, the powerful Big Bill Thompson. The ritualistic murders will undoubtedly remind you of lots of other novels, but this particularly story has an intriguing supernatural twist which is played out quite slowly as lead investigator, policeman Joe “Flip” Flippity, digs into a strange mystery.

The description on one of the blurbs labels this book an ‘alternate history’ but I felt there was not enough different in this version of early 20th century Chicago to genuinely call it ‘alternate’. Perhaps this is because American history is not a strong point of mine, but apart from the supernatural being accepted as relatively normal it does not head into territory as radical as, say, Philip K Dick’s Man in the High Castle. The policeman pays cash to an ancient medium for advice on the killer, but so what? The supernatural is commonly accepted in the John Connolly Charlie Parker books, but neither I would not call them truly ‘alternate’. However, there are subtle differences such as Chicago having a black mayor, obviously impossible in early 20th century Chicago where all the action takes place.

The investigation is also racially charged, which was one of the stronger elements of the story, as black policemen were regarded as decidedly second-class. Flip realises he is put in charge of the case because the victims are predominately black and as the body count increases the huge coloured population of Chicago, which has migrated from the south and countryside areas, are both fearful and restless. Would Flip have been given this assignment if he had not been black himself? Unlikely, but soon he finds there are many more victims than have been previously reported and the mayor, who is not a patient man, expects results and fast.

The Chicago backdrop was another vivid and eye-catching part of Lake of Darkness, which at times overshadowed the murder investigation itself which in parts plodded, possibly because of the lack of suspects or genuine clues thrown in the direction of the reader. However, accompanying Flip, with the 10K given to him by the mayor around the seedy side of Chicago’s South Side, taking in brothels and travelling circuses was an enlightening experience. Fans of historical fiction should enjoy this part of the book very much, from the excellently atmospheric descriptions to cameos of real historical characters. The author does a great job of bringing the city of a century ago to life, in all its violent complexity, contradictions and racial undertones. But if you’re a fan of traditional historical fiction, hold onto your hat, this book really is not that and heads into the areas of cosmic horror.

The murder investigation has extra spice as it is revealed in the early stages that he is only targeting identical twins and after the crime mutilates the bodies horribly. This part of the story was both bleak and brutal and the reader realises that life of a black person is particularly cheap and that it is the media which has turned it into the case which the mayor wants solved for his own political gains. Along the way there are a few twists, and deeper conspiracy, where the story bounces around the genres mentioned above, never truly settling in either supernatural thriller or crime mystery. The cosmic horror aspect develops as Lake of Darkness progresses and traditional thriller readers might find the ending just a bit much for them. Horror fans are sure to suck it up though.

Lake of Darkness by Scott Kenemore, an intriguing read of dark fantasy. Someone has been murdering negro twins and the powers that be in Chicago for reasons of their own need it stopped. They turn to Flip the negro officer for the southside to go where they can't, what he finds sends him chasing something dark...

It’s always nice to be the first person to review the book and have genuinely great things to say about it. That’s very much the case here, I really liked this one, so here come the great things I’ve to say about it. First off, this isn’t my first read by the author, ages ago I read and really liked Zombie, Ohio…if you haven’t read it, check it out, a genuinely original take of a (beware of the pun) beaten to death genre. This book is, of course, a completely different beast, but it shares the same great writing. So the beast that is this book is all about the dark side of Chicago’s past. Set during WWI in the preprohibition Chicago, this is essentially a detective mystery or to be precise a procedural serial killer suspense mystery thriller. Actually, I don’t normally like procedurals, but this one was just different enough to appease. The main protagonist, a black police officer nicknamed Flip, a serious man despite his moniker, is charged by the city’s mayor to find and bring to justice the person who is killing young black twins. The situation is racially charged, the entire city is, since the great migration from the South and the powers that be wants this resolved quickly, Flip is given a week and 10K to produce a result. And so he sets off to investigate all the shadowy corners of Chicago’s South Side, aided in his quest by a visiting circus’ magician and a local madam. If that sounds campy or hockey at all, be assured it most certainly isn’t. The story is very serious, very bleak and very brutal. It also takes you places you didn’t expect, throwing in not just the genre prerequisite plot twist about the killer, but changing up genres altogether toward the end to include a dark supernatural angle. Personally, I loved the way Kenemore mixed and matched genres, it’s subtle and very effective. In a way, it’s almost a pick your own adventure sort of thing, you can ignore the supernatural aspect and just read this as a crime mystery, you can enjoy this as a supernatural thriller where dark cosmic forces are at play in the windy city, manipulating minds and men or you can get on board with all that Kenemore is putting down for a mixed genre awesomeness that is this book. I’m going for the latter, the kitchen sink cookie of a story…well, if your kitchen sink sprouted tentacles, maybe. Not the city native, more of a Chicagoan (suburb) by choice, the author does a terrific job of bringing the city of a century ago to life, in all its violent complexity. Fans of historical fiction should enjoy this very much, from the excellently atmospheric descriptions to the actual famous and infamous cameos by the men who held the reigns at the time. The narrative is very dynamic, dialogue driven, realistic in all aspects…even somehow the supernatural ones. Great characters, genuinely great characters. I liked them very much. Made for a properly emotionally engaging read. A really, really good read that’s sure to appeal to a variety of readers, provided they enjoy the dark psychological nightmarish realm of things. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.