Great thriller which kept me turning the pages well into the night. Great characters and plot. Highly recommend to others!!

I would rate this 3.5 out of 5 stars.

If you enjoy the type of mystery/thriller where the main character is not actively 'investigating' the crime but just a bystander to the events going on around them then this is a story for you. While it was an enjoyable story I did find the characters themselves lacked depth, some of the events repetitive throughout and the story itself rather predictable.

If you like a slow burn, quiet mystery then this one is for you.

This one is a bit of a slow burn, was a little too drawn out for my taste.

Charlotte cant believe how her luck turned, she is married to Paul. He is successful, handsome and very wealthy. She is living the life she once only dreamed of, they live on the edge of the lake in a beautiful house in a small quaint town.

Paul lost his first wife to a terrible accident, she drowned and was uncovered floating under their private dock. Paul has never been able to talk about what happened, now another women has been found drowned under the same dock..... yep red flags all round!

I guessed this one pretty early, the plot was just a little too drawn out for me.

This book just didnt seem to grab me. I kept waiting for the moment I would go for a ride with it. It seemed to drag on . I didnt really connect with the characters. I didnt feel the suspense or tension. I had such high expectations knowing that she came so highly recommended.

Thank you #netgalley #harlequinaustralia and #kimberlybelle for the advanced copy of this book.

Stranger In The Lake is a psychological thriller about a murder in a small town. This book is told from the main characters POV with flashbacks to her past.

Charlotte is a small town girl from the wrong side of the tracks who has met her prince charming in Paul, a wealthy widower who their small town absolutely loves. Everyone has had their thoughts about the marriage and one of the most vocal is Paul's overbearing mother.
People also question what happened to Paul's first wife. She apparently drowned but was an excellent swimmer. Fanning the flames of the gossip is the fact she was incredibly wealthy and now all that money belongs to Paul. People question, is Charlotte safe?
Then comes the dead body that washes up in the lake that Charlotte and Paul's house is built next to. And now Paul is acting shady. And Charlotte's police friend is putting thoughts in her head, causing her to become suspicious of Paul. Who can she trust?

Unfortunately I didn't love this book as much as Belle's previous work. I felt that there was a lot of waiting and very little action, especially in the beginning. The ending was quite good though with a twist I didn't see coming.
This was in no way a bad thriller and I will still recommend it to others, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped.

Needing to take a break from reading romance, I jumped over to a mystery book and found myself being drawn into the mystery of "Stranger in the Lake" by Kimberly Belle. The book starts with us meeting Charlie aka Charlotte who is married to Paul Keller who is a wealthy architect in town. Charlie still doesn't feel too confident being a wife of a prominent man but things are about to get crazy as one day Charlie is about to head to town when she spots a dead body in the water by her jetty. This makes Charlotte uneasy as a few years ago Paul's first wife drowned in the Lake and Paul was the main suspect. Now it looks like history is repeating itself as Charlotte saw Paul talking to the lady a day before her death. As the novel goes by we learn that this is the third time someone has died in the Lake and all the deaths are connected to the very first instance of Bobby - a local drug dealer. Stranger in the Lake has flashbacks to the first death back in 1999 when Paul and his friends - Jax and Micah were teenagers. Near the middle, we learn that the new "stranger" was a Podcaster and trying to uncover the truth about what happened to Bobby. Who in town wants to keep the truth behind the death a secret? Find out in Kimberly Belle's new novel "Stranger in the Lake".

Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. Charlotte is happily married to architect Paul, they live in a gorgeous home overlooking a lake. They seem to have an idyllic life, but then the body of a women Charlotte has seen her husband with is found in the lake near their dock. Her husband denies knowing the woman, but Paul's first wife had also been found dead in the lake a few years ago. Does Paul have a dark side? Should Charlotte be worried? Another great read from Kimberly Belle, this book had my interest captivated from the start, with unexpected twists. #strangerinthelake #kimberlybelle #goodreads #litsy #tea_sipping_bookworm #bookstagram #bookqueen #greatreads #thriller #plottwists #pageturner

this one had me on the edge of my seat a bit! very atmospheric, recomend for thriller fans. Didn't feel super unique or a stand out but enjoyable and a quick read

Charlotte has come from a hard life - desperately trying to look after her baby brother, while a child herself, with an absent father and drug addicted mother.  So when she marries wealthy, older man Paul, the small town they live in make no secret of their disdain.  She manages to hold her head high though, knowing her and Paul have something special together, no matter what rumours might circulate around them. However, when Charlotte discovers a body of a woman floating at the dock next to their house, Paul also becomes the subject of town suspicion.  It is, after all, the exact spot his  former wife was found drowned years before.

As Charlotte struggles to tie together the mystery of what happened to the woman in the lake, she'll do anything to protect her husband.  After all, he couldn't have done it.  Could he?

Stranger in the Lake was a roller coaster of a story with more than one mystery to unravel.   Even after I thought I'd guessed the ending a few times, I still never had it quite right!  I loved Charlotte as a character, she was smart and proved herself to be nothing at all like the town's rumours made her out to be. Her brother, Chet was also a brilliant character who proved himself to be much more than I had initially assumed he would be.  Paul was eternally frustrating with his secrets and lies. I wanted to shake him on more than one occasion

This is the first book I've read of Kimberley Belle's but I'll be checking out more of her works!

I read Kimberly Belle's Dear Wife just months ago. When I read the blurb for her new release Stranger in the Lake it made me worry a little about her take on marriage as both featured missing, murdered and fearful wives.

Interestingly I was a little torn as I read this. Though I enjoyed the book overall, the things I liked about the book and our characters in the beginning ended up being the things that ultimately frustrated me.

I very much liked the Charlotte we meet at the beginning of this book. We get background on her relationship with Paul and realise it was a whirlwind romance but I really enjoyed the scenes Belle offers between the pair. Charlotte seems to spend some time pondering their relationship—or more specifically, her feelings towards Paul—and knows she is embittered and scarred by her own alcoholic, drug-taking and negligent mother.

The body of the 'stranger in the lake' of course draws attention to Paul's first wife Katherine and I wondered if (the doubt Charlotte feels) is what it's actually like for someone who marries a widower. It's come up in a couple of books I've read lately (The Silent Wife by Karin Slaughter & Still Life by Val McDermid) and there's a sense that you love 'differently' second time around. There's a statement here in which Paul's asserting that he wouldn't have killed Katherine... that he would have spent the rest of his life with her, if he could. Which of course is confronting for Charlotte.

Because we to and fro from the present to the late 1990s I think it's pretty obvious that there's some past secret lurking. Not to mention the fact Paul won't talk about past events involving his childhood besties. 

For someone who tells us she thinks Paul is incapable of violence Charlotte becomes suspicious pretty quickly and turns on her husband with surprisingly speed. Of course Paul's behaviour - disappearing after the woman's body is found - is unbelievably and undeniably stupid. We're kinda told 'why' but I wanted to grab him and force him to explain. Charlotte however seems content to just remain concerned. And suspicious. 

And it's here I found myself switching sides and aligning myself more with Paul. 

The 'secret' when uncovered is not entirely as we suspect and I like that Belle throws in a few surprises, but again I found myself frustrated by Charlotte's response and lack of understanding. For someone who grew up with a lot of grey she switches only between the black and the white.

This would likely be a good bookclub read because of some deductive leaps and the suspicion thrown around. Some of it's warranted. Some perhaps not.

3.5 stars

Packed with twists this story kept me glued to my iPad as the unanswered questions increased. I felt Charlotte Keller’s growing fear as one clue after another suggested her husband Paul might be a murderer, but I also felt her need to dig for answers despite the possible risk. I liked the way Charlotte wavered between trust, doubt and worry as the story unfolded.
A secondary timeline set twenty years earlier and featuring Jax, Charlotte’s husband Paul’s best friend, slowly draws out the story of a mysterious drowning at that time though it is not until the story concludes that all the clues tie together.
I love a good thriller and this one was a ripper. Very definitely edge of my seat reading.

Stranger in the Lake is a terrifying and atmospheric domestic thriller that had me chilled to the bone.

Charlie has found her prince charming in older, widower Paul. Having grown up dirt poor with parents who chose a life of drugs over their children and left Charlie to fend for herself and her baby brother, Paul and his enormous wealth provide Charlie the love, safety and stability she could only dream of.

In a small town Charlie has heard the gossip, the unrelenting rumours Paul murdered his first wife to inherit her fortune. But Charlie ignores the rumours, marries Paul and moves into his mansion on the edge of Lake Crosby.

When the body of a woman is found floating dead under Pauls dock, the same spot Paul’s first wife was found, questions about Paul’s role in the murder have Charlie questioning the man she thought she loved.

Could ignoring those rumours cost her her life?

This was a really well written novel, that pacing was perfect and the characters were so well developed, and there are a lot of characters so kudos to the author!

For most of the book I was caught in the suspense, the story and characters were believable and the atmosphere was palpable. Towards the end though I felt the novel just didn't hold together as well which was disappointing as the storylines were so great up until that point. This hardly affected my views on the novel though because everything else was so well done.

The author manages to weave three mysteries into one and as we uncover each character's secrets and lies we uncover more of the mystery. Only a skilled writer can put this many bodies in the lake and have all the storylines line up, leaving the reader with the answers they crave and an everlasting fear of freezing cold lakes.

An enthralling thriller and a quick, fast paced read. I would definitely recommend this enjoyable read.

A very enjoyable book which had just the right level of suspense to keep me interested without being irritating. I liked the constant second guessing about the husband - good guy or not? What is he hiding? I know none of that sounds terribly original but there’s a reason it’s a classic plot line! Well written, engaging characters - recommended.

This was my first Kimberley Belle read and I was excited when it appeared in my Netgalley queue as I had only heard good things about her previous work BUT I have to say that this one just didn't really sustain my attention throughout. Reading the synopsis I was so sure this would be my kind of book but the story was quite slow at times and I can't say that I really connected with Charlotte the main character which definitely contributed to my overall rating of this book. I do read a lot of psychological thrillers and love that feeling of being hooked in right from the start but sadly this one didn't do that for me as I just felt the suspense level wasn't there. This won't deter me from reading Kimberley's other novels though and I look forward to reading them in the future.

This was a great novel. I found it to be a slow burn thriller, that paid off in the end. It was well written and was an entertaining read.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy of this E-book to review via Netgalley.