Todd Newman who has been cleared of his wife's murder has returned to her small Connecticut town to finish building their Lake House. He wants to start over and crawl out from under the shadow of suspicion of doubt and suspicion that surrounds him. Everyone believes he is guilty and when a young woman's body washes up on the beach next door, naturally he is the first suspect, but did he do it?

Tracey Somerset is a divorced single mother raising her two-year-old son. She is not looking to meet someone when she drives to Walmart to get some medication. But there Todd is, and she enjoys his attention and speaking with him. She has no idea at the time she is speaking to a man dubbed "The Banker Butcher".

The book is told through the POV of Tracey and the Sheriff, Sheriff Duane Sobczak. Through them, we learn their thoughts and feelings concerning Todd Newman and the investigation into the young women's deaths.

This will go into the category of liked not loved it. The story was good, but I wish it was as good as the ending. I enjoyed the last parts of the book the most and the last chapter titled "A year and a half later." Throughout the book, we get to see that the town is full of secrets and that some will do whatever they must to protect their secrets.

**an interesting thing, I see that some reviewers are calling Todd Newman "Greg" Newman. In my version of the book he is Todd Newman. I wonder if the Author changed his name.

Thank you to Polis Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book started good for me. I really liked it alot, but to be honest, halfway thru I was a little confused and it was hard to keep the girls straight. I will read another of this Author's books.

I was excited to check out Joe Clifford's 'The Lakehouse', as I love a good mystery/thriller and the synopsis of this novel definitely made it sound like a winner. Sadly, I was thoroughly disappointed with this book. In a story that felt more like a wild goose chase. There were multiple times when I finished a chapter and then rolled my eyes, feeling like the story was going nowhere.
I really prefer novels that are more character-focused, especially when it's a thriller where we can dig into clues based on what we know of the characters. Unfortunately, the real mystery here felt like half of each character's personality, as they all lacked depth or relatability. Ultimately, I found myself more frustrated than thrilled throughout this novel.

For the most part, I liked the actual mystery of the story, although it's more the Chief's story than Todd's or anyone else's. However. the satisfaction was upended with the ending, which I'm still not quite sure I totally understand.

Another very good entry from Joe Clifford, this time the setting is small-town New England for this domestic suspense thriller. A couple of good main characters in this one made for a fun and easy read with lots of twists. Would love to read more from him in this genre and hopefully he can reach a wider audience. 4 stars

It was apparent early that this isn't the book for me. I love a good thriller and this just didn't fit the bill. In my opinion, it's hard to get into a book that has underdeveloped characters that just aren't likable. And,, there were just too may to keep track of. I thought from the blurb that I was going to enjoy the storyline, but it just felt completely disjointed to me.

If Little Red Riding Hood were reviewing this book, here are a few thoughts I believe she'd share.
"What odd pacing you have. My, how conveniently incidental you are. And, oh dear, so many characters its hard to keep sight of them all!."

This was the kind of book that started off really strong for me and then gradually decreased in likability over time. I'm a picky thriller reader in the first place, and I feel like this one just felt disjointed and lacked suspense. Some of the things that occur made me roll my eyes. This book wasn't bad, but it for sure wasn't for me. I would recommend it to someone, but not someone with similar reading tastes as me.

Creepy small town with lots of secrets, a tragic hero, love lost and a personal mission... This book will please readers looking for an engaging mystery, a dramatic novel or a tragic romance. That is not to say it tries to be too much - it is a balanced book with wonderful characters and a commitment to prose which describes without dramatising,

Todd Norman, who was known as “The Banker Butcher” following his wife’s murder is acquitted of all charges and looks to complete the last promise he made to his wife and complete the lake house that they were building in his childhood home of Covenant, CT.

Tracy, a newly divorced mother to a toddler happens to cross paths with Todd and, not knowing his past, starts to fall for him.

When a body is found on the shore of the lake at the foot of the Norman property, Covenant Police Chief Sobczak and his deputy/son-in-law immediately suspect Todd of doing the unthinkable…again.

The Lakehouse explores the inter-connectedness of small town life, the secrets everybody knows and the history everyone takes for granted.

Set in a small CT town, the investigation relies quite a bit on what happened in the past as people’s lives overlapped in ways both public and private as well as the things that everyone knew or thought they knew.
I found the pacing of this book to be disjointed and the characters hard to connect with. It seemed unfinished or that pieces were removed in editing that would have made it more readable.

Being from CT, I did spend a bit of time trying to figure out the approximate setting of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the Publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date: Sept 15, 2020

The newest psychological thriller, “The Lakehouse” by new to me author Joe Clifford...

Mystery/ thriller about a woman found on the bank of the lake in front of the new construction of a lake house owned by a man coming back to town after getting off for the murder of his wife. Multiple perspectives, detective POV. Unfortunately, this was not for me..

At the beginning, I thought I was going to love this book!! Switching perspectives as you try to place everyone and their actions... but after 50 pages in, the flow started to get confusing and the writing was all show & no tell. I understood the author was trying to make the reader think one person did it, but it just didn’t make ANY sense with the ending... and I guessed one of the twists really early in the book & I personally hate books when men write about high school girls having sex with each other like some teenage boy’s dream..

I was excited to read this book, thinking that it looked like the perfect murder mystery to get me in the mood for fall and Halloween season, and I wasn’t disappointed!! Clifford writes with an expert hand, shifting easily between his main characters’ perspectives. I loved the psychological studies of each, as through each character and scene we learn more about the backstories behind the murder mystery and how everyone’s lives are linked together both past and present. Red herrings abound, and I kept changing my guess of who the killer was and their motivation until the shocking conclusion which will knock your socks off!! This being said, I would have liked a cleaner ending as there were some leftover questions Clifford failed to wrap up completely. I think this book would make for a great movie – it really reminded me of tv shows such as “Criminal Minds.” It was a quick, well-paced read that I couldn’t put down until I finished. I’ll definitely look for more titles by this author!

This was a quick read, though the end was unsatisfying to me and left many unanswered questions. The story centers around a guy named Todd who was acquitted of killing his wife, April, 5 years prior, and returns to her hometown to build a lakehouse that they planned on building together (though his intentions related to returning to her hometown is mentioned in the synopsis and never in the actual book). Though Todd is the main focus of the story, he is a rather underdeveloped character who we never really get to know, and the chapters alternate between the voices of Tracy, a divorcee who falls in love with Todd, Sobczak, the chief of police convinced of Todd's guilt, and Dr Backshir, the local psychologist.

There is a lot going on in this story, and a lot of tertiary characters. You see a lot of the connections between people who have spent their lives in a small town, some of which were a bit cliched but felt (for the most part) believable. I liked the chief's character and felt that he was the most developed of all of them. I had an idea of who the villain was, but felt that the story arc was incomplete even when it was revealed.

It was the end that I questioned the most- I reread the last couple chapters a couple times and I am still not sure exactly what happened- I can't decide whether the author intended it to be confusing in order to make it mysterious, or if I just missed something I should have figured out. Either way, I left the book feeling that there were a great deal of loose ends that needed to be tied up.

Overall, it was a quick read but I can't say it was super memorable for me, other than the fact that I am left with questions. I hear great things about Clifford's books and think I might try another one, but this one didn't really do it for me.

This is the story of Tracy who meets and begins to date Gregg, who has previously been on trial for the murder of his Wife April. Gregg was found innocent. Now the body of another woman has been found near Gregg's house. Is he the killer? Was the woman murdered?
There are so many characters in this book it was hard to keep them all straight. Overall a good read, but a lot of unanswered questions at the end. I prefer a book that ties up all the loose ends.

Thanks to netgalley, Joe Clifford and Polis Books for the arc

An enjoyable read that pulls you in. A question hangs over the head of the man who was accused of murder. He returns to the small town where his wife was born to complete the lake house. The police chief piles on the pressure to catch him out and put him away where he thinks he should be. When the first body is found all eyes turn to him. But really the chief should be looking closer to home.

This is the first book that I have read by Joe Clifford and it won’t be the last.

The book started so strongly and maintained that throughout, I was hooked from the beginning.

All of the characters were interesting and I liked how they linked together. I did not see that ending coming!!

The only (minor) criticism I would make, is that I felt there was too many characters and it did get a bit confusing. This could be down to reading as an ebook, some times reading a physical book makes a difference.

Thank you to @netgalley Joe Clifford and @polisbooks for my advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Having recently read "Skunk Train", I had extremely high hopes for "The Lakehouse" and Joe Clifford did not disappoint!!!

Greg Norman, whose wife was killed, moves to her hometown to fulfill a promise they made to build a house on the lake. Let's back up and mention that Greg was accused of and stood trial for her murder and was cleared of all charges....unfortunately, the townsfolk do not believe in his innocence...and when a body is discovered near the site of the lake house, any chance of clearing his name is out of the question. It gets worse when more women start to disappear and the plot thickens.

This story has so many rich characters, brilliantly interwoven into a great story that shows the ripple effect of things that happen in a small town and how the dead don't stay buried. I could not put this book down, every layer that was exposed made me want to unravel the mystery more!

If you haven't read anything by Joe Clifford, please do yourself a favor and pick up one of his books! They will keep you up reading into the wee hours of the night!

A special thank you to NetGalley, Polis Books, and Joe Clifford for providing me with an ARC.

I liked the book a lot 4.5 actually. a slow burn mystery with complicated characters and relationships revealed bit by bit. The ending was confusing, i turned the page hoping for a clearer answer but no. It was left like that and maybe that was the point. There are things that we are not going to know

I found this was a really good read. It’s a mystery thriller. It did keep me guessing right to the end. I’m only giving it 4 stars as a couple of times I got confused about the girls.(The A’s) But that did did not detract me from liking the book. All in all a good book that you don’t want to put down!

A quite suspenseful thriller sets in the small town of Covenant, Connecticut. Not being seen any homicide in 20 years, the town’s Chief of Police gets astonish when a body of a young woman is found nearby a ravine. When his seniors from the larger county of Holland declares it is as a Drug Overdose case the chief has his theory that the sociopath Greg Norman building the Lakehouse up the beach has something to do with it.

The story unfolds from the alternating perspectives of three main characters, including Chief of Police, Dwayne Sobczak; a single mother and divorcee, Tracy Somerset; and a psychiatrist, Dr. Meshulum Bakshir.The book also frequently goes back to what happened in the past with 3 popular girls named as A-holes (Amber, April and Amanda) and then a group of girls who spent time in Green Hills in Farmington, a rehab facility, together (April, Shannon, Beiko and Wendy).

Tracy Somerset, a single divorced mother of a child fells to Greg Norman, who is acquitted from the charges of murdering his wife, and believes in his innocence unlike the whole town who still think him as guilty. Dr. Bakshir goes awol as soon as he learns about death of one of his patient Wendy Mortensen. However, the father of the victim, the town and even the chief of police are all convinced he had a part to play in missing of the girls associated with April Abbott, his deceased wife.

I didn’t enjoy the pacing of the book that much. It had an interesting start then fell into slumber only to end in an incomplete note.Tracy and Greg relationship felt so unreal and preposterous to me (I mean who want to fall in love with an alleged murderer). Dr. Bakshir remained an enigmatic personality throughout the story. The unravelling of the story felt somewhat awkward to me. I still have so many questions that were left unanswered, and so many loose ends were left open in the end leaving me feeling disappointed.

**Thanks to Polis Books and Netgalley for my digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for my free Arc. I enjoyed the book for the most part but the writing got a little choppy here and there. I got confused a bit and had to reread some parts especially near the end. I also didn’t like the ending as I like a clear ending with all the answers.