The House Across the Lake
Today I finished reading “The House Across The Lake,” by Riley Sager. I was so happy that netgalley sent me a copy of it. It’s also my first time reading from the author and I wasn’t disappointed. To say that actress Casey Fletcher is going through a rough time is an understatement. Casey has been recently widowed and drinking too much bourbon. To flee the bad press, Casey retreats to her family’s lake house in Vermont. Casey uses her time away to use her binoculars to spy on the neighbors and drink more bourbon. The neighbors she spies on are Katherine and Tom Royce. Katherine is a former supermodel and Tom is a tech innovator. One day on the lake Casey saves Katherine from drowning and they strike up a fast friendship. Katherine also finds out that their marriage isn’t as perfect as it seems. When Katherine vanishes one day of course Casey suspects Tom. Though what Casey doesn’t know is there are more secrets than meets the eye especially beneath the lake….. The story drew me in and I appreciate how it wasn’t predictable.

Pros
The characters are all well written I especially like Casey, Boone and the no nonsense detective Wilma Anson. I also like that I wasn’t able to figure out the twist and the flip flop from then to now was excellent and tied the story together. I also liked that there was a paranormal element in the story. It reminded me slightly of the movie What Lies Beneath but only much darker.

Cons
There wasn’t much I disliked. I will say that as much as I like Casey Fletcher, she is the clichéd main female lead you see all the time in murder mystery thriller books now a days where she’s an alcoholic unreliable narrator.

Overall
Overall I enjoyed the book I also see myself reading more from Riley Sager in the future. Thank you netgalley for an early copy of this book. Pre-order this book now so you will get it on time on June 21, 2022 I promise you will not be disappointed.

Actress Casey Fletcher is having a rough time of it. Grieving her husband's accidental drowning at their beloved lake house, she's coping by applying a liberal amount of alcohol to the wound. Her drinking and depression spiraling out of control, Casey's subsequent behavior instigates a fairly incendiary streak of bad press, and at her stage-actress mother's behest, she retreats from the public eye to the relative quiet of her family's lakeside home. There she meets one of her new neighbors, Katherine, when she saves her from drowning and a fast friendship begins to form-- but is swiftly cut short when Katherine soon after that goes missing. Casey, whose rest & retreat habits include drinking from sunup to sundown as well as spying on her neighbors in their glass house across the water with her late husband's high-powered binoculars (you can see craters on the moon with them, he marvels) observes some strange happenings over there and is growing suspicious that Katherine's intensely controlling husband has done her in. Riley Sager has introduced a supernatural facet to his typical woman-in-peril psychological thriller and through the book's twists and turns it becomes apparent that whatever you think you know, you probably don't. Or even if you do know it...you still don't! Ultimately, I'm not sure that this is one of the author's strongest offerings, as the believability factor is a bit iffy, though I think if he'd perhaps built up more story and local lore around the weird bits, he might have pulled it off. Still, it was pretty bingeable --I read it in a day!--and a solid spooky summer read.

Last week I got an email that I was approved for Riley Sager’s newest book…I was shooketh!

The House Across The Lake is a slow, delicious burn….. until all hell breaks loose. Like, legit chaos erupts that you will not see coming in any shape or form. I finished this book Sunday and I’m still trying to process it😳

Let’s break it down!

Casey, a recent widow who is in the spotlight retreats to her family’s lake house. She totally gave me woman in the window vibes, in her drunken stupor she spies on the neighbors with binoculars. I thought I knew where the story was headed when she saves her neighbor from drowning but I was dead wrong. Long story short, she believes her neighbor is in trouble and goes off the rails to discover what’s really going on in their house.

If anyone figured out the twist prior, I’d love to know (private DM please, no spoilers) because I’m still “reeling” this one in, holy smokes that was good!

The House Across The Lake is available on 6/21/22. Major thank you to @netgalley @duttonbooks and @riley.sager for the opportunity to review this book!

This one is gonna divide people, but I absolutely loved it! It was a freaking blast. I love Riley Sager because,whether it’s intentional or not, he writes books for the, now all grown up , “RL stine fear street” generation. His books give you something comfortable and familiar and then flip it all on its head in unexpected and crazy ways. What starts as a Hitchcockian inspired voyeuristic thriller, as trouble actress Casey discovers something amiss with the couple in the house across the lake, descends into delightful madness! I had such a great time and I can’t wait for the his next one!

A grieving neighbor with a heavy drinking problem finds herself drawn to a famous woman across a lake.

Thank you Dutton Books for my copy. All thoughts are my own.

Synopsis:

What I Liked:

The Setting—I love a setting at the lake! I found the setting to be very atmospheric and perfectly creepy.

It Kept Me On My Toes—As someone who doesn’t read a lot of thrillers, I was thoroughly shocked and surprised throughout.

What Didn’t Work:

First Half is SLOW—The first 50% of this book was so slow, I worried it wouldn’t pick up. So, going in, know that it takes a while to get hooked but that all the information is important and makes sense.

There was a lot in here that I’m not sure I agree with…but it is a book about murder and a thriller so I suppose that comes with the territory of the genre.

Character Authenticity: 4/5

Steam Rating: N/A

Overall Rating: 3.75/5

Content Warnings:

alcoholism, violence, murder, grief, suicide, gaslighting, addiction

I have always been a fan of Riley Sager's books, so I was definitely excited to see that he had a new book coming out this year. He has been an auto-buy, auto-read author for me since the beginning. His newest book, The House Across the Lake, has an interested premise. It revolves around two women: Katherine and Casey. One day, Casey saves Katherine from drowning in the lake. From there, the women strike up a friendship, and that's when things get interesting. A couple of things that I liked about this story: I liked that there were two different timelines, and I liked that the chapters were relatively short, making it a quick read. I was enjoying the story and completely into it until the "twist" is revealed. I wasn't expecting a paranormal element, and I think that threw me for a bit of a loop, because I am not usually a fan of paranormal/supernatural books. Sometimes it works, but I think it takes the right skill to execute well. Sager lost me at the twist, unfortunately, leaving me scratching my head a bit. Because of this and the ending that fell flat for me, I am giving this one 3/5 stars. Thank you to the publisher for giving me a chance to read an early copy of this book.

Recently widowed actress Casey Fletcher is given two options: head to rehab, or spend some time away from the paparazzi at the family lake house in Vermont. While Casey's there, she does the opposite of what she should: she continues to drink, spending her days spying on her neighbors, especially a wealthy couple across the lake, Katherine and Tom. After saving Katherine from drowning one evening, Casey begins to form a bond with the former model, and she begins to suspect that everything isn't as perfect as it seems. But when Katherine disappears, Casey becomes obsessed with finding out where she went, and who was involved in her disappearance.

I'm not a huge Riley Sager fan, though I've read several of his books. I expected the normal Riley Sager pitfalls: a lonely woman that makes terrible decisions and ignores danger whenever it appears, a strange man coming in to save the day, a slightly unbelievable ending... but this one was my least favorite of all the Sager books that I've read. Honestly, this felt very similar to several other popular thrillers from the past few years, between the unreliable narrator and the "can I trust my own mind???" vibes. While I know there will be many patrons eager to pick this one up, it's certainly not one that I could recommend.

Riley Sager is back and better than ever in his newest book. I thought I had it figured out and nope. Amazing.

Riley Sager find a way to continually write fun, atmospheric and dare I say gothic troupes! I will continue to read every book he puts out!

Another winner from Riley Sager, this time set on a private lake with famously wealthy residents. Couldn't put it down and will be recommending it to others!

I loved this book. My first Riley Sager novel, now I need to read them all. It kind of gave me Verity vibes. I loved that.

I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH! When I initially picked up The House Across the Lake, I was expecting a standard domestic thriller. What I got was a wacky thrill ride filled with celebrity intrigue, unreliable narrators, unique twists and speculative elements! Finally, a thriller that has its own voice and doesn’t leave me bored to tears. The quirky characters were fully formed and I was invested in every part of their world. The setting was eerie and atmospheric. The twists were unpredictable and it moved at a fast pace that was unputdownable! This is one of my favorite books of the year- 5 stars!

For so few characters this story sure did keep my mind spinning! I'm really torn as to how to rate this one. On one hand it was such a gripping read and I totally didn't see any of that coming. On the other I was really annoyed by the main character - Casey - for most of the book. And the twist. Like what?! I'm just all over the place right now but I'm going with that's a good thing. This book definitely messed with my mind and got me to think and rethink things so for me it's a solid 4.

i am a big Sager fan having read all of his books, and while this was a fun and compelling read - I feel similarly to how I felt with his last. It just needs some editing to reduce maybe 20-30 pages that aren’t really necessary. That being said I did not expect the twists I was going to get at all, and really enjoyed all the characters. A very fun read!

Well, even if I had tried to guess the twist in this book, I NEVER would have been able to! A classic Riley Sager story that you can’t put down, this one offers a little more suspension of disbelief than his others, but I was all in. Compelling characters and uncomplicated storylines combine to make an exciting and utterly readable book. Highly recommend!

The story follows recently widowed actor Casey Fletcher who escapes the press to her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with binoculars and plenty of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamourous couple who live in the house across the lake. After Casey saves Katherine from drowning one day on the lake, the two strike up a friendship. But the more they get to know each other, and the more Casey watches the couple – it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what has happened. She does not expect to uncover eerie dark truths.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The suspense makes this an utterly addictive read. It is a very cleverly written story with endless twists, I was continuously shocked right up to the very end. The Lake was the perfect atmospheric setting – It sounded picturesque and amazing, but also very dark and disturbing.

I highly recommend this one. It is my first book by Sager and I am keen to read ‘Survive the Night’.

Casey is. an actress that destroyed her career after she fell into alcoholism after her husband drowned in a lake. To escape media attention she retreats to the same lake and the house her family has owned for years where she secretly drinks herself into oblivion every night.

The good - I was surprised by the twists along the way. I don’t think you could predict them. I had to finish to see where it would go.

The not so good: This was unbelievably far fetched. I can read an out there thriller and enjoy it but this was way over the top. Everything from - why would she return to a house where her husband drowned? To the fact that multiple famous people live on this small lake? To the conflict and haunted aspect (trying to keep this spoiler free). The haunted aspect was particularly hard to believe and cheesy. I also don’t appreciate a main character who is unreliable due to a drinking problem.

I could go on but I hate to leave a negative review. I love Riley Sager and will continue to read his books but this was a miss for me.

Riley Sager is always going to be a hit for me! He’s one of the only thriller authors that I’ll read. This one was gripping from start to finish. It really sucks you into the story right off the bat.

Sager is back!!! after not enjoying LOCK EVERY DOOR and SURVIVE THE NIGHT, i lowered my expectations for his latest thriller and it blew me away. after reading the synopsis, i was nervous for another WOMAN IN THE WINDOW (🤮🤮🤮 don’t get me started) but thankfully, it didn’t go that route and brought so much more to the table 👏🏼

you guys know i’m a thriller snob and it’s hard to surprise me on the twists… well Sager did it!! the twist was shocking and kept on comin!! i’m just angry we had to wait about 65% to get to it!

there were a few things that bugged me but overall, i found it gripping, interesting and unique—which is hard to come by in thrillers these days! full review to come on my IG soon. this is one of my fave of his books for sure.

thank you Dutton Books for the gifted ARC!! this is out mid-June.