Like every other Riley Sager book, this was a fun, creepy adventure. It's a bit genre-bending, which I suppose I should expect from this author, but was a surprise, nonetheless. That said, it didn't change the fact I sped through this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's the best sort of book that comes with reveal after reveal--you won't be disappointed!

This is a stunning thriller that is brilliant on so many levels and I am not surprised because I believe Riley Sager is that talented of a writer. Sager is one of the most entertaining and engaging writers in the mystery and thriller genres today and their latest novel is further evidence supporting my theory. I consider myself a mature and open minded reader. I can appreciate a slow burn but The House Across the Lake is absolutely not that and I love it! I really enjoyed this absolutely addictive and dramatic page turner. This is why Sager is one of my few auto buy authors.

There are only a few things I didn’t like about The House Across the Lake. The title is awful and I couldn’t remember it the whole time I was reading this and trying to tell friends and customers about it. This may seem like a small thing in some regards but to me it’s an annoyance and a dislike that should have been improved. Casey is a gripping and titular character and I would have liked to seen the outer cast of characters a little more developed. I saw a lot of aspects as one dimensional but it also fit in with its horror movie type vibe so I am torn on that criticism.

I appreciate that it payed homage to the classics that it played upon and the stereotypical scary story cast. There are twist elements in it. I will tell you that I can usually guess a twist or see it coming but not in this one! Not from miles away. This is more proof that Sager is one of the best in this game.

I was glued to this book until the very last page!

Casey Fletcher is a young actress with an alcohol problem and is sent by her famously-perfect mother to live at their lake house until Casey's latest controversies blow over. Bored and drunk, Casey picks up a pair of binoculars and gazes into the house across the lake, belonging to supermodel Katherine Royce and her tech millionaire husband. When Katherine goes missing, Casey dives into a mystery that goes deeper than she thought possible.

Like his previous books, Sager fills this story with enough suspense and a foreboding chill that keeps you on the edge of your seat, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Unfortunately, the resolution Sager leaves us with feels disappointing after all that build-up. I really loved this story until the end.

Recommended for fans of the film "Rear Window" and "The Woman in the Window" by A.J. Finn.

Casey Fletcher is a recently widowed actress escaping a stint of bad press, laying low at an old family retreat in Vermont . . . and she soon learns that the depths of her beloved Lake Greene are now even darker than she remembered.

This is a fun and twisty read!! I stayed up super late and reorganized my day to finish this book.

I’m a person that pays close attention to details and I did not prepare to have my mind blown. Cancel your plans, get your snacks, and enjoy the spooky and unexpected thrills lurking in this private lakeside neighborhood.

I'd like to thank NetGalley and Dutton for an advanced copy of The House Across The Lake for my unbiased evaluation.  5 stars

Riley Sager has provided me with inconsistent reading material since Final Girls, and The House Across the Lake may just be the book to kill the relationship. Some of the fault lies with me, for starting this book the same week I watched a couple episodes of The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, so as Casey poured another drink I kept waiting for a casserole to smash - just blurring all the plots. When the alcoholic woman trope is so worn out that Netflix is making satires, it's just hard to get into the plot device anymore.
However, midway along we get a subversion of expectations and the real batsh***ery of the plot comes out. When I tell you the twist was out of nowhere, boy do I mean it - the absolute lack of groundwork laid for this bait and switch was unrivalled. And to know how to defeat the evil off the cuff? OK....
This book either needed to lay appropriate groundwork beyond a childhood scary story about the lake at the beginning, or just keep it a paint by numbers thriller. The supernatural element was so unwelcome because it didn't feel grounded in anything. I have no quarrel with the supernatural over all, but all the hallmarks of that genre were absent - where's the trip to the magic store, or the creepy gas station attendant warning of doom, where's the haunted tourism industry for the region?

Thank you to the publisher, via NetGalley, for providing me with an arc for review.

After absolutely hating his last book, my hopes weren't super high for this one, but I was willing to give it a chance. I wanted to be proven wrong, but sadly, it seems that just isn't the author for me.

The first 67% of the book was engaging, and I liked it well enough to think it would end up being a four-star read. I overlooked some little things, such as the tired trope of the drunk/mentally unstable woman no one believes. I even overlooked the underlying hostility that is present in the creation of just about every female character by this author; he seems to be communicating that women are "less than"; helpless and inferior. Again, I was having a good time with the book, so I put those issues in the back of my mind because I was enjoying unraveling this mystery. When the first twist came, my guess was wrong; when I figured it out, I thought, "Oh man, maybe this will end up being a five star read!"

And then I got to 67% mark where I did a literal double-take to make sure I read what I thought I read. I tossed my Kindle aside in disgust and went to bed. When I picked it up the next morning, things were headed straight to "woo-woo-ville" with no logical explanation save for a brief story about a legend associated with the lake. By the time the final twist appeared almost at the book's end, it was beyond salvageable.

I like being surprised by thrillers. I adore clever red herrings. I do not, however, like being duped by cheap plot devices.

Fans of the movies Rear Window and The Night House will enjoy this twisting thriller steeped in grief and paranoia. If you are looking for a pretty quick read, thrillers that keep you in the dark, and multi-leveled twists - try this out.

Actress Casey Fletcher has been exiled to her family's lake house by her mother after a booze-filled binge made tabloid headlines. Casey's been through a lot - 14 months ago she lost her husband in a tragic drowning accident at the very lake she is now confined to. Her only comfort comes in the form of a bottle - and lots of them. While Casey contemplates her struggles, she becomes fascinated with the couple across the lake - tech billionaire, Tom Royce, and his super model wife, Katherine. After saving Katherine from a near drowning, dredging up memories of her deceased husband, Casey becomes a fly on the wall in the Royce's lives as she watches them through a pair of binoculars. She becomes suspicious of both Tom and Katherine's behavior as she fears for Katherine's life, and soon becomes entwined in a mystery which pulls her even deeper into the darkness.

For me personally - I am a huge Riley Sager fan and was so looking forward to this book, but I have to say I was disappointed. Much like his last book, the shocking reveals fell rather flat for me. Without revealing spoilers I cannot say why I was disappointed. Sager took a different approach to this story than his other books which I don't know how I feel about. It's still a page turner of course, it just didn't resonate with me in the same way some of his prior works did. If you have read other Sager books it is worth the read because the storyline is great and I was totally sold most of the book. Overall, up to the reader whether the twists work for them, but expect the unexpected for sure!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the eARC of this title.

What starts as your average domestic thriller takes a quick and unexpected turn. The plot twists in this book were right up my alley, so good!!! A fast-paced thriller in which no one can be trusted is one of my favorite things. My only complaint concerns the main character POV, which felt a bit like something I’ve read a million times before. Maybe we should leave the alcoholic ex-wives alone for a while.

I was a big fan of Lock Every Door and I knew I had to request Riley Sager's new book on Netgalley - The House Across the Lake. This book wasn't what I imagined. It had supernatural twists that I was not expecting.

We follow the story of Casey. She has returned to her family lake house due to personal issues. Casey is not in the right mindset - too much drinking after the loss of her husband. Casey meets her new neighbours Katherine and Tom Royce, strange things start happening. Katherine disappears and Casey tries to get to the bottom of it with Boone.

I'm actually sitting on the fence with this one. It had a great premise but the supernatural aspect had me expecting more. I found the book rather a slow burn. This won't stop me reading more Riley Sager as I absolutely loved Lock Every Door.

Thank you Penguin Group Dutton and Netgalley for the advanced copy for an honest review.

Wow. That one word is exactly what you'll be saying after you read this book. You think you know Riley Sager and what he's capable of writing, but once you've read this book, you'll throw everything you though you once knew out the window. As an avid reader, who has looked forward to the few Riley Sager books there are, this book threw me for a loop, in a good way. At first I didn't quite feel that this was the one that would overtake his other books, but once you get to that twist, the main twist, you'll know this is the one. Upon hearing the name of the book when it was announced, I wasn't quite sure this would be a book for me because the name and the synopsis gave me 'The Woman in the Window' by AJ Finn vibes. I was wrong. I admit it. I. Was. Wrong. This book is nothing like it and you will absolutely love it.

Casey is an out of work actress, who after losing her husband, is sent to her family's lake house by her mother. After meeting the couple in the house across the lake, she starts to watch them and one night witnesses something that unsettles her and makes her question what she saw and what exactly happened. The lake holds secrets and sometimes those secrets need to be let free. Will Casey be able to redeem herself after everything that has happened or will she become just another secret on the lake ?

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Always a fan of Riley sager books! This one did not disappoint! Full of twists and turns, I couldn’t put it down!

Hang on...I'm still reeling from this book. Like I need to take a few more breaths to really grasp what I just read (and I mean that in the best way possible)
Ok, I'm going to try and do this without giving away any spoilers..because...well because you really need to experience this for yourself!

The book focuses on Casey who is staying at her family's lake house. Casey is an actress who is trying to get her stuff together so to speak but spends most of her time drinking. She drinks to forget the events that led to the death of her husband. One night, she pulls Kathleen Royce, a well known model out of the lake and that begins one of the most twisted and suprising stories I have read in a long time.
There are a lot of red herrings. I mean, I thought I had it figured out and was even like "Come on Riley, why did you make this one so easy to figure out" and then BAM there came the whole "WTF" twist of all twists.

I really can not thank "NetGalley and especially Penguin Group for the opportunity to read this book! Buckle up everyone! You are in for a crazy ride with The House Across the Lake

Casey is recently widowed and has been having dealing with problems ever since. She is sent to her family's lake house so she can live a quiet life for a while, until she meets her new neighbors across the lake, becomes slightly obsessed with them and starts to observe them with binoculars and sees something she shouldn't have.

I'm all in for this kind of mystery novels and the synopsis caught my attention right away. I liked the cast of characters overall, and Casey was an interesting protagonist. The story is told in two different time lines, but it's mainly set in the past, leading all the way up to the present. The author did a great job in intertwining the characters and making the mystery more complex as the story went on. However, I had to lower the rating because of the resolution. I felt like the "thing" he added into the plot wasn't necessary. He had an entertaining story with a great mystery that the "thing" just threw me off unfortunately. You might disagree with me and really enjoy that aspect of the plot, but it just wasn't for me. Overall, I did enjoy the story and will definitely give the author's other books a go.

The twist is pure desperation, completely silly. I've liked a few of Sager's novels, but it's clear from this one that he's running out of ideas. I know thriller authors are supposed to pump a new installment out every couple of years, but that's not a recipe for good writing. I resent the time I spent reading this book only to learn that it swerves idiotically into the supernatural.

As a new reader of Sager’s work, I was skeptical about this latest offering - but I’ll give it to him, Sager definitely had me intrigued throughout.

Casey Fletcher is a recently widowed actress who is hiding out at her lake house to escape some bad press. Perpetually drunk, she takes to watching her seemingly perfect neighbours, Tom & Katherine Royce, across the lake. When Katherine suddenly vanishes after a near death experience out on the lake, Casey takes it upon herself to find out what happened to her neighbour. Things take a strange turn as Casey uncovers some dark and eerie truths that might be better left alone.

While the trope of the protagonist dealing with substance abuse is a little overdone, it worked well in this story. The pacing flagged in the middle of the book, but by the 70% mark, it had picked back up and led to an exciting finish filled with twists I would never have seen coming. If you think you know where this book is going…buckle up. You are in for a BIG surprise!

I actually really enjoyed this book and would recommend to fans of thrillers and Sager’s other books!

TW: Drowning, death of a spouse, alcoholism, domestic violence

Holy Cow!! What a ride that was. I could not put this book down. I thought things were going one way and then it totally changed directions and I had no clue what was going to happen in the end. It was fantastic.

I'm going to try to keep this review spoiler free, because holy-moly was that a twist I didn't see coming!

Casey Fletcher is yet another seemingly unreliable narrator who has escaped to her family's lake house after an unforeseen tragedy sends her off into a self-destructive spiral. The lake house is an idyllic respite from the unforgiving eyes of the press and Casey's unforgiving mother (their relationship was very much a Debbie Reynolds/Carrie Fisher callback, which I enjoyed). Casey's only company are an elderly writer who lives across the lake and the Royces, a picture perfect couple who live in a house filled with windows across the lake.

Casey begins to see things she shouldn't and things start to take a turn for the worse after Casey saves Katherine Royce from drowning in the lake one morning. Twists and turns abound in this latest from Sager and I found myself totally taken aback by the mic drop Sager gives the reader towards the end of the book.

This was a fast paced, thrilling novel that will be perfect for readers to take on their holidays this summer. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and will be recommending to customers for their upcoming vacations.

TW: Alcoholism, toxic parent relationship, drugs, death of spouse, domestic abuse, child abuse, suicide

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of liquor, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple who live in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is rich; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.

One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage is not as perfect and placid as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey becomes consumed with finding out what happened to her. In the process, she uncovers eerie, darker truths that turn a tale of voyeurism and suspicion into a story of guilt, obsession and how looks can be very deceiving.
Release Date: 06/21/2022
Genre: Thriller
Pages: - -
Rating: ⭐

What I Liked:
• The cover
• The writing has gotten better

What I Didn't Like:
• Across the lake is mentioned a ton
• The plot feels like something we've read/watched 1, 000 times before
• Troup of broke husband married to rich woman
• 183 mentions to the word water
• The "twist" ending
• The ending
• Another female lead

Overall Thoughts:This is the first time I've ever received a disclaimer (**Please note: this book has some major surprises and we encourage you to keep reviews SPOILER-FREE to preserve the reading experience for everyone**) for a book before. Does it make me want to listen? No. There was a study done that when people are told NOT to do something it makes them want to. It feels weird to be told to review a book honestly but not talk about spoilers. So no one ever should write a review that talks about it? That's not me so here's my SPOILER review.

If you're like me you don't expect much from Riley Sager, so when I was sent this book for review I was eager to jump right in. In typical Sager fashion we have a woman as our main character who is alone. For me the conversations between the characters always feel so cheap and fake. Like there is something off about it.

Why is there always some kind of actor in his books? Last one was a girl who dreamed of movies and now this one is an actress.

His books always remind me of when you fall asleep to one movie but wake up to another movie. He always mixes one movie with another movie. In this case it's Rear Window. The descriptions to the window and how they travel seamlessly through each room that's Hitchcock's Rear Window aká It Had to Be Murder for which Hitchcock based Rear Window. Author even me to s how what she is doing is like Rear Window.

Riley Sager has this way of writing situations with women that in a normal day would make them feel uncomfortable, yet he acts like it's normal. Maybe because he's a man he can't get what it's like for a female. There's a part where Casey is watching the neighbors across the lake with binoculars and a man she doesn't know asks her if she's enjoying the view. Does Casey act so startled that she acts in a normal way? No she is calm and jokes back with him. Like no no no! A woman alone in the middle of the woods would NOT just act all happy and think this stranger is cute. She would think this strange man just showed up out of no where at my house while I am alone and he could hurt me. That's where he always looses me. The women don't react to normal dangers.

Yay..... Another HOT handyman 🥴Now you know you're in a Riley Sager book

How is she seeing this much going on with the binoculars at nighttime in the dark? She can see him smiling while he is on the water. She mentions that last night was foggy. How did she see across the lake? How did she see so clearly everything that Boone was doing? So did her husband really use these binoculars to look at birds or to stalk women?

I love that in this book the abuse that Katherine did to Tom (punching him in his face) is his fault because he grabbed her first. Imagine if roles were reversed... If Tom hit Katherine because she grabbed his arm. Our dear binocular watching stalker would have been on the phone with the police. Agh.

The women in these books are always so ridiculous. There is so outlandish and jump to conclusions so fast it's insane. I love how she's had like three conversations with this Katherine lady and suddenly she knows that she's been murdered by her husband because she's not returning her phone call.

How did she not hear Boone open the door when he said he heard the scream? Earlier she had mentioned that she was able to hear the screen door squeak when it was open I doubt very much he was being quiet when he opened the screen door and stepped out this time since he heard a scream. Wouldn't he had checked on the neighbor to see if she was okay?

I love how calm she is when Boone is in her house. She remembers him showing up in her house when all the doors were locked. She wakes up the next morning and has breakfast with him because he made her food. The other thing that's annoying is when a man tells her to do something and she obeys and then finds out that he's right. Boone tells her to eat food and she'll feel better - she does - and now she is shoveling the food down.

Why does every Riley Sager book have to have some stupid man whose quote sexy show up in this girl's life and always have to save her in some way?

Every drink Ellie has seems to give her super powers. She has like 8 or 12 drinks and she's able to tow across a lake during a storm that's turned the water choppy. Being that wasted I would assume she couldn't do much other than pass out. It's mentioned before she's had 6 drinks and passed out on the porch chair all night, but here she is being a superhero.

Was Riley Sager drunk when he came up with that weird plot twist of Katherine being possessed by Lens body 🤔

Was easy to guess Len was the killer as the murders stopped almost exactly up to the point he died. Plus hasn't it been the boyfriend a few times in his books? If he knew he had the licenses in the tackle box why oh why would he be cool with her getting the lighter? You're going to tell me he forgot about them in there. Then she's gone long enough that she can call two hotels to find out about if he stayed there and he briefly questions her being gone so long to get a lighter.... Also how RIDICULOUS is it that she finds out he is a killer and decided at that moment that she is just going to kill him, comes up with a plan in 10 minutes, and is he is dead in a few hours. Not sure how no one on this quiet lake that had people in the house on a summer night heard nothing.

How Riley sager assumes people are reading his book and how I'm reading it when I got to the twist.

I've watched a lot of interviews with killers and so I think it's odd how much Len is saying he did all of this because of his messed up childhood. Most times killers just talk about how it's a feeling that they get I can't really recall many of them blaming their childhoods. I'm sure there are a few but he just sounds opposite of a killer. Killers love taking blame for their murders and he seems like he's making an excuse to dissociate from them.

No where in this book up this point did it even hint at a supernatural element. It's out of the blue that now there's a possession. What a dumb ending. So no one swam in the lake for 18 months that he could have possessed? At first I thought it had to be someone that had died but he was able to possess Casey so anyone swimming could have been possessed.

Riley sager treats alcoholism as though it's something you can switch on and off. She just manages to forget she hasn't had a drink in hours or days when before she was getting shaky not having it. She then purges the house of all the alcohol like it's nothing.

It's never explained why Katherine was on the laptop and turned around startled when Tom caught her. Or why she wasn't allowed on the phone with Boone when she rushed off the phone when Tom caught her.

Boones wife killing herself by throwing herself down the stairs??? What? Who kills themselves in such a weird way? Seriously someone give me one person who has killed themself in this way.

Not sure why Casey is suddenly now worried about where the bodies are at when before she didn't care at all before.

They come up with a plan to tell the police that Katherine was just found coming out of the woods lost. What about the rope burns on her wrists? There's no evidence that she was out in the elements for days.

Oh then we find out Tom is trying to kill her for real. He shows up at Casey's house doing this but with a wine bottle because what couldn't be a whiter thing to do. I kept laughing picturing him getting in a boat with a wine bottle to look so threatening. How did he know right at that moment that she was going to remember the drug resadue on the glass that broke when she never mentioned it to him before? It doesn't make any sense for Len to talk to Tom about what Casey did because he was still in love with her. It's so stupid that he still wants to go through with killing his wife when not 2 days ago they all were suspecting him! Oh and he wants to kill Casey too because she knows the truth. Dude, everyone is going to notice she's missing after all this weird shit went down. Casey manages to kill him with the wine bottle. What a weird an desperate twist the author tried to insert here. It was so cheesy and misplaced. How did Tom get to the other side of the lake that she never noticed and no one saw him?

PS - the storm turns out to be nothing then a small rain storm 🤷🏻‍♀️. This whole time it's talked about and it goes flat.

Final Thoughts: “I always look to movies for inspiration,” says Sager, who conceived the idea for Final Girls during an annual viewing of John Carpenter’s Halloween. aká you steal movies and just turn them into books because they are such old movies you think people won't notice. Everytime I read one of his books I'm just looking for the "idea" that sparked this book.

“The books I had published under my real name didn’t get anywhere near the attention or the reception [that Final Girls got], so I knew that it was something rare and something special, and I tried to appreciate it as much as I could,” Sager says It still bothers me that he hid behind a woman's name to get more popular.

The whole time I wanted it to be Katherine and Boone having an affair and trying to bump off Tom because she didn't want to share her money with him anymore. Oh Eli was working with Len and they murdered those girls. Sad that the ending he gave was the best he had going for him.

This book was odd. It feels like he's running out of ideas. I'd tell the author to take some time off and come back with a book that's not rushed.

This book took some twists and turns that I didn't expect, but I think I enjoyed it.

True to Riley Sager's other books, the House Across the Lake centers around a woman who has lost her way. Casey Fletcher is an actress who has started drinking to cope after the sudden death of her husband. After ending up in tabloid headlines, her mother decides it would be best for Casey to take some time away from the spotlight and stay at their family's lake house. One morning, Casey sees someone flailing in the lake and decides to go out and save them. It turns out to be her supermodel neighbor, Katherine Royce, and they become fast friends. Like, after a day of knowing her, Casey feels like she should be aware of everything that happens to Katherine. Bored and alone, Casey spends most of her time drinking and spying on her neighbors with her husband's old binoculars. Katherine and Tom live in the glass-walled home across the lake, making it super convenient for Casey to snoop. One night, Casey sees Tom and Kathrine fighting, and then the next day, Katherine is nowhere to be found. Thus begins the start of Casey's excellent and not naive at all detective story.
Like many others have said, I found the beginning of this book to be slow. It took me until about 60% of the way through to get to a point where I didn't want to put it down. I also found the continuous mention of Casey's drinking very repetitive. We get it; she drinks a lot all the time. We understand that she is supposed to be an unreliable narrator. However, I did find it strange how much she was able to accomplish after having eight or nine glasses of straight bourbon. Not only could she function normally other than listing to the side a smidge, but her memory didn't seem to be effect at all.
And then there was the twist. Which I did not expect. Well, I expected maybe 40% of it. So that was definitely a surprise. But, I will say that by the end of the book, I had to say that I enjoyed it. It was a strange read that seemed to change genres slightly at the end. This story will stick with me for some time, and I think fans of Sager's Lock Every Door and The Last Time I Lied will really enjoy this book.

TLDR: Not my favorite book of Sager's. Skip this if you are a frequent thriller reader or dislike books where the MC is a woman who is unreliable because she is drinking <eye roll>

Casey Fletcher, an accomplished actress, has been sent to her family's expensive lake house to try to curb her drinking. She sees an altercation between a married couple in the house across the lake and the next day the wife is missing.

If this is starting to sound familiar....

The first 2/3 of the book is very very (very) similar to The Woman In The Window mixed with The Girl on the train. Basically the new Netflix show: The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window

The last third, which came out of absolutely nowhere, reminds me a lot of another popular thriller. And the solution to the problem was EXACTLY THE SAME as the solution in that other thriller. It was uncanny.

The pacing was incredibly slow, until the last third, where it goes off the rails. The characters were not new or interesting and, as I already said, I can't stand books where women are unreliable just because they have a drinking problem.

This book hasn't turned me off of Sager entirely, because I truly loved Home Before Dark. I hope he tries something spooky again!

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the gifted eARC!