Riley Sager is one of the most popular thriller writers today for lots of reasons. His thrillers are propulsive and fun and feature twists galore. The House Across the Lake is no different and Sager's fans will love this one while it also brings new Sager fans into the fold.

This book is in some ways an homage to films like Rear Window, Disturbia, et. al. Casey, the main character, is (like most Sager protagonists) a heroine with secrets of her own and she finds herself spending some time at her family lakehouse in Vermont. During her sojourn she spends the time spying on her neighbors and when one of her neighbors disappear, Casey's spying takes a darker turn as she finds herself trying to find out what happened to the missing neighbor.

This book was another fantastic Sager thriller. All the elements that readers return to his books for are present: Strong heroine, surprising twists, and mysteries galore. To say too much more would be to spoil some of the twists that I thought were most effective so I'll just stick to saying "This is a great one."

To anyone looking for a great summer thriller, I would highly recommend this one. This book is definitely going to have some long waitlists for it at public libraries this summer!

This will be the book to beat for 2022. I’m still processing all the twists and there are a shit ton of them. This starts as a solid thriller but I’m wondering to myself when the horror elements will arrive, if at all. They arrive and it’s sooooo creepy. I used to live on a lake and now I’m running through all my memories. You never really know your neighbors. Or what’s lurking in that dark, deep water. I love Sager’s books! I’m so incredibly thankful that I was given advanced access through NetGalley—this book is the main reason I created an account. I basically kept my fingers and toes crossed every day hoping for approval. Such a fantastic book, highly recommended!!

Also, I've never won the lottery before but I believe it would feel similar to reading the email I received letting me know that my request was approved to receive digital access to this book. So thankful!!

This was my first Riley Sager book and I can totally understand the hype now! I really enjoyed his writing style and thoroughly enjoyed the first few sections of the book. I can't say much more without spoiling but something happened that just completely took me out of the original story and I did not enjoy the last part of the book as much as the first. Overall I am excited to try my next Riley Sager read because I did truly enjoy his writing style immensely. Thank you for the ARC!

A washed up alcoholic actress lives alone in the family house on Lake Greene in Vermont. She spies on her neighbors using the binoculars left behind by her recently drowned husband, Len. As days go by, she becomes really interested in the couple who live directly across the lake - The Royces. Something strange is going on in that house and Casey Fletcher is determined to get to the bottom of it all.

If you are looking for a straight forward suspense or psychological thriller, this is not the book for you. To say it bordered on the preposterous might be a little strong, since this is fiction after all, but toward the last third of the book the author really goes way out there. That twist is what turned me off to the rest of the book and I ended up severely disappointed despite having read and generally enjoyed all of this author’s previous stories. I can’t say more without spoilers, so just leaving it here that I wish I had not wasted my time.

I do appreciate NetGalley and Dutton for the e-book ARC to read and review.

Thank you NetGalley and Dutton for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I have never read a Riley Sager novel before, I was so excited to be approved for this arc.
I read this book in one sitting. The writing pulls you in and keeps you until the last page. It is dark and intense. There are a couple of twists that I never saw coming. I absolutely cannot wait to get my ands on another Sager book!

4.5 stars

I finished the House Across the Lake in one fell swoop- start to finish, there went my Saturday. The language was engaging, approachable, and it was just suspenseful enough to keep me going. Every time I thought I'd figured out who were responsible for another set of unfortunate events, Riley Sager surprised me. The amount of drinking is insane though- there's no one who could sustain that level of alcohol all day, every day, and have their wits about them and walk, never mind sleuth. The standout piece of Sager's novel has to be her ability to weave in the complex question of what we are willing to do for our family. It was a good book, I'd recommend it, and the ending fits.

In The House Across the Lake, Sager offers a fresh twist on the unreliable female narrator trope. A plot that will keep you guessing and a protagonist you can't help cheering for. I found this one hard to put down!

The House Across the Lake, is signature Riley Sager, full of drama, psychological suspense, dizzying twists and turns, and a jaw dropping finale. Actress, Casey Fletcher, still reeling from the death of her husband, Len, retreats to her family lake house to hide from paparazzi, drink herself into oblivion, and forget the public humiliation brought on from her drunken antics. While drowning her grief with liquor fueled nights and hangover filled days, she unexpectedly befriends a new neighbor, ex supermodel, Katherine, who lives across the lake with her controlling tech start-up husband, Tom. When Casey’s new friend vanishes, she drunkenly embarks on her own investigation, aided by the handsome handyman, Boone, who is temporarily residing in the lake house next door. Boone, also a widow, and recovering alcoholic, recognizes Casey’s destructive path, but is also drawn to her tenaciousness in discovering the truth behind Katherine’s abrupt departure. Together, they try to link Katherine’s disappearance to three prior disappearances of young women near Lake Greene. With a potential serial killer on the loose, a missing fashion icon, and a suspicion husband, all is not as it seems on Lake Greene.

In typical Riley Sager fashion, The House Across the Lake guides readers through a series of familiar horror and suspense plot lines while lending his distinct voice and bizarrely unique twists. This is a 2022 must-read for fans of psychological thrillers!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

Riley Sager has done it again. A movie within a book, this plays out perfectly for the imagination. A new take on the typical “woman sees crime” the twist will have you never wanting to put the book down until you’ve gotten every last drop of the story. Even then, the twist will have you jaw dropped for days after reading.

3 ½ * rounded down to a 3

I am a huge fan of Mr. Sager and I have been ruminating on this review for 2 days now. All of his previous books have been 4 and even a 5* for me. I’m sorry to say that this one was a disappointment.

Casey Fletcher was a successful film and then theater star until her husband’s death about a year ago. This set off months of binge drinking which left her fired from her last production. Social media has been cruel and photos have appeared everywhere of her drinking and acting in all manner of inappropriate ways. Neither her best friend, her sister or mother have been able to help get her back on track.

Her mother, a film star in her own right, has given Casey a choice. Enter rehab or spend time at their secluded lake house in Vermont. Casey chose the latter. Being alone however has only made her drink more and she finds herself bored and spending time on her porch staring out at the dark surface of Lake Green. When she finds her husband’s binoculars which he used for birding, she begins to spy on her neighbors across the lake. They are a famous couple, Katherine is a supermodel and her husband Tom is pioneering a tech company.

One morning Casey sees a body floating on the lake. She takes action quickly and ends up saving Katherine from drowning. They become friends but Casey becomes more and more convinced that something is not right with their marriage.

This sends Casey off in a myriad of ways, trying to discover what is really going on in the house across the lake.

I HAD A LOT OF PROBLEMS WITH THIS BOOK!!

First off, so much of the first half of the book seemed like a rehash of “The Woman In The Window”, I kept waiting for the pace to pick up but that didn’t happen until 60% into the book.

The characters seemed very flat to me, so unlike Riley’s other books. I didn’t really feel engaged with any of them and Casey’s actions were just downright juvenile and reckless. The amount of alcohol she is said to drink would surely leave her beyond reasoning in any competent way.

There were lots of twists, but they all came at the end, one right after the other and mostly unbelievable. That’s o.k. I still had hopes for a stellar ending!!

NOPE THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN!! What I read felt like a combination of folklore, supernatural, fantasy or the feeling of “WHAT THE HECK DID I JUST READ”.

I’m still giving this a 3* because I enjoy Sager’s style of writing and this could have been more engaging if the twists had been more well placed throughout instead of all left until the end!

So far I am the outlier for this one so give it a try, you may love it!!l I will continue to be a fan of this author and will be on the lookout for his next novel.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.

THIS WAS GOOD. Thank god, Riley Sager has redeemed himself.

The plot of this was really unique, I was surprised that it involved famous people/ex-celebrities as the main characters.

I didn't really know where it was going, and I continued tobe surprised by every plot twist but in a way that wasn't out of nowhere. I loved how this had a relatively open ending in the same vein as Home Before Dark.

Overall, I think fans of Home Before Dark will eat this one up!

After using NetGalley for over 5 years, the new book by Riley Sager is the first to come with a request like this… **Please note: this book has some major twists and we encourage you to keep reviews SPOILER-FREE to preserve the reading experience for everyone.**
😱🤯 What?! So of course I had to read it now! Street date is June.
Admittedly it started like a typical mystery, almost like @Netflix The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window.... Casey is a widowed actress, trying to numb herself with alcohol. One day she comes across model and neighbor Katherine who was drowning in the lake. Casey saves her and they become friends. Casey watches Katherine and her husband suspiciously across the lake through her binoculars, it seems everything isn't as picture perfect as it seems...
BUT HOLD ON. Those twists. 🤯 Unlike anything I’ve read. 4.5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Unputdownable. Highly recommend!

wow, wow, wow, Riley Sager, just wow. I was so excited to get approved for an early copy of his latest book to read and review, and I had to read it straight away. As with all of his books, it was such a binge read, I just needed to know how it was going to end. If anyone guesses that ending they must have magical powers I swear. I did not see it coming at all and it was gasp out loud moment.

I love a good thriller and The House Across the Lake is amazing. If you loved Rear Window then you will love this wild and crazy mystery. It is Rear Window on steroids - seriously. A grieving widow who uses alcohol to cope with her loss. This widow also happens to be a famous actress. Spending some time in her house on Lake Greene to hid out from the press. On the other side of the lake is another famous couple, former supermodel Katherine Royce and her husband Tom. Just as they start to get friendly, Katherine goes missing. With the help of her husbands bird watching binoculars she has been keeping an eye on her neighbours and their goings on.

So of course our drunk main character decides to investigate her friends disappearance. Nothing could go wrong with that could it? Ha ha. There is a lot more to it than that but no spoilers. You need to read this in June once released, but if you are a Sager fan you know that it will be a surprising and out there conclusion.

Thanks so much to Dutton and Netgalley for allowing me to read it early. June 23rd, mark it in your calenders..

Such a wonderfully uncomfortable and terrifying read.

The protagonist of this book makes the deliberate choice, over and over, to sink into alcoholism and surrender to voyeuristic urges. As she openly spies on neighbors across the lake, a social media element, causes the reader to also feel culpable. This elevates tension throughout the book. Meanwhile, it seems that most writers attempt to write that perfect "plot twist' which will entice readers. This book many, really wild plot twists, which continually to add horror to the story.

My only con when reading is that I felt like the story went on a little longer than necessary. This however did not diminish the excitement of reading and the last line was worth the wait.

#TheHouseAcrosstheLake #NetGalley Great book, super intense, fans of Riley Sager will love this one!

QUICK TAKE: I wanted to hate it, but I actually had a lot of fun with this thriller about a woman who believes the man living across the lake is directly involved in the disappearance of his wife. Sounds familiar, but Sager manages to subvert expectations and really flip the genre on its head in a way that would spoil the fun if I shared anything more about the book. Go in knowing as little as possible and enjoy the ride!

Thank you to the publishers at Penguin Group Dutton and Netgalley for this e-ARC of The House Across the Lake!

Riley Sager manages to really knock it out of the park again with this novel! I always love the way he’s able to twist the truth over and over to the point where I second and third and fourth guess myself. Suffice to say, I was impressed with how this story all turned out!

It’s mid October, and Casey Fletcher is biding her time out on Lake Greene while the publicity from her latest stunt dies down. While drowning her sorrows in bourbon, she notices a ripple across the lake. Reaching for the binoculars left by her late husband, she spots a woman drowning.

After managing to save Katherine Royce’s life, her and Casey become friendly. But just a few days later, Katherine disappears, and Casey is bound and determined to prove her husband, Tom Royce, is responsible. Because Casey has been watching the Royce home. She’s seen things, and she suspects something foul is at play. Now she just needs to prove it.

I really loved the timeline of this novel! The Now and Before really helped confuse me and lead me to doubt myself again and again. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, I was blown away by the real conclusion. It’s something I’ve always wanted and even expected to see in Sager’s previous novels, but was denied, so it was fun to have it play out now. I also enjoyed at least two allusions to his previous novels, The Last Time I Lied (Camp Nightingale) and Lock Every Door (The Bartholomew). There may have been more, but these two really stuck out to me. Overall, you’re not going to want to miss The House Across the Lake!

The House Across the Lake releases June 21!

As a Riley Sager fan, I have come to expect a certain amount of excellent storytelling. In his latest work, not only did I get excellent storytelling, but Sager threw me for a loop over and over. But, dear reader, he does it in the best way. Sager is the master of keeping you guessing, what starts out as an ode to Alfred Hitchcock's classic "Rear Window" becomes something else entirely...to say what would be a major spoiler. This novel is the most twisty pretzel of story I have read, Sager leads the reader into false presumptions several times (without making us feel foolish). We can only hope that Mr. Sager keeps his creative juices flowing and shares his amazing writing ability with the rest of us mere mortals. Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced reading copy of this title.

I raced through this one, completely immersed in the mystery of what happened in the house across the lake. Something isn’t right and our protagonist knows it. She can’t quite explain what she’s been seeing through her binoculars and her whiskey haze, but she’s determined to figure it out, Can she get to the bottom of it before she’s caught spying and becomes a target herself?
This one has so many twists and turns and to say more would be a giant disservice to anyone who picks this one up. This is a great read and a really fun way to pass a cold, dark night.

Riley Sager is one of my absolute favorite author and with my chance to read his new book has just been a great opportunity! This book has just the right abound of suspense and mystery. His characters are very well done. You relate to them and you feel what they are going through.