OUTSTANDING!!! Thank you NetGalley, Christina McDonald and Intrigue Ink Publishing for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

What a hauntingly disturbing and totally engrossing thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat until the very end!! The eerie atmosphere, insane tension, mysterious creepy house, compelling plot, secrets, lies, murder, revenge, suspense, riveting plot twists and a jaw-dropping conclusion is what makes this a PHENOMENAL thriller!! I devoured this book and literally could not flip the pages fast enough. My only complaint is I wanted MORE!! Having said that, I am extremely happy and super excited that this is a prequel to These Still Black Waters which I will be reading very soon. I thoroughly enjoyed this book so much and another thriller to add to my favorites list for 2024 ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️!!!

Jess Lambert and her husband, Mac, have just moved to Black Lake, looking for a quieter, more peaceful life. Until one morning Jess befriends a beautiful stranger, Annie, who also just moved to town. Only a few hours later, Jess finds Annie wandering naked and in shock along the lake. Helping Annie back to her house, Jess encounters a gruesome scene that shows a violent attack. But then Annie disappears! As Jess is pulled deeper into the mystery of what happened to Annie, she learns about the house's chilling past. She begins to wonder who was Annie really? Is she a witness, murderer or victim? But it's dangerous hunting down old ghosts and Jess becomes increasingly unsure if she's the hunter, or the prey. Who is the stranger at Black Lake?

Overall, this is an utterly gripping and darkly twisted thriller with a shocking ending!! I cannot recommend this novella enough and it deserves ALL the stars! Do yourself a favor and read this book! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Christina McDonald has created a Detective Jess Lambert universe, with “These Still Black Waters” and the upcoming “What Lies in the Darkness” (July 2024). While fans wait for the latter, the author has gifted us with a prequel, “The Stranger at Black Lake,” which tells us how Jess transformed from paramedic to police woman when she first moved to Black Lake. The prequel doesn’t bring you up to the current timeline (this is about 10 years earlier and a lot of what happened in the interim is revealed in “These Still Black Waters”.) However, the depth of Jess’s character is disclosed — her empathy, her growing investigative skills, her then happy marriage.

There’s a decent murder mystery in the novella (two POVs: Jess and “Him”). The author knows she has a winning main character in Jess Lambert — this terrific prequel will make you add the next 2 books to your TBR list! 4 stars!

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Annie has sea foam green eyes, as do some other characters (the green is a clue).
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO However, why powdered apple seeds might kill a person isn’t fully explained. Anyway, apple seeds contain cyanide and it would take between 100 and 500 to kill a full grown person.

Thank you to Intrigue Ink Publishing/Victory Editing and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

This is my first book Christina McDonald but it doesn't take away from the tension and darkness that is displayed in this book. I will definitely be reading more by Christina soon.

𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏'𝒕 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒅. 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒍 𝒐𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒓, 𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅.

There's nothing I love more than a sequel or prequel to a book I loved, and I screamed with joy when I found out about this one! If you haven't read THESE STILL BLACK WATERS, I suggest that you do before reading this one so that you can get to know Jess Lambert.

Jess and her husband Mac, seeking a quieter, simpler life, have just moved to Black Lake. One of Jess's shifts as a paramedic has left her scarred, both physically and mentally, so she is looking forward to having a respite from that stressful job.

All it takes for this plan to unravel is a chance meeting. While getting coffee, Jess befriends Annie Parker, also a new transplant to Black Lake. Annie mentions that she lives in the "gingerbread house," which is well known to the locals and is the subject of a supposed haunting. Shockingly, Jess encounters Annie later that day, naked, in shock, and wandering around outside. When she guides her back to the house, Jess finds the aftermath of a brutal crime. Annie disappears, leaving Jess to wonder if she was the killer or the witness...or worse yet, was she even real?

This story was deeply atmospheric, unsettling, and haunting. I loved every minute of this mystery and couldn't wait to see how all the moving parts would connect. Many thanks to NetGalley and Intrigue Ink Publishing for this early read. This title will publish March 19, 2024.

I have not read the other books featuring Jess so perhaps starting off with this novella was not the best of ideas.
Likely due to its brevity, i could not connect or come to care for any of the characters.
And the motivations spurning on the actions of the central antagonist was vague at best.
I finished the novella only because it was short.

Super dark novella! This is a prequel to These Still Black Waters, a Jess Lambert novel, and now I need to read that! Jess and her husband have moved back to Black Lake, a quiet town to start a family. But in no time at all, Jess finds herself embroiled with a mystery as she follows a naked and in shock Annie back to her house where she discovers a grisly crime scene and Annie goes missing when Jess isn’t looking. This novella read like a full length novel, well done. Thank you Netgalley, Intrigue Ink Publishing and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This novella will be available for purchase on March 19, 2024

Christina is back with a novella surrounding Jess Lambert. I absolutely loved Jess Lambert in These Still Black Waters but absolutely love that Christina wrote this novella and gave us a chance to meet Mac and meet Jess before all her trauma and heartaches. This novella focuses on Jess and Mac’s life. We finally get to see the man who is anxiously awaiting his wife to heal I can not recommend this series enough. I absolutely love everyone and everything about it.

Novella by Christina McDonald - thank you, NetGalley, Intrigue Ink Publishing for giving me to opportunity to read in exchange for review

Jess lambert and her husband, Mac have just moved to Black Lake, looking for a quieter, more peaceful life. Jess meets a beautiful stranger, Annie and after a few hours, Jess finds Annie wandering naked and in shock along the lake.

And at Annie’s house, Jess encounters a gruesome scene that shows a violent attack.

As Jess is pulled deeper into the mystery of what has happened to Annie, she learns about the houses chilling past.

A fantastic novella that drags you in deeper with every page, intrigues you about the mysteries yet to be unravelled and final conclusion is an amazing twist that I did not see coming.

Well worth the read, took me longer due to other commitments but will definitely read more of Christina’s work.

5 stars all the way!!

The Stranger At Black Lake is a prequel to the Jess Lambert series by Christina McDonald. It is a short story about how and why Jess and her husband moved to Black Lake and her decision to become a detective. This story is very fast paced with plenty of twists and I really enjoyed it. Thank you Christina McDonald and Netgalley for this arc.

If you enjoyed the “Haunting at Bly Manor”, you’ll enjoy this prequel.

This novel is a short read and very fast paced. There’s a lot of suspense and the story telling is immaculate.

I typically don’t enjoy short reads, but this one makes me want to look out and binge the series! It’s really good and definitely something worth reading.

Once I picked it up, I couldn’t stop reading. I kept telling myself “one more chapter & I’ll go to bed”. The details paint a vivid picture that makes you feel that you’re in Black Lake and seeing it through the lens of Jess.

A true thrill. A twist you won’t even see coming.

Thank you Christina McDonald and NetGalley for my early copy of this novella. A prequel to the Jell Lambert series, The Stranger At Black Lake gives us an early glimpse into Jess and how she came to live in Black Lake and become a detective. A fast paced thriller that will keep you reading and guessing until the end.

A great short! I didn’t realize this one would be so quick until I was almost halfway through. Pulled me in right from the start and didn’t feel like the ending was pushed too quickly.

Wow she has done it again! Christina's style of writing has away of grabbing the reader's attention from the start. This novella introduce's the reader to Jess. Reading this was like coming home to the beginning. Jess and her husband move to the quiet small town he grew up in. Not long after Jess is drawn into murder and past legends of the ghost woman of black lake. So many twist in this gripping story will have you on the edge of your seat until the end.

Great suspenseful novella. Just perfect as I’m waiting for the next release from her, What Lies In The Dark. This novella brings us back to just before These Still Black Waters so they all connect. Christina McDonald never fails to bring the reader on a suspenseful journey, leaving the reader craving more each and every time.

Jess and Mac Lambert have recently moved to Black Lake. Jess was a paramedic, but an encounter that ended badly has her rethinking her career. What she really needs is a friend, and she is lucky to meet Annie at the coffee shop. But things aren’t as they seem and soon she’s trying to help the police solve a crime.
Hard to say much more without entering spoiler territory since this is a novella. It was a page flipper, and I so enjoyed learning more about Jess. This book is a prequel to These Still Black Waters, which I loved.
Did I guess correctly about what was going on with the story? Absolutely not!

Loved this novella! The characters (being reintroduced to Jess again was like reuniting with an old friend), the mysterious creepy house, the seemingly sweet woman from the coffee shop who ends up being more than a little odd, the feeling that someone was watching Jess and her having to look over her shoulder. So much action was packed into such a short book but it felt fully fleshed out.

Fantastic quick read. I only wish it was longer!

Thanks to Netgalley, Christina McDonald and Intrigue Ink Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My Review:
Loved, loved and more loved!!!!! This is exactly what I needed for my soul. It truly rejuvenated my love of reading. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump lately. All the books I have been reading felt like they were the same. They were all really good but just the same if that makes sense. Now back to this awesome read. What didn’t I love is the real question here. It had great characters, an intriguing plot and a wow of an ending. What more can I ask for. I have read this author before but not this series. This one is a prequel along with being a novella which is a short story. I have to say that this book started off with a bang and ended up with one too. There were so many twists and turns. My head was spinning exorcist style by the end of this one. Oh and that ending left me speechless too. So much so that I will be starting the first book in this series really soon. Like tonight soon or early tomorrow soon. I can’t wait to read it and see what happens next to all the characters. Christina McDonald Rocks!!!!!

In conclusion, the plot, the characters and all the twists in this book made this book an enjoyable read. I would definitely recommend it and happily give it 5 Hearts❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

The stranger at Black Lake.
Christina McDonald.

#Domesticthriller

This one will have you looking over your shoulder because things you think you saw,

The stranger at Black Lake is phenomenal.


So many things from the past come back from the past, there lies Deceit murder.
Sometimes you might see a ghost.

A short read, a intense read. This one will have you dropping your jaw . A perfect story.

I must say I'm a fan of this author have been from day one.

Book review 📖

📜The Stranger At Black Lake
✍️Christina McDonald
📠Intrigue Ink Publishing
📚Mystery/Thriller, Fiction
🗓️Pub date: March 19, 2024

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

✨Thank you @NetGalley and Intrigue Ink Publishing for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

✨Prequel to These Still Black Waters, The Stranger At Black Lake is a chilling read, where a violent attack is at the forefront of a seemingly sleepy town.

✨Jess and her husband, Mac, are new to the area of Black Lake. The lake is dark, creepy, and harbors stories of death. Jess meets another new resident, Annie, at a nearby coffee shop, and after exchanging numbers, they decide to meet up again.

✨ While Jess is out for a run around the lake, she happens to see Annie standing at the edge of the lake, incoherent and naked. What she thought were red shoes, are not in fact red, but covered in blood.

✨While Jess is led to a gruesome crime scene, Annie disappears. Jess is left wondering just who Annie really is, and the dangers that lurk in her new town.

✨This book definitely held my interest, is dark, terrifying, and bone-chilling.
I’ll be picking up this author’s sequel, These Still Dark Waters! Great book, a must-read!

#netgalley #thestrangeratblacklake #christinamcdonald #intrigueinkpublishing #thrillerfiction #springreleases #novella #jesslambertseries #mysteryfiction #watchoutforthisone #advancedreadercopy #arc #bookreview #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #ivegotbooks #killmewithwords #idratherbereading #readthisbook #readwiththelightson

This novella is the prequel to These Still Black Waters . Jess, how she discovered her talent for investigation and went from a paramedic to being a detective. moving to a new home, making a new friend who she discovers naked and in shock and a murdered body upstairs in a house with a history of suicides and missing people. And a man, suffering with pain, disability and violent tendencies who is stalking someone, jess or ? . It is well written, suspenseful right away and introduces some likeable character and a disturbing one