Gina Royal is the definition of average—a shy Midwestern housewife with a happy marriage and two adorable children. But when a car accident reveals her husband’s secret life as a serial killer, she must remake herself as Gwen Proctor—the ultimate warrior mom.

With her ex now in prison, Gwen has finally found refuge in a new home on remote Stillhouse Lake. Though still the target of stalkers and Internet trolls who think she had something to do with her husband’s crimes, Gwen dares to think her kids can finally grow up in peace.

But just when she’s starting to feel at ease in her new identity, a body turns up in the lake—and threatening letters start arriving from an all-too-familiar address. Gwen Proctor must keep friends close and enemies at bay to avoid being exposed—or watch her kids fall victim to a killer who takes pleasure in tormenting her. One thing is certain: she’s learned how to fight evil. And she’ll never stop.

Stillhouse Lake was one of those books I picked up from Amazon because it sounded good but might not have read quite so quickly if it hadn’t been for me deciding to join in with Janel at Keeper of Pages Criminally Good Book Club (not that I’ve been that active as I then immediately dropped out of the online world for a week in order to read books!). Still, it was the kick I needed and I am so glad I did because I really enjoyed this, my first book by Rachel Caine.  

It has all the ingredients I look for in a psychological thriller – a woman pushed to the brink, an evil husband (ex- in this case), and friends and neighbours you just don’t know if you can trust.  Plus a cracking story with lots of pace, tension and twists and turns.  From pretty much the first page this book doesn’t let up.  It pulled me in and kept me there and, whilst I sometimes wondered about Gina/Gwen’s judgement, I have to say I liked her a lot as a character and was rooting for her right from the start.

Because I read a lot of these books I don’t necessarily expect everything to be different, and it wasn’t here – you just knew Gina/Gwen’s new life wasn’t going to go as smoothly as she’d hoped for a start.  What I do look for more of though is good writing and I thought Caine had this in spades.  She wove scenes I could picture when I closed my eyes and created characters I believed in.  Her plot twists were believable too (in a genre where you have to suspend belief at least a little bit) and oh so compelling!

As this is called (Stillhouse Lake #1), I am assuming there are more to come, hopefully staring Gina/Gwen as I would really like to find out more about her, her kids and some of the other non-nasty residents of the Lake.  Really liked this one a lot – highly recommended.

Enjoy!

Emma x

Source: Purchased
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Format: ebook
Published: 1st July, 2017
Pages: 302
Find on: Amazon UK / Amazon US / Goodreads