In THE HOUSE ACROSS THE LAKE, Riley Sager brings us Casey Fletcher’s story. After the loss of her husband, Casey turned to the bottle, ruining her career and finding herself exiled to a lakehouse in Vermont. Casey has a lot of time on her hands and spends it spying on her neighbors, a famous model and her tech-giant husband.
Here are the pros with this book for me - the setting here was amazing! It was right on par with LOCK EVERY DOOR and HOME BEFORE DARK, which were so atmospheric. It’s the atmosphere that really keeps me turning the pages, and in THE HOUSE ACROSS THE LAKE, it was the highlight for me. I also enjoyed the first 70% of this book. It was slow, but I find with Mystery/Thrillers that I don’t mind the slow build. When done right, it really makes the last part of the book go BOOM and can give it a bigger impact. Casey’s life was interesting, I loved learning about the few people who owned homes on the lake, and all of her relationships were intriguing and a little tenuous. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there.
The twists in this book were predictable, lackluster, and hurried with an ‘Oh, reader, you thought I forgot about this’ edge. I was specifically disappointed in one that’s too similar to another recent Mystery/Thriller, and it changed the entire dynamic of the story in an unpleasant way. It’s a twist that really needed more distance time-wise in order to pack a punch. Also, I felt like the author was very heavy handed with the ‘I’m a man, but look how well I understand women’ in this book. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and it was another element to the story I didn’t enjoy.
THE HOUSE ACROSS THE LAKE may have been a miss for me, but the truth is, I know that whatever Riley Sager writes next, I’m going to pick up. Even in this story, there were things I enjoyed and found gripping. I just won’t count this one among my favorites. Having said all of that, this book will find its audience, and plenty of people are going to enjoy it.
Narrator: Bernadette Dunne narrated The House Across the Lake, and I don’t believe I have heard her before. At first I struggled with her voice, but it grew on me. With the right story, I think I could enjoy it very much. But for Casey Fletcher, she sounded too old. It was a bit jarring at times when I would remember Casey’s age. But I wouldn’t write this narrator off because of that. I will definitely give her another chance.
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 bourbon, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple living 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 isn’t 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.
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