Joe Clifford

Award-winning author Joe Clifford's breakout novel, a thriller of psychological suspense about a man eager to restart his life after being acquitted of a heinous crime, only to find himself a suspect again when a body washes up near his house.

The Lakehouse

Caitlyn DeRouin

I love a good mystery/thriller and based on the description, The Lakehouse seemed to offer just that. Unfortunately, the book did not live up to expectations. The biggest issue for me with this book was the writing, I found it to be disjointed, choppy, and repetitive. There were many times while reading where a piece of information would be presented and I found myself saying, "again? this was mentioned/discussed just a few chapters ago." it felt like the author couldn't remember what had already been mentioned so he put it in the book again. Then there was one short chapter where the author went from writing in a third-person narrative to a second-person narrative for no reason at all. Overall I felt that there was a lack of cohesion that lead to no sense of flow.

Besides the writing style, the other huge issue I had was with the characters. None of the characters felt fully developed. Tracy's entire personality was complaining about her ex-husband, and while I felt that her feelings were justified since he did cheat on her, there are only so many times I can read "jerk of an ex-husband" before I start to roll my eyes. There was so much talk about how Tracy was "born to be a mom" but we never got any reasoning as to why she felt that way or what she found fulfilling about being a mother, and half the time she had her best friend babysitting her son so that Tracy could fixate on the man who may or may not have killed his wife. None of the characters were at all likable and I spent most of my time reading the book rolling my eyes. 

The ending felt rushed and honestly didn't make any sense. Usually, when there's a big reveal at the end of a mystery/thriller the reveal makes sense, this one did not. In fact, it was a bit of a let down because it came completely out of nowhere.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of The Lakehouse in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts expressed are my own.

The Lakehouse

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