Sarah Bailey

A hot summer. A shocking murder. A town of secrets, waiting to explode. A brooding, suspenseful and explosive debut that will grip you from the first page to the last.

The Dark Lake

Leah

This was a solid, contemporary murder mystery with a lead character who's chaotic but not so much as to be an unreliable or unlikeable narrator. Interesing location and story that had me rushing to read the end and find out "who dunnit".

Katie Holem

In a suspense thriller to rival Paula Hawkins and Tana French, a detective with secrets of her own hunts the killer of a woman who was the glamorous star of their high school Rose was lit by the sun, her beautiful face giving nothing away. Even back then, she was a mystery that I wanted to solve. The lead homicide investigator in a rural town, Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock is deeply unnerved when a high school classmate is found strangled, her body floating in a lake. And not just any classmate, but Rosalind Ryan, whose beauty and inscrutability exerted a magnetic pull on Smithson High School, first during Rosalind's student years and then again when she returned to teach drama. As much as Rosalind's life was a mystery to Gemma when they were students together, her death presents even more of a puzzle. What made Rosalind quit her teaching job in Sydney and return to her hometown? Why did she live in a small, run-down apartment when her father was one of the town's richest men? And despite her many admirers, did anyone in the town truly know her? Rosalind's enigmas frustrate and obsess Gemma, who has her own dangerous secrets--an affair with her colleague and past tragedies that may not stay in the past. Brilliantly rendered, THE DARK LAKE has characters as compelling and mysteries as layered as the best thrillers from Gillian Flynn and Sophie Hannah.

Tanya Sutton

This was a solid debut from a new Australian crime writer. The Dark Lake is a police procedural with a complex plot. I occasionally found it difficult to accept all of the professional screw-ups by our characters but it wasn't enough to warrant more than an eyeroll from me. The character development was superb though, to be honest, the "emotionally damaged detective" trope isn't my favorite. Gemma as a character is rather unlikable and I soon grew tired of hearing about her dumpster fire of a personal life. That being said, the fact that I had such a strong reaction to her says something, even if it wasn't a strong positive reaction. I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next from Sarah Bailey.

Kelsey Holtaway

This was fine! It was a little tough for me because we ended up spending so much time on Gemma’s personal life (which i didn’t really care about) vs the actual mystery.

Megan Stephenson

I tore through this book as quick as I could. I was obsessed as much as the characters to find out what I could about Rosalind Ryan, a beautiful but mysterious woman who was murdered for seemingly no reason. The lead detective on the case is Gemma Woodstock who went to school with Rose. I was slightly off put by how obsessed Gemma was with Rose. Wanting to be just like her, and some strange comments from her POV during the autopsy. 

The book mainly is a look on Gemma’s catastrophic personal life. She seems as if she can’t connect with any person besides her partner Felix, who she’s having an affair with, and her high school boyfriend, Jacob, who committed suicide and Gemma never got over his death. Gemma even has trouble connecting with her own son just going through the motions of what she thinks a mother should be like. She also treats her current boyfriend like complete garbage while she obsesses over Felix. 

Despite how hard it was for me to feel sympathy for Gemma, I completely enjoyed the mystery of trying to find Rose’s murderer. The whole time I would come up with my own theories and when I thought I had it figured out something else would throw me for a loop, and when the actual murderer is revealed I was pretty shocked. 

Unfortunately the ending had Gemma confront a realization of what was in front of her all along and how she needed to take care of those things instead of pining after a pipe dream that could never happen. Of course it’s a typical ending, but for Sarah Bailey’s first book I have to say it hooked me instantly and I couldn’t put it down.

Joanne Penner

Kelsey Mcdaniel

Annabelle

Caroline

Hannah Elrick

Anne 

Erika Beneville

A tight-knit community is shocked by revelations from decades past in this "enthralling" (Associated Press) literary mystery that "will keep you racing toward the end" (Lisa Gardner). The lead homicide investigator in a rural town, Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock is deeply unnerved when a high school classmate is found strangled, her body floating in a lake. And not just any classmate, but Rosalind Ryan, whose beauty and inscrutability exerted a magnetic pull on Smithson High School, first during Rosalind's student years and then again when she returned to teach drama. As much as Rosalind's life was a mystery to Gemma when they were students together, her death presents even more of a puzzle. What made Rosalind quit her teaching job in Sydney and return to her hometown? Why did she live in a small, run-down apartment when her father was one of the town's richest men? And despite her many admirers, did anyone in the town truly know her? Rosalind's enigmas frustrate and obsess Gemma, who has her own dangerous secrets--an affair with her colleague and past tragedies that may not stay in the past. Brilliantly rendered, The Dark Lake has characters as compelling and mysteries as layered as the best thrillers from Gillian Flynn and Sophie Hannah.

The Dark Lake

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