Stranger in the Lake: A Novel

This <b>4 Star</b> domestic thriller starts with an unplanned pregnancy, then quickly moves to a dead body found floating under a dock and next, a husband who is MIA. How could I not keep reading?<b>SUMMARY</b>Charlotte or Charlie (depending on whether you knew her as a child or a grown woman) has been happily married for just under a year to Paul, an older, but quite wealthy man. Despite their ten plus year age difference and their vastly different upbringing, Charlotte is convinced they belong together and <i>fit</i> in all the ways that really matter.Not many people in this small, North Carolina mountain lake community are very generous in their opinion of the marriage or of Charlotte's motives. Nonetheless, things are going just fine for Paul and Charlotte until the morning Charlotte finds the body of a woman floating in the lake under their private dock. Then, inexplicably, even while the police are still investigating the crime scene, Paul tells her he needs to leave for a couple days. On foot. Into the heavily wooded mountains. With his camping equipment. Into a snow storm. With no further explanation, Paul leaves only telling Charlotte that she needs to trust him. AND, to top that off, Paul has a history and a bit of a reputation. How can Charlotte possibly know if she can trust him? And if he isn't the problem, who is? And that's all just in the first couple of chapters.<b>WHAT I LOVED</b>I LOVED Charlotte and her sweet but slightly irresponsible little brother Chet. But Charlotte totally made the book for me, particularly once I learned more about her childhood and saw what she overcame. And then, even more so as she had to deal with an impossible situation.I liked the way the story was told, alternating between Charlotte's story; the of the fall out from the murder investigation mixed with snippets of her past and then Paul's story; going back through his childhood, explaining his strong ties to his two closest friends and the untimely loss of his first wife. All these factors combine to create the untenable situation in which Charlotte and Paul found themselves.I absolutely loved the setting! I am now dying to visit a lake tucked into the mountains of North Carolina. The descriptions of their lake and mountain views from every room in the house made me so darn jealous!! I wish my backyard had a view other than that of my sons baseball batting equipment! I also loved that they could more easily boat into town than drive. To add to the charm of the setting, I listened to the Audible version of the book while road tripping from Texas to the mountains in Colorado. I was seeing mountains in my mind while heading toward actual mountains. The additional benefit of driving while listening is that I was able to hear the book in one, barely interrupted, sitting. It definitely made the story flow.Aside from the setting and Charlotte, the twists alone would have been enough to make the book a worthwhile read. I suspected one of the twists which made me feel like I had outsmarted the book but there were more twists to come and OMG they were great twists!!!I love it when I book wraps up the details of an ending versus making me wonder. This one wrapped up everything in an epilogue so I had an idea of what the characters were left to face in their future and where their lives were headed.<b>WHAT I DIDN'T LOVE</b>There were a couple of places where the story slowed down a little and dug into some unimportant details. If I hadn't been listening to the Audible while trying to stay awake while driving, I might not have minded as much.<b>OVERALL</b>A very suspense filled little thriller with an enticing setting and <b>amazingly</b> well placed twists!!!!

Good but kind of slow.

When Charlotte married the wealthy widower Paul, it caused a ripple of gossip in their small lakeside town. They have a charmed life together, despite the cruel whispers about her humble past and his first marriage. But everything starts to unravel when she discovers a young woman’s body floating in the exact same spot where Paul’s first wife tragically drowned. At first, it seems like a horrific coincidence, but the stranger in the lake is no stranger. Charlotte saw Paul talking to her the day before, even though Paul tells the police he’s never met the woman. His lie exposes cracks in their fragile new marriage, cracks Charlotte is determined to keep from breaking them in two. As Charlotte uncovers dark mysteries about the man she married, she doesn’t know what to trust—her heart, which knows Paul to be a good man, or her growing suspicion that there’s something he’s hiding in the water.My Thoughts: Stranger in the Lake opens upon Charlotte’s happy new life, married to wealthy Paul Keller and living in a beautiful home. She loves the sense of security, having grown up in trailer parks without enough food. But there are things she still doesn’t know about her husband, who doesn’t share what happened with his first wife and how she died.Now, just as Charlotte is hoping to eventually learn more, she finds a dead woman floating in the lake at their dock. Too many coincidences make Charlotte begin to question her husband and the fact that his first wife was also found in the lake. His friendships with others who are very secretive increase her concerns about what happened in the past. And now Paul has mysteriously gone away during the initial investigation, and Charlotte finds herself having to try to fill in the blanks for him.We see glimpses of the past in alternating narratives. What are Paul and his friends hiding, and what do their secrets have to do with the dead woman? Eventually more is revealed as the tension increases, with unexpected twists unfolding. The ending wrapped up a little too smoothly, but most of the questions were answered. 4 stars.

I don't even bother reading the blurbs on Belle's work now because I know I'm going to enjoy reading every single book she writes. As always the writing was flawless, the characterisation superb, the plot tight and tense, the conclusion perfect, the baddies motive realistic, and the police procedure spot on. I did guess who did what this time but it only enhanced my enjoyment of the novel because it added believability to an entertaining thriller. I read it in a day because I couldn't turn away from it for long. I'm already looking forward to Kimberly's next title which I will pre-order as soon as it's available.

Three guys, best friends since school. But the wife of one detects a mystery, which is compounded when a woman is found dead in the lake, just outside their dock. The dead woman was investigating an old mystery of a drowned man, found by divers in his car. The mystery gradually unwinds, in some ways predictable as we know the three guys have to be involved somehow. There's one twist at the end, not very dramatically presented, which comes as a surprise. The book is readable and enjoyable, good for a summer read

I am not a regular reader or books so it has to be something easy to pick up and put down. This fitted the bill perfectly and I would recommend it.

It took a while for this story to get going but when it did it had lots of plot twists and held my attention. I do enjoy Kimberley Belle's story telling skills.

It was a struggle to finish the book as it seemed to drag at the end.It was the second I have read by this author and I personally didnt find it utterly gripping although I enjoyed the first one