The Lake of Lost Girls
A Novel
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $28.99
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- $28.99
Publisher Description
A 2024 November LibraryReads Pick
Told in alternating timelines, The Lake of Lost Girls is a haunting novel that will thrill fans of All Good People Here and We Are All the Same in the Dark.
Using suspenseful podcast clips to weave a twisty tale of a missing student and her sister who is desperate for answers, The Lake of Lost Girls is perfect for fans of I Have Some Questions for You.
It’s 1998, and female students are going missing at Southern State University in North Carolina, but freshman Jessica Fadley, once a bright and responsible student, is going through her own struggles. Just as her life seems to be careening dangerously out of control, she suddenly disappears.
Twenty-four years later, Jessica’s sister Lindsey is desperately searching for answers and uses the momentum of a new chart-topping true crime podcast that focuses on cold cases to guide her own investigation. Soon, interest reaches fever pitch when the bodies of the long-missing women begin turning up at a local lake, which leads Lindsey down a disturbing road of discovery.
In the present, one sister searches to untangle a complicated web of lies.
In the past, the other descends ever deeper into a darkness that will lead to her ultimate fate.
This propulsive and chilling suspense is a sharp examination of sisterhood and the culture of true crime.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A decades-old cold case heats up in Greene's disappointing latest (after The Woods Are Waiting). In 1998, college freshman Jessica Fadley disappeared in the tiny town of Mt. Randall, N.C., and was never seen again. Then, in 2022, news breaks of human remains found in nearby Doll's Eye Lake, renewing interest in Jessica's fate and drawing attention to the disappearances of three other female students in the same year. The media circus leads to the launch of a popular podcast called Ten Seconds to Vanish, which catches the attention of Jessica's younger sister, Lindsey—now 30 and the manager of a swanky hotel in Mt. Randall—who was the last person to see Jessica alive. It also interests charming crime journalist Ryan McKay, who approaches Lindsey to interview her for a story about her sister. Greene splits the narrative into thirds, with some chapters composed of Ten Seconds to Vanish transcripts, some revolving around Lindsey in the present, and others fleshing out the final days before Jessica vanished. That structure generates plenty of tension, but Greene stumbles with one-dimensional characters and a climax that tips over into the absurd. This misses the mark.
