Summit Lake
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4.3 • 168 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The #1 international bestselling author of Twenty Years Later and The Girl Who Was Taken delivers a twisting suspense novel about a murdered law school student, the reporter assigned to her story—and the intimate connection that comes when the living walk in the footsteps of the dead…
“A gem of a mystery, fast-paced and suspenseful.” —Catherine Coulter, # 1 New York Times bestselling author on Summit Lake
No suspects. No persons of interest. Just a girl who was alive one day and dead the next.
Some places seem too beautiful to be touched by horror. Summit Lake, nestled in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, is that kind of place. But two weeks ago, Becca Eckersley, a first-year law student and daughter of a powerful attorney, was brutally murdered there. Now the town is reeling with grief, and the police are baffled.
At first, investigative reporter Kelsey Castle thinks of the assignment as a fluff piece. But the savagery of the crime, and the efforts to keep it quiet, hint at something far more sinister than a random attack by a stranger. As Kelsey digs deeper, despite danger and warnings, she feels a growing connection to the dead girl. And the more she learns about Becca’s friendships, her love life—and her secrets—the more convinced she becomes that walking in Becca’s footsteps could lead her out of her own dark past…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Horrible things happen in Conlea's uneven debut, starting with the murder of first-year law student Becca Eckersley in her family's stilt house in the Blue Ridge Mountains tourist town of Summit Lake, N.C. Penn Courtney, the editor of Events Magazine, assigns reporter Kelsey Castle to dig into the story, which is starting to receive national attention. Penn's ulterior motive is to allow Kelsey additional time to recover from a recent trauma. Despite the Eckersley family's efforts to obfuscate matters, Kelsey explores Becca's history, including her bonds with three fellow students and a faculty member at George Washington University. Refreshingly, Kelsey stresses repeatedly that she isn't trying to solve the murder or get in the way of the professionals assigned to do so. Most of the other people involved, however, take a detached, almost academic approach toward the case. The reader gets little sense that anyone is mourning Becca.
Customer Reviews
Rather slow
Slow and repetitive. There were too many unnecessary “secrets “ held by the main characters that made absolutely no sense whatsoever. That caused some big problems for me. I kept wondering why is this a secret, and coming up blank. So then, I started thinking the characters were stupid and unrelatable. Then I stopped liking them or caring about their story. I couldn’t find myself caring about a bunch of self absorbed, narcissistic children, who are dishonest to boot. At least it was cheap.
Abysmal and dishonest.
This is a fundamentally dishonest work. The premises and plot are absurd, the reveal is based on a cheap trick and the suggested complications just vanish.