Title: LOSS LAKE
Author: Amber Cowie
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Read: October 2020
Expected publication: 10 November 2020
My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Book Description:
Two months a widow, Mallory Dent has
made the impulsive decision to pack up and move on. In remote McNamara, nestled
in the northern mountains, she can escape her grief, guilt, and pain. But the
day Mallory arrives, death follows her, lapping just outside her door. A
woman’s body is found floating in Loss Lake—and it’s not the first death on
these shores. Locals talk about a monster in the depths with an almost
disturbing reverence.
Sergeant Joel Benson understands Mallory’s unease. Years ago, his own brother
was killed in the home Mallory now owns. But that was just a tragic accident.
Wasn’t it? The more Mallory investigates, the more fearful she becomes. Maybe
there are monsters in McNamara. Maybe some have followed her there.
As a winter storm bears down, the refuge Mallory sought has become a trap. It’s
time to face her past, the secrets behind the town’s friendly faces, and a
reckoning that will shatter the eerie, icy calm of Loss Lake.
What attracted me to this book:
An atmospheric setting, an urban
myth, new beginnings and unspoken dark secrets all form part of Amber Cowie’s
latest mystery, LOSS LAKE. I knew I was in for a treat as soon as Mallory
arrives in her recently purchased log cabin on the shores of the eerie lake
that forms such an integral part of the story. There is usually an ember of
truth in every urban myth, so what really lies behind the story of the monster
of Loss Lake?
My musings:
Mallory, a widow at forty, has set out to make a
new start in the small town of McNamara, in a cabin in the woods purchased with
the money that came to her from the untimely death of her husband Graham. We
soon find out that behind her grief lie other emotions, but Mallory – like the
small town of McNamara – likes to hold her secrets close to her heart. She is
shocked to find out that a man died in a terrible hunting accident right in the
front room of her little house, a tragedy that seems to be linked to other
untimely deaths the small town has witnessed since the dam rupture that
originally formed the lake. Mallory is a nurse, and her scientific brain doesn’t
believe in monsters. But will her curiosity and determination to find out the
truth put her in danger? Or will it threaten to reveal some of her own tightly
guarded secrets?
I loved both the atmospheric setting
as well as Mallory’s unreliable narration, and both kept me frantically turning
the pages. Most of all, Cowie’s writing beautifully evoked the landscape, the
autumn woods, the eerie lake, the little cabin nestled amidst the wilderness. I
wondered how long it would take for ill-prepared city girl Mallory to get into
trouble here, and didn’t have to wait long. There wasn’t really anything
supernatural going on here, but the remote setting and the lonely cabin’s dark
history themselves created an aura of vulnerability around Mallory that made me
shiver.
Cowie knows just the right time to reveal her
clues, and I really appreciated the constant ambivalent feelings of empathy and
distrust it created towards the main character. With a finale that was utterly
unpredictable and yet somehow fitting, the book managed to get in a final stab
of surprise that will make it stick in my mind as much as the images of the
eerie lake it had created.
Summary:
In summary, if you enjoy slow burning, character
driven mysteries revolving around small town secrets and featuring a remote,
atmospheric setting, then LOSS LAKE should definitely be on your list. I really enjoyed Cowie’s writing style and
look forward to reading her other novels.
Thank
you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the free electronic copy of this
novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.
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