Publication date: July 1 2017
Published by: Thomas & Mercer
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Violence, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller, Crime
Rating:
With her ex now in prison, Gwen has finally found refuge in a new home on remote Stillhouse Lake. Though still the target of stalkers and Internet trolls who think she had something to do with her husband’s crimes, Gwen dares to think her kids can finally grow up in peace.
But just when she’s starting to feel at ease in her new identity, a body turns up in the lake—and threatening letters start arriving from an all-too-familiar address. Gwen Proctor must keep friends close and enemies at bay to avoid being exposed—or watch her kids fall victim to a killer who takes pleasure in tormenting her. One thing is certain: she’s learned how to fight evil. And she’ll never stop.
This is the first Rachel Caine book I've read after finishing the Morganville Vampire series.
So, a looong time.
Stillhouse Lake is very different than MV. Not only story wise, or that it's not paranormal, but most importantly the writing. I could not find Rachel Caine anywhere in the book, nothing reminded me of her writing style. That wasn't necessarily bad, it just took me aback a bit.
Stillhouse started off great-horrifying story of a woman who finds out her husband is a monster, and her struggle to reinvent herself while simultaneously trying to protect her two kids from people who want to hurt her.
The story kept my attention for the first half, but after that the pace slowed down significantly and I was quite honestly, bored.
It didn't help that I didn't really connect with the MC, Gina/Gwen. She was so obsessed over protecting her kids from invisible internet people that wanted to do them harm, that she couldn't see what living in that constant state of paranoia was really doing to her kids. I mean sure, the lady was scarred for life after what she went through, but why do her kids need to be reminded of it everyday? A bit of normalcy is what they needed and she just couldn't see it. When she realised it and tried to give it to her kids, she went so off character, that it just didn't work.
Also, I didn't like that her acquittal was just brushed off with no further details. Other things of little importance were explained to death, but this? How did a woman who lived under the same roof as a serial killer, who had all these dead bodies in her garage, got acquitted so easily and quickly? Doesn't make much legal sense.
The ending was very convenient (she knew how to extensively search for people who thought she was guilty and wanted to punish her, but not for copycats....?), with an anticipated cliff-hanger.
There were also a lot of red herrings throughout the book - Gina/Gwen was so convinced that so and so was the creep stalking them, that she made me change my mind completely about that person, only for her to be completely wrong, and I was forced to go back liking them. That happened with ALL the characters in the book, so in the end I knew who the bad guy was by method of elimination.
I am a bit disappointed at this book, considering its very strong start. But as thriller books go, I've definitely read better ones.
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