This was super good! I've never read anything by this author before but this story kept me engaged and turning the pages until the end. Love it!

I went into this book with very high hopes and it started out incredibly strong. The writing is amazing and that is truly why I am giving this book the rating it has. The pacing was solid and truly kept you wanting to keep reading. Which sometimes in thrillers can fall flat, The switching POV's were a little confusing for me at times and I struggled to keep some of what was happening to each of the girls straight. 

Overall, this was a solid book that was exciting and thrilling throughout, but the ending was very unsatisfyinvg and I wanted something way more.

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
A dark and twisty read which becomes more and more complex and layered as it goes on. 
An OK read.

3 for neutral.  Was not able to get book to download long enough to read.  Will update once I’ve purchased book and read it,

Synopsis: In the Lakehouse, after being cleared of his wife’s murder, Todd Norman returns to her small Connecticut hometown in order to finish building their dream house by the lake. He is eager to restart his life and cast aside any remaining suspicious...but all of that is dashed when a young woman’s body washes up on the beach next door.

Review: This was my first book with by Joe Clifford, and he left me truly impressed! I found it to be very well written, and he had me keep wanting to turn the pages. I was reading another book at the same time, but I kept wanting to read this one instead!
A great plot line full of suspense and mystery. Fantastic ending that caught me by surprise. Would highly recommend to thriller fans!

This is a gripping and compelling mystery story like no others! 
Joe Clifford's The Lakehouse offers a comepletely new perspective on small town secrets, reminding very much of Twin Peaks. The story of Todd Norman, Tracy Somerset, Chief Sobczak and other members of Covenant community is an incredebly enjoyable and quick read, just a thriller everyone wants spend their evenings with.
Totally worth recommending!

Not quite sure how to review this book.  I didn't dislike it, but I didn't really like it either.  I was offered the opportunity to read this one and after reading the synopsis I agreed because it actually sounds really good.

Todd Norman is acquitted of his wife's murder and returns to her hometown to build their dream lake house he was planning to build before she died.  The move isn't that easy for Todd.  His wife's parent's live in the town and blame him for their daughter's death, the local police think he did it, in fact everyone thinks he did it.  Everyone except newly separated single-mum Tracey.  She falls in love with Todd and is adamant he is innocent.

This could have been so good with it's thriller undertones but unfortunately something fell slightly flat for me.  I kept waiting for this amazing story to start and it just didn't.  It was almost like reading a report, just a list of facts with no life to it.  Everything was too one dimensional, there was no real oomph to any of the characters.  I really wanted to learn about them, what was going on behind the scenes, and why some of the characters were even there,  Dr Bakshir?  What was even the point of him meandering weirdly through the story-line? 

Unfortunately there were just too many of these one dimensional characters and strange detours from the main story line that just didn't make any sense or add any value.

I know this sounds like I really disliked this book.  I didn't, I stuck with it because the plot itself was a good one and I wanted to know what happened, I just wanted more.

A great read. Lots of twists and turns .This suspenseful novel of small-town ties and lies will keep you guessing. Did not see the end coming!  Would recommend.

Todd Norman's decision to move to the small town where his wife originated from could not have been the best idea he had. He had been cleared of his wife's murder but most people in the village felt that he was guilty of the murder and he building this enormous house by the lakeside was for them, his arrogance in the face of his guilt. For Todd it was a fulfillment of his wife's dream.

Todd was fully aware of the animosity surrounding him, and when a woman's body is found very close to his house, the antipathy starts all over again with many people very angry with the police for not taking him in at once on suspicion of murder, despite the fact that he has an alibi for the night of the murder and has no connection at all to the woman who was killed.

Tracey was a neighbour, trying to get back to a normal life with her young son after her cheating husband left her/she got rid of him. She did not go actively looking for a romance but meeting Todd was somewhat different and she knew she was very atracted to him, despite the reputation.

The story mainly deals with a very insular community, a community where everyone has plenty of secrets they want to stay hidden, secrets if they come out will lead to the exoneration of an innocent man reviled by all. But they still want to only protect themselves and their loved ones so the secrets continue to stay hidden until it somehow all blows apart.

DNF at 20%. Unfortunately, the writing was too wordy for me and I was very disinterested in the plot.

Joe Clifford’s latest novel noir is rather different from previous ones in that it delves more into character than usual, and is thereby longer.  The story is based in a small New England town, more a village where one day some men fishing in the lake see a body on the shore. A nude young woman, her scratched and bloody lies stretched out on the ground. 
  For Sheriff Sobczak, head of the village of Covenant’s police  force,  dead bodies are nothing new, but they are usually the result of a motor vehicle accident , and this looks like a murder. There is  a suspect. He is Todd Norman, who is building a home lakeside, and who arrived back in Covenant from New York after being acquitted of the murder of his wife, a local girl.
  From this beginning the author weaves a complex story involving threads that go back to high school friendships , teenage loves , breakups and jealously. All these relationships are explored. The novel has a number of characters.  Sheriff Sobczak, a widower in late fifties and very aware of his limitations as a law officer. There is the Sheriff’s daughter Amanda, married to Tom, Sobczak’s  deputy, who has not been close to her father since her mother’s death.  Tracy, another of the high school friends, separated from her husband, and living with her two-year old son is a important presence in the novel.As is  Doctor Bakshir, a psychologist who knows many things about many people.
  All this development of character takes time and some patience for the reader, but is ultimately rewarding as events race to a startling climax. Mr.Clifford is a master of depicting the dark side of rural New England. The cold winters, the empty stores and factories, and the residents bleak prospects are  sprit crushing. The good guys are flawed and the villains are usually menacing. Outcomes are rarely pleasing. 
   I recommend The Lakehouse as an exciting crime drama that goes deep into personalities’  pasts to build suspense and whose ending proves that it isn’t over until  the last bone is picked.
 Cautions: Nothing offensive, as far as I recall.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

While The Lakehouse by Joe Clifford isn't necessarily a new favorite of mine, I really enjoyed my time reading it! I read it at a time when I wasn't reading much else, and I genuinely looked forward to picking it back up each night. I do think this is a book that has a lot of potential to be someone's new favorite mystery/thriller, and I look forward to reading more from this author!

Disclaimer: On Goodreads, I no longer give star ratings. However, if forced to do so, I would give The Lakehouse 3 stars, meaning it was a pretty average read for me.

Greg Newman (Goodreads states his name is Todd) was found innocent of murdering his wife, April. April grew up in a small town in Connecticut where everyone knows everybody. For some reason Greg decides to move into the town of his dead wife's family and friends and build a lake house. The residents, most of them, believe he did murder his wife and would prefer he find a different place to call home. 

When a dead body of a woman is found near Greg's house everyone points at Greg for killing yet another girl. The local small town sheriff Duane Sobczak starts to investigate the murder and also starts looking at Greg as a possible suspect.

There are a lot of characters in the book, a bunch of girls who's names start with A, got a bit tedious. Again like so many other books I found the novel a bit long and a bunch of extra writing is thrown in. I believe there really is a required number of pages a novel must have to get published. But I liked the way the ending was done, it was different from most books and left me having to decide what I think happened. I found that refreshing.

This was a tough book for me. It was incredibly slow and confusing. I kept putting it down and coming back to it, but it was never able to grab my attention. The premise sounds great, but the book did not deliver.

Uhhhh... is anyone else confused? I love a good thriller that makes me flip back through chapters to connect all the dots, but I was mostly confused with this one. I scoured for spoilers because I just didn’t get it. If you read this, read slowly.

This book was a bit of a struggle for me to get through, and seemed to lack a bit throughout the story.   There was no real suspense from chapter to chapter that made me want to forgot all my other responsibilities and keep reading.  That being said, it wasn't the worse book I've ever read, and I may even recommend it to others.  Just wasn't really my cup of tea.

The Lakehouse by Joe Clifford is a (super) slow burning mystery that left me feeling confused. Not the best way to start a 4-star review right? But even though there was confusion, and it was a bit slower than I maybe would have liked, I still REALLY enjoyed this book. My friend kindly lent me the physical copy to see if it matched what I had on NetGalley (it did), and I literally cannot get over how gorgeous and fitting the cover is. I do love a good slow burn but be advised the pacing is particularly slow here. I still found the book utterly captivating though so in this instance it didn't really bother me.

The part that confused me the most was all of the "A" names. The Sheriff's daughter's name is Amanda, and then there is also an April and an Amber, all of whom were friends at one point. Mix this in with all the other characters and for some reason I found myself a little lost. So if I had to do anything differently, I would have written everyone down. I also found the very end to be a bit ambiguous for my liking and it went over my head. After speaking to the same friend that loaned me the book, who actually got it, I understood though and that made me like the book even more.

I thought the mystery was good and there are quite a few moving parts. I apparently wasn't smart enough for this book, but I did really appreciate the ride. The Lakehouse is said to be a domestic psychological thriller and I have to say I agree although the thriller part felt more like a mystery to me. The book is told from Tracy and Sheriff Duane Sobczak’s viewpoints along with a couple of other characters and does jump around a little bit. Overall I was a fan, and I will definitely be reading more from Clifford!

Thank you to the publisher for my advance review copy via NetGalley. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

thank you NetGalley for this E-ARC!

this story was a bit slow and parts and I put it down often and would forget to come back.
some parts of it were predictable. I liked it but had potential to be much better. I think if this is your genre it could go either way.

Unfortunately I couldn't really get into this book. It didn't grip me and I just struggled to get through it.

I've read a few of Joe Clifford's other books, which I enjoyed very much, but they were somewhat limited in their breadth by the urban-druggie genre. With The Lakehouse, he's written a book with a much broader appeal and he's done it with terrific style and pace. The story moves like a thoroughbred, and the characters are both original and engaging. The premise--a man acquitted of murdering his wife, then moving back to her small town to build the lakehouse she'd always dreamed of--is stuffed with promise, and Clifford fulfills it to the brim. All in all a terrific read. Highly recommend.