Every small town has its secrets, and Covenant, Connecticut, is no exception.  The book is well written, and Clifford’s writing is engaging. The story starts on the slower side (compared to other thrillers I have read), but it builds at a quick clip. We alternate POV between Dr. Bakshir, Tracy, and Sobczak’s perspectives. Read close enough, and you’ll begin to pick up some clues. 

Each character we meet adds layers to the story. With a murder, multiple missing women, arson, and foggy timelines, we are left to wonder if any or all of these events are related. Small towns are full of lore and gossip - is there a thread of truth to any of these stories?  The last few chapters were faster than the beginning as Clifford reels in all the loose ends. Some of it you may see coming if you were paying attention, other answers may surprise you.

 Overall, this was a solid read for me, and I recommend to thriller lovers.  Even though I felt it started a bit slower initially, it was still a quick read, and think that the slow build worked for this book. I would have liked a bit more background on April, Amber, and Amanda - at times, and they seemed to blend into the same woman. And while I liked the ending, I wanted just a touch more to wrap it up a bit tighter… I can’t say more without any spoiler. 

A huge thank you to NetGalley, Joe Clifford, and Polis Books for my advanced electronic copy.

Pub Date: September 29, 2020

4/5 stars

I thought this was going to be a  certain type of thriller. However the thriller was very much a disappointment. I expected it to be a domestic thriller about a killer who got off and is living in this town where his wife is from. However it just seems to be a poorly written thriller where the twists and turns are disappointing and ended up leaving me feeling like I had wasted my time reading this book. I did not like any of the characters and I was Often annoyed by how the story would expect it to go one way and it ended up being completely different. I also did not like the reveal for who the killer was because it made no sense with how the rest of the story was written. I did like how there was the investigation of actually what happened to these girls and all the connections I thought that was interesting. The rest of the book just left me very annoyed and I’m not sure I would pick up this author again. Thank you to net galley and the publisher for this book in Exchange for an honest review. I’ll thoughts and opinions are my own

Ooo just by the cover I know y’all know that it’s going to be a creepy book! It definitely was which is how I like them! Very suspenseful and such a good thriller.

Todd Newman who has been cleared of his wife's murder has returned to her small Connecticut town to finish building their Lake House. He wants to start over and crawl out from under the shadow of suspicion of doubt and suspicion that surrounds him. Everyone believes he is guilty and when a young woman's body washes up on the beach next door, naturally he is the first suspect, but did he do it?

Tracey Somerset is a divorced single mother raising her two-year-old son.  She is not looking to meet someone when she drives to Walmart to get some medication. But there Todd is, and she enjoys his attention and speaking with him.  She has no idea at the time she is speaking to a man dubbed "The Banker Butcher".

The book is told through the POV of Tracey and the Sheriff, Sheriff Duane Sobczak. Through them, we learn their thoughts and feelings concerning Todd Newman and the investigation into the young women's deaths.  

This will go into the category of liked not loved it.  The story was good, but I wish it was as good as the ending. I enjoyed the last parts of the book the most and the last chapter titled "A year and a half later."  Throughout the book, we get to see that the town is full of secrets and that some will do whatever they must to protect their secrets. 

**an interesting thing, I see that some reviewers are calling Todd Newman "Greg" Newman. In my version of the book he is Todd Newman. I wonder if the Author changed his name.

Thank you to Polis Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book started good for me. I really liked it alot, but to be honest, halfway thru I was a little confused and it was hard to keep the girls straight.  I will read another of this Author's books.

I was excited to check out Joe Clifford's 'The Lakehouse', as I love a good mystery/thriller and the synopsis of this novel definitely made it sound like a winner. Sadly, I was thoroughly disappointed with this book. In a story that felt more like a wild goose chase. There were multiple times when I finished a chapter and then rolled my eyes, feeling like the story was going nowhere. 
I really prefer novels that are more character-focused, especially when it's a thriller where we can dig into clues based on what we know of the characters. Unfortunately, the real mystery here felt like half of each character's personality, as they all lacked depth or relatability. Ultimately, I found myself more frustrated than thrilled throughout this novel.

Todd may have been cleared of his wife's murder but the real Banker Butcher is still on the prowl.

What comes next is a fiasco of shady individuals, and a dead woman's body that has washed up on shore next door.

It's a crazy dark underground of information surrounding a doctor and his patients.

" Sheriff Duane Sobczak’s investigation leads him to town psychiatrist Dr. Meshulum Bakshir, whose position at a troubled girls’ group home a decade ago yields disturbing ties to several local, prominent players, including a radical preacher, a disgraced politician, a down-and-out PI―and Sobczak’s own daughter."

My issue with it was it was way too much too process and jumped from one to another throughout the entirety with no real central focus but more of a wild goose chase.

Then it appeared as if we jumped too quickly from one topic to another and BOOM there is the killer.

Just not my thing but I hope it finds a good home.

Thank you to Joe, the pub, Netgalley, and Amazon Kindle for this ARC in exchange for this honest review.

For the most part, I liked the actual mystery of the story, although it's more the Chief's story than Todd's or anyone else's. However. the satisfaction was upended with the ending, which I'm still not quite sure I totally understand.

Another very good entry from Joe Clifford, this time the setting is small-town New England for this domestic suspense thriller. A couple of good main characters in this one made for a fun and easy read with lots of twists. Would love to read more from him in this genre and hopefully he can reach a wider audience. 4 stars

It was apparent early that this isn't the book for me. I love a good thriller and this just didn't fit the bill. In my opinion, it's hard to get into a book that has underdeveloped characters that just aren't likable. And,, there were just too may to keep track of. I thought from the blurb that I was going to enjoy the storyline, but it just felt completely disjointed to me.

If Little Red Riding Hood were reviewing this book, here are a few thoughts I believe she'd share. 
"What odd pacing you have. My, how conveniently incidental you are. And, oh dear, so many characters its hard to keep sight of them all!." 

This was the kind of book that started off really strong for me and then gradually decreased in likability over time. I'm a picky thriller reader in the first place, and I feel like this one just felt disjointed and lacked suspense. Some of the things that occur made me roll my eyes. This book wasn't bad, but it for sure wasn't for me. I would recommend it to someone, but not someone with similar reading tastes as me.

Creepy small town with lots of secrets, a tragic hero, love lost and a personal mission...  This book will please readers looking for an engaging mystery, a dramatic novel or a tragic romance.  That is not to say it tries to be too much - it is a balanced book with wonderful characters and a commitment to prose which describes without dramatising,

Todd Norman, who was known as “The Banker Butcher” following his wife’s murder is acquitted of all charges and looks to complete the last promise he made to his wife and complete the lake house that they were building in his childhood home of Covenant, CT. 

Tracy, a newly divorced mother to a toddler happens to cross paths with Todd and, not knowing his past, starts to fall for him.

When a body is found on the shore of the lake at the foot of the Norman property, Covenant Police Chief Sobczak and his deputy/son-in-law immediately suspect Todd of doing the unthinkable…again. 

The Lakehouse explores the inter-connectedness of small town life, the secrets everybody knows and the history everyone takes for granted.

Set in a small CT town, the investigation relies quite a bit on what happened in the past as people’s lives overlapped in ways both public and private as well as the things that everyone knew or thought they knew. 
I found the pacing of this book to be disjointed and the characters hard to connect with.  It seemed unfinished or that pieces were removed in editing that would have made it more readable. 

Being from CT, I did spend a bit of time trying to figure out the approximate setting of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the Publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The plot of The Lakehouse is intriguing - a man accused and acquitted of murdering his wife moves back to her hometown where he is ostracized by everyone except a woman who quickly falls for him. While building his lakehouse, a woman's body washes ashore nearby, casting him back into suspicion among the community and his new girlfriend. Told over the course of New England's four seasons, and with a gorgeous cover to boot, I was excited for this story to unfold. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it. 

Some issues I had with this book were:
1. The overall storyline is confusing and convoluted. Based on the synopsis, it was not at all how I expected the story to unfold. I had trouble keeping track of characters and how the plot points connected. The ending was unsatisfactory and, in my opinion, a lot of the story just didn't make sense. Not to mention I felt it focused more on the police chief and high school secrets rather than a potential killer living in the community. 
2. Nearly every character was unlikeable in some way and all were underdeveloped. There's also no reason for Tracy to feel so strongly about Greg right off the bat, and defend him without knowing who he truly is. Their relationship needed to be explored more if we were to believe that she would support him so vehemently. 
3. The titular setting plays an extremely small part in the story. I expected more. 
4. Without giving away any spoilers, I found one plot point of the story to be borderline problematic.
5. I did not care for the writing style of this book. It is written in present tense, with short sentences and sentence fragments. I found it choppy and difficult to read. 

This book might work for someone who enjoys red herrings and an ending left open to interpretation. 

Thanks to NetGalley, Polis Books, and Joe Clifford for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.

Publication date: Sept 15, 2020

The newest psychological thriller, “The Lakehouse” by new to me author Joe Clifford... 

Mystery/ thriller about a woman found on the bank of the lake in front of the new construction of a lake house owned by a man coming back to town after getting off for the murder of his wife. Multiple perspectives, detective POV. Unfortunately, this was not for me.. 

At the beginning, I thought I was going to love this book!! Switching perspectives as you try to place everyone and their actions... but after 50 pages in, the flow started to get confusing and the writing was all show & no tell. I understood the author was trying to make the reader think one person did it, but it just didn’t make ANY sense with the ending... and I guessed one of the twists really early in the book & I personally hate books when men write about high school girls having sex with each other like some teenage boy’s dream..

I was excited to read this book, thinking that it looked like the perfect murder mystery to get me in the mood for fall and Halloween season, and I wasn’t disappointed!!  Clifford writes with an expert hand, shifting easily between his main characters’ perspectives.  I loved the psychological studies of each, as through each character and scene we learn more about the backstories behind the murder mystery and how everyone’s lives are linked together both past and present. Red herrings abound, and I kept changing my guess of who the killer was and their motivation until the shocking conclusion which will knock your socks off!!  This being said, I would have liked a cleaner ending as there were some leftover questions Clifford failed to wrap up completely. I think this book would make for a great movie – it really reminded me of tv shows such as “Criminal Minds.”  It was a quick, well-paced read that I couldn’t put down until I finished.  I’ll definitely look for more titles by this author!

This is my first read from Joe Clifford. It definitely reeled me in from the beginning. It has a great story line, full of twists and turns. It had me guessing even to the last chapter. Clifford has a knack for plot development. I enjoyed the short chapters which all were linked to each other

I didn’t like that I really couldn’t “connect” with any of the characters. I wasn’t particularly rooting for anyone. I also didn’t like some of his writing, it was a bit short and lacked feeling at times. I also felt like there were a lot of characters to keep track of. It wouldn’t have been so bad if their names weren’t so closely tied, like Amber and April, or Todd and Tom. It made it confusing at times. 

Thank you to Polis Books and NetGalley for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a quick read, though the end was unsatisfying to me and left many unanswered questions.  The story centers around a guy named Todd who was acquitted of killing his wife, April, 5 years prior, and returns to her hometown to build a lakehouse that they planned on building together (though his intentions related to returning to her hometown is mentioned in the synopsis and never in the actual book).  Though Todd is the main focus of the story, he is a rather underdeveloped character who we never really get to know, and the chapters alternate between the voices of Tracy, a divorcee who falls in love with Todd, Sobczak, the chief of police convinced of Todd's guilt, and Dr Backshir, the local psychologist. 

There is a lot going on in this story, and a lot of tertiary characters.  You see a lot of the connections between people who have spent their lives in a small town, some of which were a bit cliched but felt (for the most part) believable.  I liked the chief's character and felt that he was the most developed of all of them.  I had an idea of who the villain was, but felt that the story arc was incomplete even when it was revealed.

It was the end that I questioned the most- I reread the last couple chapters a couple times and I am still not sure exactly what happened- I can't decide whether the author intended it to be confusing in order to make it mysterious, or if I just missed something I should have figured out.  Either way, I left the book feeling that there were a great deal of loose ends that needed to be tied up.

Overall, it was a quick read but I can't say it was super memorable for me, other than the fact that I am left with questions.  I hear great things about Clifford's books and think I might try another one, but this one didn't really do it for me.

This is the story of Tracy who meets and begins to date Gregg, who has previously been on trial for the murder of his Wife April. Gregg was found innocent. Now the body of another woman has been found near Gregg's house. Is he the killer? Was the woman murdered? 
There are so many characters in this book it was hard to keep them all straight. Overall a good read, but a lot of unanswered questions at the end. I prefer a book that ties up all the loose ends.

Thanks to netgalley, Joe Clifford and Polis Books for the arc

An enjoyable read that pulls you in.  A question hangs over the head of the man who was accused of murder.  He returns to the small town where his wife was born to complete the lake house.  The police chief piles on the pressure to catch him out and put him away where he thinks he should be.  When the first body is found all eyes turn to him.  But really the chief should be looking closer to home.