Bitterroot Lake is a new release by an author I've previously read under a different pseudonym. I've enjoyed her lighter, amateur sleuth mystery series, which made it an easy decision to read this evolution into a darker, more suspenseful novel. To begin with, the cover is enchanting and inviting. Had I not known the author's identity, I still would've picked it up. Given the title, you know it has some lengthy history to cover, and there will be tons of hidden and not-so-hidden metaphors about character personalities and troubled pasts, right?

Sarah has tried to forget some of her past. As a teenager, one friend was attacked, another killed in a strange car accident. Of the two surviving victims, one became her husband... the other a much-disliked lawyer. When the lawyer turns up dead, and notes about the so-called accident come flooding back the week after Sarah's husband dies of cancer, nothing adds up. She's a window in her 40s; her mother also lost her husband a few years ago, and now she wants to sell the family's childhood home, a large lakeside estate that could become a B&B.

The book has all the elements of a dark and complicated mystery. Multiple streams and stories run through the pages, connecting the past and the future. Sarah's 3 girlfriends reappear with letters stating that someone knows what happened years ago. What could it be? Unlike the author's other work, there isn't an amateur sleuth. Sarah is simply trying to grieve and process her husband's death while figuring out what happened to her life and friendships. Who is following her? Why the sudden urge to sell the home? And who is the woman appearing in a vision that has a connection to her grandparents and great-grandparents who originally built / enlarged the structure?

I appreciated the characterizations and settings in this book. It draws you in, painting a beautiful picture of an idyllic scene that has been tarnished by anger, revenge, and secrets. Sarah is well developed, but she's also ordinary... meaning relatable. Although she has a bit of money, she's first a mother and a widow... it's about overcoming pain and learning you might've been blind to the truth in the past. It's not a fast-paced suspense novel where you turn the pages to guess who killed the lawyer. I almost didn't care who killed him; I wanted to know about the ghost and how what seemed like a regular car accident could really be more.

The writing quality is strong. Some areas were a bit more descriptive than necessary, and it would've been elevated higher had the various stories / plots intersected a bit more. In some cases, I felt like there were details left out that might enhance the intrigue or suspense. Minor stuff. It shows the author can move into other genres and has a lot of promise to come for future books beyond her current series. I liked visiting Montana, which was new to me. It sounds like a stunning place. Thanks for a good read.

"When four women separated by tragedy reunite at a lakeside Montana lodge, murder forces them to confront everything they thought they knew about the terrifying accident that tore them apart, in Agatha Award-winning author Alicia Beckman's suspense debut.

Twenty-five years ago, during a celebratory weekend at historic Whitetail Lodge, Sarah McCaskill had a vision. A dream. A nightmare. When a young man was killed, Sarah's guilt over having ignored the warning in her dreams devastated her. Her friendships with her closest friends, and her sister, fell apart as she worked to build a new life in a new city. But she never stopped loving Whitetail Lodge on the shores of Bitterroot Lake.

Now that she's a young widow, her mother urges her to return to the lodge for healing. But when she arrives, she's greeted by an old friend - and by news of a murder that's clearly tied to that tragic day she'll never forget.

And the dreams are back, too. What dangers are they warning of this time? As Sarah and her friends dig into the history of the lodge and the McCaskill family, they uncover a legacy of secrets and make a discovery that gives a chilling new meaning to the dreams. Now, they can no longer ignore the ominous portents from the past that point to a danger more present than any of them could know."

Prescient nightmares, YAS!

This was such a great and emotional read. It covered so many topics such as attempted rape, murder, mental healing, the death of a loved one, and fixing friendships.
This book has an element supernatural in it. Sarah identifies her “visitor” from an old picture she finds in one of her ancestor's photo albums, As she finally begins to talk about the visitations, she learns that she is not the only one who has seen the mysterious young woman. Anja was an employee of the lodge many, many years earlier. She died under somewhat mysterious circumstances.
An intriguing spin on the "I know what you did" story entwined with a multitude of suspects and suspicion due to an abundance of secrets between the main characters leads to a plot that will keep you turning pages and trying to figure out who the real villain is. Well-written and great characters with strengths, weaknesses, and flaws that make them all the more real.

Bitterroot Lake is intriguing and a page turner. The characters will take you on a journey through their family history. You'll enjoy learning about their ancestors. There's also a modern murder to solve. It will keep you guessing.

Bitterroot Lake , even the name of the lake is eerie, is book that contains rape, mystery, murder, grieving, secrets and revenge.

Twenty -five years ago at the lake, Sarah and her friends were at a party that went horribly wrong and two of them died.

Sarah has returned to Whitetail Lodge to heal after the passing of her husband only to learn that driver responsible twenty-five years ago has been murdered.

Whitetail Lodge itself is in bad shape and the house holds many secrets .

These secrets seem somehow to be tied to the murder or are they?

Can they save the Lodge and clear their friends name who is a person of interest.

I don't want to say much more and give things away but a lot happens at Whitetail Lodge.

The pages flew by as the suspense grew.

Thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an intriguing read.

A great thriller with well-developed characters and lots of twists and turns with a tinge of supernatural in it as well. It's a slow burn so if you're looking for a fast-paced edge of your seat type of thriller, this one might not be the one for you.

A story of mystery, murder, and mourning.

After losing her husband, Sarah McCaskill returns back to the family's Whitetail Lodge on the shores of Bitterroot Lake. Her mother wants her to experience healing, but instead, Sarah is confronted with bad memories of the past. 25 years prior, during a weekend of fun on the lake, Sarah and her friends lost one of their own in a tragic car accident. Now, the person responsible for the death is dead himself, and no one knows who did it.

Ultimately, this book is chock full of secrets unknown to the other characters and you, the reader. I loved the atmosphere of Whitetail Lodge and the town of Deer Park, along with the many members of the town. This novel kept my attention, mainly because I had absolutely no idea where the book was going and what all of the hints at secrets meant. The murder is kept on the back burner, not something I was really expecting, but not something I completely disliked either. It added to the intrigue for me because I was left wondering.

Overall, this is a novel of love, loss, and tragedy, and how to cope with all of these things. Sarah has so much pain from losing her husband, and I think this is something so many could relate to. Additionally, we experience what it does to others when we keep secrets from our friends and family.

The ending was abrupt and not my favorite, but this novel kept my attention through and through, even if it was because I was confused and wondering how it was going to tie together.

Trigger Warnings: Rape, death of loved ones, potential suicide reference

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I felt that this was hard to get invested it. I enjoyed it, but it moved slowly in places, and also seemed to move too fast in other places, leaving me confused as to what was happening. I liked the revelations about Sarah's family history & the history of the lodge. I liked the mystery aspect of the book, and did not pick who the murderer was.

An intriguing spin on the "I know what you did" story entwined with a multitude of suspects and suspicion due to an abundance of secrets between the main characters leads to a plot that will keep you turning pages and trying to figure out who the real villain is. Well written and great characters with strengths, weaknesses and flaws that make them all the more real. I absolutely can't wait to read more of this authors books as this one was a first for me.

After the death of her husband Sarah McCaskill returns to Whitehill Lodge, the family's summer home. Twenty-five years prior, another tragic accident claimed the life of one of Sarah's friends and injured two others. Now one of those men has been found murdered and all the bad vibes flood back to Sarah's mind. She begins having dreams about the night and worries they are an indicator of things to come. An interesting mystery.

I found this to be an interesting story and I liked the supernatural element. I liked learning the history of the lodge and thought that it added to the story. The writing was good and kept me engaged throughout.
Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Here’s what worked for me: the setting! I loved the strong sense of place...and I loved the “coming back home” narrative.

Here’s what didn’t work so well: I found the pacing of this book to be off...too much happened “off screen” at the very start of the novel, and I felt adrift (perhaps intentionally so, I acknowledge). I wanted to care more about the characters than I did.

I deeply appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book - I am looking forward to more of Ms. Beckman’s work.

Bitterroot Lake sounded like it would be an interesting mystery, and it was. Lots to keep the reader interested in way of a murder, suspense, unsolved family drama, etc. My only issue was that it did seem to take a bit longer to wrap up than necessary, but still worth reading. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this advanced readers copy.

Four college friends unexpectedly reunite at a Montana lake house 25 years after an event rocked their lives. The carnage from this event lives on as a recent murder occurs and one of the friends stands accused. The four women try to forge together to put the past behind them and help their friend, despite ghostly dreams portending trouble.

This book was atmospheric and suspenseful.

This is one of those books that has all the ingredients I love in a book (a murder, a ghost, a creepy old lodge!) but I just couldn't connect with it and I can't put my finger on why. It centers on Sarah and is told primarily from her point of view. Sarah lost touch with her group of friends after an incident in their early 20s and returned to her family's Montana lodge 20+ years later after her husband dies from cancer, only to be faced with the murder of the guy who caused all the fallout all those years ago.

The author spent more time developing Sarah's character than the other characters and I thought she was likeable, but just didn't really connect with her. There was a lot of time and words spent on the history of the lodge and the old owners, and I wish that there would have been less of that and more of getting to know the current characters.

When the mystery between both the murder and the history of the lodge were solved, they were unexpectedly, but honestly I just wasn't that invested.

Overall, I really can't decide why I wasn't into this book- the only thing I can put it down to is just too much bland detail and not enough action, even though all the pieces were there. I don't know that I will read another book from this author. Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ugh, why is 2021 ruining me for books!? Not a single A grade yet and I'm into February already!

This was a book I really wasn't sure if I would like or not, but it sounded relatively interesting, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Although it started off decent enough, I got bored quickly. There's way too much description in this book, and it ended up evolving into this weird story. I loved the idea of something happening years ago and then friends coming back together years later when another tragedy strikes.

However, what I don't like is when a simple mystery turns into a history and ghost story. I wanted this to be one story and it morphed into other stories that just did not meld together for me.

The only reason this book didn't complete fail for me is that I did still have to know what happened at the end, but I skimmed through about the last quarter of it to get there. Definitely not worth the time.

Bitterroot Lake
“When four women separated by tragedy reunite at a lakeside Montana lodge, murder forces them to confront everything they thought they knew about the terrifying accident that tore them apart.”

This was such a great and emotional read. It covered so many topics such as attempted rape, murder, mental healing, death of a loved one, and fixing friendships. Thank you to crooked lane books for this digital copy to read and review, and thank you to NetGalley for your amazing platform!

This story follows Sarah, whose husband had just recently passed. She heads to the family lodge she grew up around that has so much history and so many memories. When she arrives at the lodge, she finds an old friend, Janine hiding out there. It comes out that she went to confront a man who ruined their lives and found him dead. Sarah and Janine know they will pin the killing on her. A very tragic situation took place in these ladies lives and the whole gang of friends reunite to help Janine and figure out what happened. During all this craziness, Sarah begins having dreams about a woman walking to the lake. As she dives into the history of the lodge she realizes all the things that have happened and what people have gone through in the years.

This is a hard book to review without giving away spoilers so I tried my best. This book will be released in April so you should totally add this to your carts or your TBR list!

#justonemorechapter #crookedlanebooks #netgalley #bitterrootlake #digitalarc #digitalbook #januaryreads #saturdaymorningreads #bookaddict #bookobsessed #bookjourney #2021books

Intriguing mystery that keeps you guessing with characters who feel real. Plenty of twists throughout keep the ending a surprise.

Sarah McCaskill Carter has returned to her family lodge in Montana after her husband passed from cancer. At the lodge she is surprised to find an old friend from 25 years ago. A friend that was assaulted and her assaliant; Lucas caused a wreck killing another of their friends.

Now Sarah finds out that Lucas has been shot and killed. Her and her friends must solve the secrest from their past to help uncover the secrets in the present.

Told mainly from Sarah point of view their is so much history told about the lodge. In my opinion some of that history bogged down the story and I found myself confused. The description of the lodge was wonderfully written though. I would say that this is more of a slow burn suspense novel. There were some twists and turns that kept me engaged as well. I look forward to reading more from this author.
Thank you NetGalley, Alicia Beckman and Crooked Lane Books for this advanced reader copy. Pub Date April 13th 2021

I had a list of titles I was reading and this was the last one I added - I skipped the other 9 books in front of it because the cover and synopsis drew me in. I LOVE this book and recommend it.