Sager channels Alfred Hitchcock in one of my favorite thrillers of the summer! Enjoyable characters, plot twists, and superb writing highlight this entry into Sager’s repertoire.

Not my favorite Riley Sager but a very good thriller nevertheless. The plot twists were really good and the overall story was very entertaining but I get a bit tired of the stereotypical alcoholic unrelatable character.

Not my favorite Riley Sager but a very good thriller nevertheless. The plot twists were really good and the overall story was very entertaining but I get a bit tired of the stereotypical alcoholic unrelatable character.

Another great thriller from the master of thrillers! Although this wasn't my favorite, it was Riley's signature language, strong female characters, and constant questions within the story that kept me going. I didn't feel the twists or resolution was quite as clever as I'd hoped but it's a great addition to my collection of all of his novels!!! I will never NOT read a Sager book because not every one of them is going to be a favorite. This one blends some of the cinematic tensions of Survive the Night with the woodsy eerieness of The Last One To Lie and sets it on a creepy lake where everyone is an oddball who might be a killer. Ha ha ha... everything you want when reading poolside this summer.

Riley Sager is one of my favourite thriller authors, and although this wasn't my favourite book of his, I did still really enjoy it. I highly recommend going into this one blind because there are so many twists and turns that you don't want to lose the shock value of!

Pros:
-So many twists!!!
-Super fast paced
-Loved the setting
-Multiple layers of mystery

Cons:
-Substance abuse issues could've been handled more appropriately
-Unreliable female narrator is overdone

Thank you so much @duttonbooks for my early copy! I always love Riley Sager books and look forward to them each year so I jumped and dropped everything at my chance to read this one back in February. It reminded me of a couple other books put together, but I don’t want to spoil anything so I won’t say which ones. If you want to know dm me.

I was able to guess some things, but definitely not all. I would love to see this made into a movie.

I flew through this one, especially the last half. Back to waiting for the next book!

This one just released this week, so if you are a @riley.sager fan definitely pick this one up!

Just because a book has plot twists, doesn't mean that it makes it a good book. While it held my attention, I was just annoyed by the characters the whole time. When you figure put all the plot twists, you realize that there it makes no sense for them to exist because the main character seemed it think and believe when the reader is meant to believe. Of course, you don't want to give away the twists easily, but the main character thought about the situation and seemed like she was trying to figure everything out herself, like everyone else, instead of already knowing some information. I did appreciate the "no body, no crime" quote in the beginning of the book.

Wow wow wow wow! I was pretty skeptical about this book. I was such a big fan of Riley Sager in the past, but his last release, Survive the Night, was not my cup of tea at all. This book sounded like it was going to be just another Rear Window retelling. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love an unreliable narrator and a pair of binoculars, but this book was so much more.

Casey Fletcher escapes to her family's lake house to grieve the loss of her husband. While there, a new family moves in across the lake, and in one of Casey's drunken stupors, she picks up a pair of binoculars. She quickly becomes intrigued with the semi-famous and rich couple across the lake. When the wife goes missing one day, she is immediately suspicious of the husband because she has witnessed some troubling encounters between them from across the lake and through the binoculars. It all leads up to one BIG twist that totally worked for me! I've seen multiple reviews and it seems as if this twist works for you or it doesn't - and there really isn't an in-between. For me, Riley Sager novels are the perfect book to dip into during these hot summer months when heavier and deeper books are harder to focus on. They are the perfect book to read poolside, lakeside, or inside in some cool AC. My only complaint in this one was Casey's excessive drinking - my goodness, it was ridiculous! Other than that, this one is a great companion for the last half of your summer!

Riley Sager is consistently one of my go-to authors. Although not my favorite, The House Across the Lake has the twists and turns that I’ve come to expect in a Sager novel along with some paranormal elements that added to the suspense. The characters are always carefully crafted and get the reader invested right away.

Greatest book I have read in a long time. Twists and turns the whole way through. Looking forward to reading more by this author. Hoping this character appears again.

Although I am getting a little tired of the “woman who is crazy due to substance use problems” storyline in thrillers, the twists and reveals in this book were surprising and that made for a good reading experience. It was not my favorite Sager book but it was what I needed it to be. Fast paced, entertaining and thrilling.

An engaging tale of deceit & murder. Readers who have enjoyed 'The girl on the train' and 'The woman in the window' might like this book. It has both pros and cons -

What works?

- I am usually pretty good at finding clues and unraveling the twists before it is revealed. But, I did not see most twists in this book! It made for a fantastic mystery read! (Gave me goosebumps)

- The characters are flawed but sharp & sympathetic. Especially Casey, despite being an alcoholic drowning in her sorrow, she still manages to fight for others.

- The book's location setting is perfect, making it creepy & mysterious.


What does not?

- The pacing of the book is a huge issue. Most of the story's twists and notable progress occur only after 60% of the book is completed.

- A supernatural element is introduced pretty late in the book, jumping out of nowhere. If only there had been a forewarning, it would have made the twist more believable.

Riley Sager is an automatic read for me. Although his last book wasn't my favorite, this one was a lot more satisfying for me. I always enjoy a big of supernatural/paranormal in my thrillers, but I can see why this might be a bit too weird for some people. At the end of the day, it kept me turning pages, made me want to see what happened next, and was an entertaining time.

If you've read a Riley Sager book, you'll know that this has the same level of thrill and suspense as the others. Riley's books are an automatic read for me since I became a fan, and this book is the perfect summer mystery read!

This was one of those books where I didn’t love nor did I hate. It was just a great plot line that just fell flat on the pages. It’s such a shame because Riley Sager is one of my auto-buy authors and this one just wasn’t up to the likes of Home Before Dark or Lock Every Door.

I did enjoy the paranormal elements he injected. The pace was good, his writing is great as always, great setting, loved the cover - it was the unreliable narrator, the characters were not my favourite and the fact that besides the beginning, the book was just ok. Pretty much all the twists were just thrown in the end.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Here’s hoping his next one is better!

I had high hopes for this book after reading my first Riley Sager book, Survive the Night, last year. This book was very mysterious and intriguing at the beginning, but I lost interest at the twist. Highly unbelievable with supernatural elements.

I’m a big Riley Sager fan. I’ve read all his books and will continue to read his books, but….this one did not work for me. The story felt like I was reading a mix of Woman In The Window and Girl On The Train with a side serving of Behind Her Eyes and The Drowning Kind. The feeling of “been there, done that” resonated so strongly throughout the book that I felt woefully disappointed.

Quick thoughts:
✨Cliché characters - traumatized MC who uses alcohol to cope, a hunky neighbor with a shady past, and a rich asshole white guy with a gorgeous wife. Not much character development - what you see is what you get.
✨Please!!! No more drunk unreliable narrator! Substance abuse as a character trait is outdated.
✨Love the idea of a creepy lake that oozes atmospheric, spooky vibes. Gimme more paranormal and less of Casey drinking bourbon while spying on the rich neighbors. Again, the unreliable character spying plot is repetitive and overdone. 🥱

I realize I won’t love every book my auto-buy authors write. So even though this one didn’t work for me, I’ll surely pick up his next summer’s thriller.

The House on the Lake was your pretty typical Riley Sager book so if a person has liked Sager's books before, and if they don't mind a little touch of the supernatural in their mystery, then I think they would really love this book. I've seen some pretty negative reviews since I started reading it and I think the problem lies in people not realizing Sager has a tendency to add a touch of the paranormal and, if you don't like that kind of thing and aren't expecting it, it could lead to one not liking the book.

Me, though. I like the little twist that Sager typically adds to the book and was able to suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy the book. It was creepy and atmospheric and had me guessing. The "twists" weren't entirely obvious but also weren't so entirely out of the blue other than, as I said, the surprise if you weren't guessing there may be more than meets the eye.

Loved this! The twists really surprised me but what I loved most was the bit of humor, especially in the first half. It reminded me a lot of Rear Window which I love. I loved that the main characters were a little older, not teens or just out of their teens, definitely old enough to know what they were doing. Riley Sager can tell a story well!