Thank you Net Galley and Katherine Greene for my ebook.

Katherine Greene is the pen name of two writers: A Meredith Walters and Catherine C Riley.

The Lake of Lost Girls is a suspense-filled story about the disappearances of four female college students in 1999. The plot line is driven by alternating past and present narratives of the main characters, and the scripts of a podcast by two annoyingly flippant women seeking out and interviewing possible witnesses to the disappearances twenty-four years ago.

Lindsey is 30 years old and was 6 when her sister, Jess, vanished. Lindsey’s life for the last twenty-four years has been lived under the cloud of Jess’s disappearance, and she has always been desperate to know what happened to her sister. Something happens to bring the disappearances to the attention of the local police once more and at the same time a man seeks Lindsey out at the hotel where she works and tells her he is researching the case.

Lindsey tells her story in the present while her sister, Jess, is speaking from twenty-four years ago. People are not necessarily what they seem to be, which is always an important ingredient in a good mystery story.

This book kept me enthralled from start to finish. There were a lot of twists and turns and I couldn’t begin to guess how the mystery was going to be resolved, right up to the end.

Congratulations, ‘Katherine Greene’, on a terrific collaboration!

Published by Crooked Lane Books

The Lake of Lost Girls exceeded all of my expectations and is easily one of my favorite reads for 2024. Told from multiple viewpoints over different timelines, this book revolves around the disappearance of four college women in 1998, and the review of the cold cases in present day. When a body is discovered at Doll's Eye Lake and a True Crime Podcast releases details of the cold case, Lindsey, a sister of one of the missing women, goes on a journey to discover what happened to her sister all those years ago. As more remains are found, it's only a matter of time before the truth comes out.

I loved this book, and I enjoyed the format of the dual timeline and the true crime podcast snippets sprinkled in. The trauma and grief throughout the book were so realistic and I was desperate to find out what happened. The twists and turns were so unexpected, and it was just a beautiful and well written book. Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane for this ARC!

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC of this haunting mystery.
The setting comes alive in this small town mystery split between two time lines.
The characters are created to come alive in your mind as you sift through freshman Jessica Fadley’s life that is divided between before her sister disappeared in 1998 and the present.
I really liked this book, and I found the ending to be heartbreaking as the truth is revealed.
The ending seemed to come together in a rushed manner, other than that, the book was really well done.

4.5 stars - a brilliant thriller that, although predictable, leaves an impact after you have finished. The pacing was fantastic and I loved the social media aspects that were dotted throughout. Was it fairly obvious what was going on, yes - but I did enjoy the ride.

What a rollercoaster!!! If you’re a fan a true crime podcasts and true crime books, this is right up that alley! It definitely true crime, but the writing style was so relatable. I also felt the writing style was similar to the agggtm series by holly Jackson.

All through the book, the details being uncovered pointed to characters who seemed they like they had a role in the disappearances of the missing college girls. But to find out at the end who really did it was so shocking! This book will keep you invested from start to finish! A great, fast paced read!

The Lake of Lost Girls by Katherine Greene isn't out until later this year but I had an early copy and (at the time of reading) nothing else on my Kindle due to be published soon so figured I'd jump in early. And I discovered that Katherine Greene is the pen name of bestselling authors A Meredith Walters and Claire C Riley. And is it just me or is it weird they both have initials in their names? Interestingly they're both based in the UK but this is set in a small American college town and it's their second collaboration.

It was the second book I'd read in a fairly short timeframe that featured a podcaster, though I have to admit the podcasters here feature fairly minimally, other than to break the dual timeline storytelling and offer up another 'medium' if you like, with the podcast transcript included.

In the present 30 year old Lindsey manages a hotel reception desk and hasn't felt she's able to leave town as her parents have never really recovered from the disappearance of her sister twenty-four years earlier. Although only six at the time, Lindsey looked up to the much-older Jessica and feels her loss keenly as the college student seemed to have been the perfect foil to her parents different styles of parenting and coping.

Jessica was very close to her father and - unfortunately for Lindsey - her mother admits to only having a second child so she had someone who could love her the same way. Jessica was a high-achiever and star student. She was the apple of her father's eye and her mother, though quietly proud, was a hard taskmaster.

In the present the podcasters' decision to revisit the case is timed with the discovery of bones. It seems astonishingly weird that the police at the time did not see the connection between four girls going missing from the same college in a small town... where nothing usually happens. Although we do learn that there was a lot of misinformation shared - both accidentally and on purpose.

Some of this book was predictable. Lindsey meets a journalist staying at the hotel who's after the truth but it's pretty obvious he has an agenda which (thankfully) is fairly quickly revealed. I appreciated the extremes Greene takes with his character and the fact that he's one of several characters with blurred lines of morality and... well, not necessarily at the right end of the good-to-evil spectrum.

On learning of the link between her sister's disappearance and that of other students Lindsay starts digging and soon discovers the Jessica who disappeared was quite different to the one that had started college just months earlier.

I found Greene's storytelling to be engaging and I liked both Lindsay and Jessica. The mystery at the heart of this book easily had my attention but there's also an examination of deeper issues around family and relationships. Around trust and secrets.

We get some hints so it doesn't render the final twist as shocking as it could have been. It's still unexpected, but one's more likely to gasp and then a nod - like 'Ah yes, of course.' Greene gives us lots of red herrings though and characters awash with grey. Not all bad. But perhaps not all good either.

As podcasts have become more and more popular in the last decade, so have books utilizing a podcast element to help tell their story. Books with this format tend to be pretty hit or miss for me. This book uses the podcast trope to explore the connection between the late 1990s disappearances of Jessica Fadley and three other young women to a recent discovery of human remains at a nearby lake.

The story shifts from a present day, first person narrative from Jessica’s sister, Lindsey, to a past narrative from Jessica herself. Interlaced are clips from the Ten Seconds to Vanish podcast, true crime blog posts, newspaper clippings, and more. I, personally, could have done without those add-ins as they didn’t bring any new information to the story that wasn’t already disclosed in the narrative. There were also a few instances where the writing was repetitive or didn’t align with what was said in a previous paragraph.

Jessica and Lindsey had a very similar narrative voice, often times making it difficult to distinguish between the two, and their desperate need for approval from men grew to be so maddening. I wanted to grab their shoulders and shake them like a damn apple tree but that didn’t take away from the overall story for me. In fact, their approval-seeking personalities played in to the plot very well.

What I really enjoyed about the story was the pacing. It kept me wanting more and overall, I found this thriller to be very gripping; I was desperately turning the pages to try and uncover the truth.

In all honesty, this wasn’t the perfect thriller but I still had a lot of fun reading it. I think if you can cast aside your critical mind, it’s an enjoyable ride. 3.5 stars rounded up for Goodreads.

Thank you Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for the digital copy!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book hooked me from the start and I was invested in the story and the mystery we were trying to solve the case of these 4 missing girls who died. This has a past and present timeline. The past timeline is from the older sister Jessica’s POV and the present timeline is of the younger sister Lindsey’s POV. We jump between past and present with each chapter. I thought it could be confusing to keep track of each timeline but the author has done a great job of making this not the case.

Mixed media is also present in this novel in the forms of podcasts, newspaper clippings and social media screenshots. These forms of mixed media sprinkled throughout the story contributed to the immersion of the story.

The characters were also written really well. I felt that by the end I really knew the key players of this story and I especially got to know the two sisters, Jessica and Lindsey. The writing was really easy to read and since this was the first book I read from the author, I look forward to reading more. In terms of a mystery thriller novel, I enjoyed it and would recommend!

I have a little secret…

Katherine Greene. just released one heck of a book, and it’s straight up poppin’!

The Lake of Lost Girls

This book deserves a standing ovation and I am SO here for it.

I cant even tell you what I thought I was going to read compared to what I actually did read but I can tell you, this book is one that I will never be able to stop talking about and it deserves every bit of the hype it is about to get..

Fantastic! This took you for a wild ride! I loved the suspense and the characters. This book was great!

Absolutely devoured this book and loved it. I was not expecting the multiple twists at the end of the book and did not expect that ending either. The story started off as many we have read before with a podcast and a murder but this one had so many unexpected twists and turns that kept me wanting more and more. Highly reccomend!

I received an advanced copy thanks to NetGalley.

This is the exact book I needed. Who dunnit- who killed the four girls in the colleges. The professor? The boyfriend? The sketchy room mate? It made me suspect everyone, they were all a tad sketchy.
My only downfall is it was wrapped up a bit too quickly at the end. But I liked it all the same.

More like 3.5 but I rounded up. I really enjoyed the setting and characters, and all the different pieces. The thing I struggled the most with was the reveal. I think it fit, and I liked it, I just wanted there to be a little more character development to make it a little more believable. Still a solid thriller though!

The Lake of Lost Girls by Katherine Greene is equal parts haunting and heart-wrenching. A stunning tale told in alternating timelines, the format lent itself incredibly well to this tale. I look forward to reading more of Greene's work!

Katherine Greene's "The Lake of Lost Girls" plunges readers into the chilling depths of a cold case mystery, blending suspense, intrigue, and the unbreakable bond of sisterhood. However, as the narrative ebbs and flows, the novel struggles with its plot execution and character development.

Set against the haunting backdrop of Southern State University in 1998, a series of student disappearances casts a long shadow over the campus. Among the missing is Jessica Fadley, whose life's downward spiral becomes the story's focal point. Fast-forward two decades, and we find Jessica's sister, Lindsey, desperately searching for answers, spurred by a new lead from a true crime podcast.

The novel's suspense is its lifeline, with podcast snippets adding a modern edge to the tale, though they often feel more irksome than insightful. The most glaring issue is the implausibility of Jessica's corpse remaining hidden for so long.

At its core, "The Lake of Lost Girls" aspires to captivate with a fresh take on the thriller genre, integrating the allure of true crime podcasts. Yet, the execution of key plot points requires more meticulous handling to achieve a story that resonates with authenticity. For readers who can navigate the unlikable, two-dimensional characters and specific plot inconsistencies, there may still be treasures to uncover in Greene's suspenseful narrative.

I am grateful to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an advanced copy of the book and share my honest impressions.

I'm not sure if I enjoyed this book or enjoyed the concept of it. The story is told between two sisters' viewpoints, one in the past, Jessica, and one in the present, Lindsey. In between their narratives, there's transcripts of a podcast and some pictures and social media posts about the story. Jessica, the older sister, goes "away" to college right outside of her hometown. She goes from being a good grades, education minded girl in high school, to a partying is way more fun than school college girl. While she is trying to navigate who she is now, a girl from her school goes missing. Then another one...and then another one...and then she does too. Twenty-some years later, we're with her little sister Lindsey. The girls are all still missing, the case has gone cold. Then a body is found and things start to come together for the cold case. If you like thrillers that don't want you to look too hard at things (and see the cracks in the story), this one is definitely for you. The ending is supposed to be shocking but barely is and leaves more holes than it fills. The characters are all unlikable, the podcasts hosts are the kind to make fun of a crime more than be sympathetic (a point the book even mentions), the flow of the story is wobbly and not just because of the two narratives. A big theme seems to be police ineptitude, which is mentioned A LOT by everyone. There's a confession at the end, which requires the police to not actually look into anything anyway. I want to mention a full page description of the weird and silly mailboxes in this town. It has nothing to do with the story, it's not even something to divert attention away from a clue, it's just odd filler. If anyone can explain what the purpose of these mailboxes was, I'd be interested to know.

Overall, this is a thriller book, no question about that. There's a crime and it gets solved in a "whaaat" kind of way. There's some holes and odd plot points. The way the story is told between the two sisters is interesting. The podcast stuff would be better if the book wasn't obviously against true crime podcasts. Solid 2.5 stars, very middle of the road all around.

FANTASTIC! Told from different pov’s and different timelines, this is a fun book to read and it keeps throwing twists and turns.

The structure of this book is all over the place and is such an elaborate and over the top web of who is deceiving who that the final resolution was flat out bizarre, then the book just abruptly ends with a neat little wrap up saying what happened to everyone.

The book opens with snippets from a new true crime podcast about a woman Jessica from a local college who went missing in 1999 and then switches to the perspective of that woman's sister, Lindsey, who still lives with her parents in the same town, and Jessica herself, interspersed with podcast updates, Instagram posts, and press relases from the police. The release of the podcast reignites Lindsey's interest in what happened to her sister in addition to the sudden appearance of a man who shows up at her work and promises to help her find out what happened. We then find out that it was actually four women who went missing from the college (including Jessica) and all four knew each other.

Every man in Jessica's life is depicted as a suspect in the most over the top way possible- all of them being creepy, violent, liars with so many red flags it's ridiculous. Obviously of course any author will engage in misdirection to keep the reader guessing, but it was taken so far in this case that it strained credulity. Lindsey encounters some of these men too and ignores every single red flag in a way that doesn't even seem like it's how women are socialized and conditioned to be "nice,"it just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

There are some half hearted attempts at feminism in this book in the form of various women either explicitly saying or thinking to themselves that it's unfair women are responsible for the feelings of men or whatever, but it's shoved in there in an incredibly awkward way that seems like the author felt obligated to make that point. The topic of how true crime media treats women is touched on, but also in a way that seems like the author wanted to make a point, but didn't know how to do so naturally. The podcast text in between certain chapters appears to function as kind of a Greek Chorus to sum up what the actual reader might be thinking in the real world in terms of who is the perpetrator, what actually happened, and so forth.

Just in general a lot of the dialogue and interations between the characters seemed very awkward, stilted, and not at all how anyone would interact in real life. I felt that it was almost like a soap opera in a sense with the melodrama and if it were possible for characters in a book to overact.

Despite all of these reservations I had, I am rounding this up to 3 stars because the story was compelling enough to make me really want to know what had happened. The final resolution was very creative, however incredibly bizarre, unrealistic, and the short little summary of what happened to everyone made it feel very abrupt and like something was missing.

Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books and to NetGalley for this ARC to review. This review is my honest opinion.

A thrilling whodunnit which kept me guessing all the way through. Characterisation was strong as well as the storytelling. Bits of it I think could have been cut shorter as I found myself skimming through some sections. But overall great read which I couldn’t put down

In 1998, four girls from a South Carolina small town college disappeared without a trace, including Lindsey's older sister Jessica. Jessica was the absolute center of the family's universe, and to say she was their father's favorite would be a gross understatement. The shadow of her disappearance and the dysfunction left behind still drives Lindsey's life twenty-four years later. Now an adult in her 30's, Lindsey is a successful hotel manager who lives at home not because she has to but because the trauma their family endured is still so strong they can't seem to break free of it.

Then a decades-old decomposed body is found by Doll's Eye Lake (best atmospherically-creepy-as-hell name I've seen in a while). A popular cold case podcast catches wind of the activity and brings the whole investigation from the disappearances back to light, turning Lindsey's life upside down. The perspective of an adult is different than that of a little girl, and with the unwanted help of a jaded journalist in town to poke old wounds (who just happens to also be an attractive older man), Lindsey discovers there's much more to the mystery of her sister's disappearance.

The Lake of Lost Girls wins on the disturbing atmospheric thriller level, from the little details and Lindsey's discoveries (again, Doll's Eye Lake) to the hints and foreshadowing that Lindsey follows down her path. I enjoyed the time bounces between Jessica's college life leading up to the disappearances and the present day. I also thoroughly enjoyed the flaws and complications in the lead characters which make the story less straightforward and the main players more unpredictable.

Katherine Greene is a pen name for A. Meredith Walters and Claire C. Riley, who have done an excellent job weaving the many facets of the necessary crumbs of thriller/mystery plot right along with the character arcs, so the story moves along at a fast pace and switches timelines without losing any of its heart along the way. I thought the aftermath of the disappearances on Jessica's mental health and the spiral leading to her own disappearance was particularly well done, and that lead up to the reveal of the ending made it satisfying.

I did predict a few big points along the way, including the gist of the end (of course I'm not saying what they were here, that's no fun for anyone, and I'm a weirdo who can be hard to surprise). For that reason alone, I gave this one four stars (thrillers get five stars out of me if I can't predict a darn thing). I enjoyed the hell out of this one and I could see it as a Lifetime or Netflix movie.

The Lake of Lost Girls will be available in all the usual places on November 5, 2024.