3-1/2 stars, rounded up. I listened to The Lake of Lost Girls rather than reading it in print after I realized it's partly in podcast format, with multiple narrators. The narration was excellent and the plot and characters intriguing. The novel opens with two young women podcasters describing their new series, covering the recently reopened investigation into the disappearance of four female college students some twenty-four years earlier. A major character in the novel is the younger sister of one of those students, who was only six years old when her sister disappeared inexplicably after returning home for the little sister's birthday party. The narration moves back and forth in time, recreating events at the college around the time the girls disappeared and then moving into the present day investigation. The end caught me completely by surprise, but made sense for the characters we readers come to know over the course of the story. Well done!

In 1998, Mt. Randall, North Carolina is plagued with a spate of missing girls. All three students at the college in town - Southern State University. One of the missing co-eds, Jessica Fadley, becomes the center of a True Crime podcast that brings the cases back to the forefront of everyone's minds. Of course, she's never left the mind of her little sister, Lindsey, now 30 and the last one to see her alive. When remains are found at the local lake, everyone's emotions are on edge and tensions are high in the little town. What happened to the four missing girls?

What I Liked:
-The dual narration was excellent. Flipping back and forth between Jessica and Lindsey's POVs was very effective.
-The isolated location. It's a small, almost Mayberry-esque town (if Mayberry had a college and had fallen on a bit of rough times) so what could possibly go wrong? It highlighted that there are creeps, pervs, and deranged people literally everywhere and you never know who is or isn't depraved.
-Apparently the audiobook is fantastic. I'm almost sad I read it vs. listened to it but I was able to read it in less than two days (would have been shorter if I hadn't been busy) and I know it would have taken far longer to get the payoff if I had listened to it!

What I didn't Love:
-The end was a bit convoluted and confusing. It took a few minutes of putting it together in my mind before I fully understood where all the chips lay.
-The notion that four different girls at the same school would be involved with two different men at the same time was...weird. Not totally unbelievable, and I get why it was done for the whodunnit element, but it just felt forced occasionally.
-I wish there had been more to Lindsey and Jess's mom. She felt like a shell of a character.

That being said, none of the above took away from my enjoyment of the book. Fast paced, twisty, and even though I predicted MOST of the ending it still took me a bit off guard.

This was such a good dark and twisty cold case audiobook!!! I loved the alternate timelines and podcast elements!! I was hooked from the beginning and couldn’t stop listening.
Jessica was in college in 1998 when she went missing. Twenty four years later her younger sister Lindsey starts digging to try to uncover the mystery of what happened to her sister. Even though I knew earlier on who the suspect was…I was shocked at the twisted ending!!!! Also I think the author does a good job of making you question everyone! We read this for @thrillersbythebookclub.mke and it led to some great discussions!

Thank you @netgalley @crookedlanebooks and @katherinegreeneauthor for this eARC and ALC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Crooked Lane Books for the gifted e-copy.

What a fun and twisty read this was! I had a lot of fun with this one and trying to figure out what happened to these girls and "whodunnit". There are a few red herrings, and a few good twists.

I don't want to give anything away, but definitely check this one out if you like the podcast/dual POV and timeline mystery.

Katherine Greene has given us much food for thought in her latest offering The Lake of Lost Girls. Podcasts are extremely popular at present and weaving them in the narrative of a story makes for riveting reading. With lots of mind bending twist and a supercharged plot line this book will having you reading long into the night. Fours stars from me with thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this early reading copy.

ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a little backlogged with my ARCs but working diligently to get caught up. This book kept me guessing until the very end! There were so many characters that were suspects in the disappearance of three college girls years prior. I liked how they used the element of a podcast to revisit the cold case, with new details coming to light the deeper they got into the case. I would recommend to anyone who likes mysteries, psychological thrillers, and past/present alternating storylines!

2.5 Stars
Thank you NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What did I actually read? I really had high hopes for this novel but it dwindled fast! At times it felt like a 5th grader wrote a jumbled book report.

Katherine Greene submerges readers into a newly reopened cold-case about four missing college girls from the nineties with the promise of a thrilling, suspenseful, and intriguing outcome.
Where? What book is that in? It sure wasn't in this one!

Where was the character development? The main character Lindsay was a total ding-bat. Jess was shallow. Ryan lacked depth as a human being...And the father was creepy af!
OMG the plot was everywhere.
There were so many stereotypes through out the book.
The unhealthy relationships - the mom had Lindsay because she was jealous of the relationship between Jess and her father? Seriously?
The police were idiots that couldn't piece the murders together? Again. Seriously?
The Podcast part of the storyline was ridiculous.
At about chapter 4 I saw the ending from a mile away then just wasted my time reading to the end.
And the author couldn't even tie up the loose ends in the predictable ending?

My 'Thriller' patrons are going to eat me alive for ordering this adolescent garbage.

A really enjoyable, dark, fast paced, true crime thriller! I did guess one of the twists but the other one totally caught me off guard. I love the use of the podcast and other mixed media, as well as the alternating timelines! Definitely recommend!

The Lake of Lost Girls is an engrossing journey into darkness, sisterhood, and the haunting weight of secrets left unresolved. Set against the eerie backdrop of Southern State University in 1998, the novel introduces Jessica Fadley, a freshman whose life is spiraling out of control—until she disappears without a trace.

Fast-forward twenty-four years: Jessica’s sister, Lindsey, seizes the momentum of a hit true crime podcast to reignite the search for Jessica and uncover the disturbing truths behind the disappearances of other missing students. When bodies begin surfacing in a nearby lake, Lindsey’s search turns into an investigation that reveals a twisted web of lies, betrayal, and buried trauma.

Greene masterfully switches between Jessica’s gradual descent into a dark fate and Lindsey’s present-day pursuit for justice, making every chapter pulse with suspense. It’s more than just a mystery—The Lake of Lost Girls dives deep into the complexities of sisterhood and the culture of true crime, questioning the ways we search for, and consume, these tragic stories.

If you’re a fan of chilling thrillers with a touch of true-crime fascination, this one’s for you!

I stayed up SO LATE reading this! I absolutely could not stop! Full of intrigue, twists and shocks, this is one that will stay with me for a long time.

Four girls from the same college all go missing around the same time. The sister of one of the girls wants to find answers years later. Dual timelines and multiple POV make this story hard to put down. Sleep will be lost as you turn the pages wondering what happens next. There are multiple suspects without alibis and plenty of motivation for wanting these girls to go missing. Can you guess who did it? I give this 4.5 stars! I really enjoyed it!

Slowly over the years I have discovered I no longer like reading true crime books where they have podcasts and its like "quirky" girls having a gossip over someone's tragedy. That instantly put me off as I felt that it was not necessary and honestly the writing was just bland to me that I really didnt care or understand what happened.

With the huge rise in the popularity of murder podcasts, it’s no surprise to see this trend reflected in novels. I also enjoy the audio production of these books, which continues to improve. The listener is really immersed in both the podcast and the murder story. "The Lake of Lost Girls" excelled in this aspect.

Set in 1998, the story revolves around four young college students who have gone missing. Are they just typical runaways, or is something more sinister at play? Unfortunately, the lack of investigative effort meant that these disappearances remained unsolved. Then, 24 years later, a body is discovered. With the help of some fortunate podcasters and the sister of one of the missing girls, this case might finally become a solvable murder investigation.

While the overall plot was solid, I didn't particularly care for the main characters, Jessica and Lindsey—their portrayal annoyed me. Additionally, the hints at something paranormal ultimately led nowhere, which felt like an unresolved plot thread.

I had so much fun discussing this one with my book club! I do wish the author had held back a little in the beginning - I guessed the killer quite early on. But I was delighted that I was only partially right, though I didn't care for the big reveal itself (sorry, trying to avoid spoilers!)

This twisted, surprising story was a compulsively readable book. I absolutely thought that I had everything figured out (and was preemptively judging characters because of that), and was still quite surprised by how this one wrapped up. Dark and disturbing, just the way I prefer my mysteries. I appreciated not just the inclusion of the podcast element, but that it wrestled with the issues in the true crime space as well.

I was able to read an early ARC ebook of The Lake of Lost Girls. The title alone was intriguing and it was on wild thriller! The whole story had me hooked and I did not expect that ending!

This book was a wild ride! I loved the podcast elements. I never knew where this book was going. A great thriller. Highly recommend!

While I didn't think the podcast elements in this book added much to the story, this past percent (1998-present day) mystery set on a North Carolina college campus really kept me guessing.

Yes, I did figure out a main part of the resolution (weirdly, I had just read a book with a very similar ending) but I enjoyed mulling over all the clues and changing my mind a few times.

Thanks so much to the publisher for providing me an advance copy of the book.

Anther excellent thriller from this pair of writers. I loved their first book and was so excited for this one! I love the structure of the book with last and present timelines. The past slowly reveling the story and mystery to readers while the present day characters figured out the puzzle. The ending was a perfectly crafted twist! Highly recommend

The Lake of Lost Girls is the kind of book that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go. Katherine Greene masterfully blends past and present in a way that will have you furiously flipping pages, desperate to piece together the truth. The alternating timelines create this delicious tension, with Jessica’s slow unraveling in 1998 feeling hauntingly inevitable while Lindsey’s modern-day investigation keeps you on edge. The use of podcast clips is genius—it feels like you’re in the story, uncovering the mystery alongside the characters. This book is a gripping, atmospheric thriller that will have true crime fans buzzing and leave you questioning how far you’d go for answers.