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This book had me invested from the very beginning to the end. There was mystery, missing an old love, drama. The characters were believable, and she gave a nod to Winterpeg. Such a great story. I listened to the audio and the narrator was good.

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This one was really slow. It was an okay story but I felt like nothing really happened. Not the kind of thriller I’m used to. There was a lot of potential but this one just wasn’t for me.

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Hopefully this is tge beginning of a new series featuring Sheriff Red Hammergren. Small town winter thriller at its best. A blizzard is ravaging a small town in rural Minnesota, Sherrif Red works a questionable death and possible missing person case. Sheriff Red  has several cold cases in her desk that she revisits each year. Red is called to the scene of a fire, she finds a severely injured high school drug dealer who utters his lasts words to her as he is taken to the ambulance. Soon after she is called to the report of a missing teen. Could all of the cases be tied together? Exciting and well paced, this story will keep you guessing until the final pages.

4 stars

Thank you to Tantor Media for the ALC. The narrator, Elisabeth Ashby was great. Top notch production quality.

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A cabin fire in the middle of a harsh Minnesota snowstorm leaves Sheriff Red Hammergren with a critically injured teenage boy and a missing teenage girl. Racing against the snow, Red pulls at the threads of her small community and finds much more than she bargained for.

Overall I enjoyed this story. The writing is really excellent, and the pacing was good. The issue I ran into was that this book (I see it's the first in a series) introduces SO MANY characters and backstories I really struggled to keep everything straight. If some of the tangential storylines or at least some of the backstory had been cut and then maybe peppered into later installments this likely would have been a five star for me but I just consistently struggled to keep it straight. At one point there is a pretty graphic description of a woman in labor and it was so out of place that I had to check my app to make sure I hadn't accidentally opened the wrong book. Possibly I missed something, but I still do not understand how that scene fit in, but again, it could be because I struggled to understand how all the characters fit.

Still, the writing was good, and the pace was good, I would definitely try a second book in the series, but I would really hope for a much more streamlined case next time because the character issue just really took away from the story.

Unrelated to the writing, I also think the title kind of suggests something very nefarious and vaguely horror genre, as if The Lake is its own character with its own ill intentions or its own history of mysteriously claiming lives and it never really explored that.

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⭐️3.4 Stars⭐️
Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read And The Lake Will Take Them! I’m a sucker for a winter thriller (probably because I live in the desert🌵). I really enjoyed the beginning of this book and loved that it had the sheriff’s point of view as well as the missing teens! I also enjoyed the narrator of this audiobook. As the book went on I was struggling to remember all the characters introduced to the point of when the killer was revealed it took me awhile to remember who that person was in the story because they were barely shown and so many characters were introduced. I also felt like the way the killers mental health was portrayed at the end of the book wasn’t very accurate to someone with her mental health struggles. Other than that I enjoyed the story and would definitely read more from this author in the future! Thank you again to NetGalley!💕📚

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Let me preface this by saying I DNF’d at 50%. For a thriller, I found this book to be very slow paced and a bit all over the place. The MC, Red, had a lot of side quests even just 50% into the book, and I felt a bit bored by the lack of focus on the mystery at hand. There may have been ways this was tied into the end of the story, but I was not engrossed enough to make it to the end of the book to find out. I’m used to thrillers being fast-paced, which I did not find this to be. If you prefer books with a slower pace and less “focus”, this may be a good fit for you. With being halfway through the book, I did not feel that enough had been uncovered in the mystery or that much had happened at all.

I also struggled with the audio performer. I felt she was just a bit flat, although I think that may have to do with the book being in 3rd person.

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And The Lake Will Take Them is a terrific start to a new series featuring a strong female sheriff in a rural MN town in the middle of a winter blizzard. The internal dialogue Sheriff Red Hammergren shares as she links the death of one teenager and the disappearance of another to several cold cases, paints a picture of a strong no-nonsense sheriff who also has great compassion and empathy for the less fortunate. I can’t wait to learn more about the small MN town and the host of interesting characters we have already met.

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This is a review of the audiobook, so I need to get a big complaint out of the way. The narrator was doing some sort of accent for the characters in this small town in Minnesota, and I don't know what it is, but it did not sound Minnesotan at all. I am from Minnesota, albeit the Twin Cities, not rural Minnesota like this book is set, and this just sounded off to me. Now, I don't think I would have noticed or had any particular complaint had the narrator not tried to do any kind of accent, but since the dialogue was read noticeably differently than the rest of the text, obviously she was. The main feature of this "Minnesota" accent seemed to be dropping the g on every single -ing word. Some words, sure, but this is not some kind of stereotypical Minnesota thing, and it didn't sound right to me. I would describe it as maybe she was doing a Southern accent without the twang? I don't know if I could even put my finger on exactly what else was wrong with it, it just sounded off, and I think perhaps it was that mainly she just dropped her g's and then didn't try to do anything Minnesota-y with her vowels and inflection? It was super distracting to me and consequently I spent a large portion of the audiobook waiting for her to say "bag" so I could judge how Minnesotan it was (spoiler: not at all!) It got me very riled up and at one point I shouted "I think you mean hot dish!" when she said the word "casserole", and then remembered I couldn't blame the word choice on the narrator.

However, if you are not from here or if you are less prone to obsessing over such details, you will probably not mind this accent, whatever it is, and other than that the narration was fine--nothing outstanding, but fine.

As for the story, this is the beginning of a series about a widowed 40-something female sheriff in a rural Minnesota county. In the dead of winter, amid multiple snowstorms, she is looking for a missing girl and trying to find the source of some mysterious--possibly drug-related--money. She also has some personal matters going on that lead to the reader getting more background about her late husband and father-in-law, both former sheriffs of the same county.

I thought Red was a fairly likable character. She does her job, goes home to her small dog, and goes to poker night with a group of women in the town. She does go off on political tangents every now and then, which mostly have little to do with the story, but I guess mostly are there to establish Red's character. While I did think they stood out to me as not really flowing well in a few cases, they were generally things I was in total agreement with her about, so it was not anything I minded, but conservative readers who seek to avoid that kind of thing may end up riled up by this book. These political rambles generally ended up with Red thinking about how she had better not mention THAT to the conservative townspeople whose votes she needs, so maybe the point was also to establish how a sheriff is a political animal and needs to behave that way.

The mystery for me, was so-so--I didn't find myself all that invested in what happened to Missy, where the money came from, who killed an unidentified man several decades ago. Red's investigating mostly involved asking everyone she ran into if they'd ever heard of a person named Coke, so I guess the sleuthing was just all right for me too. There was also an unexpectedly vivid birth (or, I guess, pre-birth) scene, and the image of a "throbbing" umbilical cord emerging before the baby is probably the part of the book that will stick with me the longest! This story did keep me engaged though, but I'm not sure it was enough that I'd pick up the next in the series, unless the plot sounds especially good. I did enjoy the small town setting and all the snow, however, and I would be interested to see how Red progresses as a character over further books.

All in all, I'd say check this one out if you think the plot sounds intriguing or you like books set in Minnesota (maybe don't do the audio though...), but it isn't one of the top mysteries I'd recommend.

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This audio was interesting and very entertaining. The cover intrigued me to want to read it so thank you to Netgalley for the audio.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor audio for this ARC of And the Lake Will Take Them.

This book started off a little slow for me, but picked up towards the end. I’m glad it didn’t focus too much on “Not Me” for obvious reasons. There was quite a lot going on and at times that made me feel like the main plot point got put on the back burner. I also wish we would have got a little more from Missy’s perspective too.

I was definitely surprised with the twist. I will say with so many different characters introduced, you couldn’t guess who the culprit was.

I’m also glad Red finally got some peace at the end and got to hang out with her dog, lol.

#AndtheLakeWillTakeThem #NetGalley

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Thank you NetGalley for the ARC opportunity!

This was okay. It kept my attention enough, and the story flowed well but there were parts that felt scattered or like an after thought. I also find it strange that no one caught on to Bobbie’s insane behavior because it was easy to clock almost immediately.

I think this would be a good starter thriller for someone who wants to dip their toe in.

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3.5 stars.

This book was good and the story was interesting but it was a bit slower paced than I would’ve like. Especially since it’s being promoted as a chilling thriller. It’s a great mystery and there are a couple of twists.

If you’re looking for a murder mystery with a strong female lead, then this book is for you!

Snow, missing people, drugs, sex and lies are all interwoven into this one!

Thank you to NetGalley for the audio arc!

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Small town crime has never sounded so good. This audiobook was everything I expected and more, dirty little secrets revealed one by one and a detective with a heavy past and an endearing little pet.

Thank you Netgalley for this ALC.

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"Find coke, find her"
I just finished the audio version and though it was great! I was instantly hooked from the beginning.
(I wish I would have listened to it in the colder months because it takes place during winter in rural Minnesota - making it the perfect addition for your winter TBR pile)

Follow local Sherrif Red as she unravels the truth behind the disappearance of Missy Klein. Shes a character you find yourself rooting for early on and I absolutely loved getting to know her. She is smart as a whip and determined. If you like books with strong female leads, small town secrets, lies, murder and drug trafficking you'll like this one. Publishing later this month, you’ll definitely want to check this it out!

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*ARC Review*

This was a great book with a fabulous main character and lots of mystery. I really liked the setting of the book, especially the bad weather and I was very interested to listen to the story unfold. Great narration!

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I really didn’t know what I was getting into when starting this mystery and I’m glad I didn’t get scared off (after reading just the prologue, lol). I thought it was an interesting read with lots of different things going on (I actually got confused a few times). I liked how the author made everything so descriptive. I really felt like I was in a super small Minnesota town in the dead of winter. I didn’t see the twist coming and I liked how everything came together at the end and I appreciated that. I listened to the audiobook and while I’m not a huge fan of third person narration, I did end up getting used to it. The narrator did a good job as well. I would like to thank Tantor Audio and NetGalley for giving me an ARC (which did not sway my opinions or review).

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I couldn't decide if I loved this book or wasn't fond of it, so I'm giving it a solid 3 stars!

Lots of different mysteries to figure out, sometimes it was a bit hard to follow. It all felt wrapped up too neatly at the end.

With lots of talk of snow and ice, it made me want a cozy drink and to sit by the fire as I finished it,

The big reveal was a little confusing to me. But I finished it in two days because I was curious to see how it ended!

Thanks to the publisher via NetGalley for the chance to listen in advance!

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Solid mystery/thriller that takes place during a Minnesota winter. I loved the added element of the weather, specifically the snowstorms. I felt like I was there in the cold trying to help Red find the missing girl. And the Lake Will Take Them is book 1 in the Sheriff Red Mysteries series. I look forward Linda Norlander’s next book about Sheriff Red. Elisabeth Ashby did an excellent job with the narration, specifically the Minnesota accent.

Thank you to NetGalley & Tantor Audio for letting me read this ARC.

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This book was ok. It was kind of slow. There were parts that confused me, but I still finished. I wouldn’t say this was one of my favorites. I did like the narrator in the audiobook.

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Way too slow for me. Story ok so far, but just lost interest. DNF close to 45%

I received a gifted copy. This review is honest and voluntary.

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