Not the cemetary, but the Lake

 I'm running behind on updates again.

So, Riley Sager wrote another late summer thriller, and once again, I wound up reading it, expecting the same issues I run in to with his narratives. 

Honestly, The House Across the Lake is a step up from previous novels by the author, but it does suffer from a problem with sticking two major twists too close together, so that the effectiveness of the final twist suffers. 

We open on Casey Fletcher, an actress who has been schlepped up to her lakeside Vermont estate after her drinking problem got so out of control that she got fired from a Broadway play she was starring in. WE find out that Casey's drinking issues stem from her husband drowning in the lake she's currently trapped at a year prior. (Yes, I didn't make the connection that Casey is a rough cypher for Carrie Fisher until I started writing this review.)

Anyway, We have four other people staying at the lake, which is fairly isolated and very rich. Eli, an old sci-fi author is the only year round resident. We have Boone, a recovering alcoholic ex cop restoring the neighbor's house. And we have Tom and Katherine,  the former a tech millionaire, and the latter a supermodel. 

We get introduced to Katherine as Casey saves her from drowning in the lake. 

Anyway, the story becomes equal parts Rear Window, and a few other horror movies we won't mention due to spoilers, as a hurricane remnant approaches, and Casey starts spying on the neighbors with her dead husband's bird watching binoculars, as we find out EVERYONE's dirty secrets. 

I mean, the overwhelming sense of catharsis is palpable as we hit the first finale, but then there's the second finale that falls kind of flat following the original reveal. Past that, it's what I expect from Sager, readable fun.