Be careful what you watch for . . .

Casey Fletcher, a recently widowed actress trying to escape a streak of bad press, has retreated to the peace and quiet of her family’s lake house in Vermont. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of bourbon, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple living in the house across the lake. They make for good viewing—a tech innovator, Tom is powerful; and a former model, Katherine is gorgeous.

One day on the lake, Casey saves Katherine from drowning, and the two strike up a budding friendship. But the more they get to know each other—and the longer Casey watches—it becomes clear that Katherine and Tom’s marriage isn’t as perfect as it appears. When Katherine suddenly vanishes, Casey immediately suspects Tom of foul play. What she doesn’t realize is that there’s more to the story than meets the eye—and that shocking secrets can lurk beneath the most placid of surfaces.

Book Type:

Psychological Thriller

Review: The House Across The Lake

Riley Sager returns with a voyeuristic page-turner rife with fascinating characters, ratcheting suspense, and surprises aplenty.

After the unexpected death of her husband, actress Casey Fletcher spirals into an alcoholic binge. After being fired from a movie, she’s exiled to her family’s lake house in Vermont, where she spends days with a glass of bourbon in one hand, binoculars in the other.

Across the lake, Casey spies on former super-model Katherine Royce and her tech-mogul husband, Tom. But when Casey saves Katherine from drowning, the two strike an unexpected friendship. She soon uncovers the glamorous couple isn’t all they seem, an understanding that upends everything when Katherine suddenly vanishes.

Intent on getting to the bottom of Katherine’s disappearance, Casey is desperate to dig out the truth and targets Tom as the culprit, but what she uncovers in the end is something far more frightening.

With themes of grief, love, friendship, and revenge, Sager once again freshens a familiar trope to deliver something wholly unexpected. Between the blur of Casey’s bourbon benders and the unforgiving darkness of the lake, there’s a heavy, almost suffocating feeling that adds to the already sinister and paranoiac atmosphere of the narrative. And as the story gradually unfurls, it soon becomes clear that everything you thought you knew was dead wrong.

Entertaining and suspenseful—the perfect summer escape.

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