Review: The Dark Lake

The Dark Lake

Sarah Bailey

When a high school teacher, Rosalind Ryan's body is found floating in a lake near her school, it falls to Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock to find the killer. The only thing is, Woodstock has a dark secret that involved Rosalind that may get in the way of her investigation. Moreover, Gemma is carrying on an affair with her married partner Detective Felix McKinnon, which threatens to spill over into her everyday life and the investigation. It's unclear whether the duo will be able to find the killer of the enigmatic, beautiful teacher. But despite her complicated life Gemma intends to keep searching.

I found this book to be an interesting mystery but not quite as “thrilling' as I had imagined it would be. While the story is set in Australia, I didn't feel the author did much to transport me there. It seemed like a story that could have been anywhere, which was a little disappointing to me. Also, about halfway through the story, I got a little tired of detective Woodstock's love life and the affair with her colleague. It seemed to drag along, and she appeared to moan about her problems too much, which left me, if not disliking her, then certainly not feeling great affection for her.

Luckily, there was an unforeseen twist in the story a little more than mid-way through that brought me back around and changed the focus back to the investigation. I think that made this book more enjoyable. While this is not a bad book, it also isn't the most interesting or thrilling one I've read lately.

Thanks to Shelf-Awareness and Grand Central Publishing for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.