Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for a copy of Riley Sager’s The House Across the Lake.

Famed actress Casey Fletcher is an alcoholic, who recently lost her husband in a tragic accident. Her trauma from the loss, along with the drinking, caused her to lose a steady acting job, prompting her family to exile her to the family lake house in a bid to get her to “dry-out” and consider her future. This house has been in Casey’s family for generations and it happens to be on the lake where her husband drowned months earlier. Having no intentions of quitting alcohol, Casey enlists a long-time neighbor to keep her supplied and to keep his mouth shut.

As Casey drinks away her days, she uses binoculars to spy on the new neighbors across the lake; a tech tycoon and his wife, a glamorous mode named Katherine. When Katherine blacks-out during a swim on the lake, Casey saves her, and she begins to suspect that Katherine is involved in an abusive relationship. The more Casey spies on her neighbors, the more her suspicions grow.

This was my first novel by Riley Sager, an author that I had long been interested in reading. I’ve found Sager’s books shelved in the mystery section of bookstores, but this one blends genres, including suspense, horror, and mystery. If pressed, I would shelve it in horror. It’s a mix of Hitchcock’s Rear Window and Blatty’s The Exorcist. Casey’s alcoholism and role of unreliable narrator are reminiscent of the protagonist in Paula Hawkin’s novel, The Girl on the Train. The mix of genres work,, especially in concert with Sager’s quick pacing and atmospheric setting. The House Across the Lake is unsettling and creepy, the type of suspense where you are cringing when the protagonist decides to open the wrong door or enter a dark basement. It’s a visceral reading experience.

I enjoyed The House Across the Lake and look forward to reading Sager’s previous works.