This really fell flat for me.

While I enjoyed the atmosphere and the setting in this book, the plot and characters honestly just felt very uninspiring and this story could have very easily been cut down to a novella length.
This book felt very rushed and surface level, while also being stuffed full of what is essentially useless fluff and I didn't find it particularly thrilling.

Overall, a bit of a let down.

This is a great thriller with a few surprises in store.
Casey goes to stay at her lake house in Vermont to have some time to herself, and she passes the time by watching the neighbours through her binoculars.
She meets Katherine after saving her from drowning in the lake and they then become friends.
There’s lots going on in the lives of both Casey and Katherine but neither of them realise there is a killer staying by the lake.
This story has many layers and I really enjoyed how it all came together.
A great read.
Thanks to Hodder and Stoughton and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an advance copy of The House across the Lake, a stand-alone psychological thriller set on Lake Greene, Vermont.

Casey Fletcher is recently widowed and medicating her grief with alcohol, so after tabloid headlines her mother sends her to the family lake house to hide and heal. The glamorous couple in the glass house across the lake attract her attention and she gets a bit obsessive about their comings and goings, but is everything as it seems?

I will come clean and state that I don’t read a lot of psychological thrillers, because I often find the protagonists’ actions baffling and illogical, but I’m always prepared to make an exception for Mr Sager as I like the way he builds the tension and his story then knocks the reader for six with some unexpected and game changing twists. The House across the Lake is no different, well, apart from the supernatural element that definitely threw me. Still, it’s a major twist, albeit unexpected and out of the norm.

I found much of the novel slow going until the last quarter where the action ramps up and the twists keep coming. It is told from Casey’s point of view, so while it is tense and full of not just her suspicions but her erratic behaviour it is hard to forget that she is an alcoholic and almost permanently plastered. This for me meant that it was difficult to believe almost anything she said or thought and diminished some of the tension. On the other hand I liked the alternating timelines between “now” and “before” with the “now” supplying the mystery and the “before” the tension and latterly the explanations.

I’m not sure what I think about the supernatural element in the novel. Obviously it’s not realistic and not something I can believe in, but it offers something a bit different and it’s cleverly done so I have no objection to it.

The House across the Lake is a good read that I can recommend.

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for this copy for review.

This book had me hooked. I read it all in a 24hour period, and that is testament to Sager’s writing style. It is certainly compelling, as any good thriller should be.

The cast of characters are all well-written and fully formed, and there is enough intrigue about them all to keep the reader wanting more from them, without making them inaccessible.

However, this is only a 3 star book for me. A certain twist comes along, and for me, ruined it due to that fact that it just is not believable, and I prefer my thriller to be completely believable. Once that twist happened, it was difficult to recover, even though that last 30 pages were stellar writing, in my opinion.

People who are not bothered by unbelievable explanations will enjoy this book, but that just isn’t me.

Lacey, who drinks too much, watches the house across the lake through her deceased husband's binoculars. When Katherine disappears from the house, Lacey becomes convinced something terrible has happened, so investigates with her neighbour Boone.
Roller coaster of a read, with ghost stories of the lake and everyone becoming a suspect with strange occurrences. Totally surprised, so excellent!

Another brilliant book by Riley Sager. I loved the respectable nod to rear window, this book is amazing and has so many twists. Highly recommended xx

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager

Casey, a flailing actor and raging alcoholic, hides away at her house on the lake numbing both the death of her husband and her career. In her drunken stupor, she spies on her neighbours, each with their own secrets.

When her new neighbour, could-be friend, near drowns and then vanishes, Casey is determined to uncover the truth.

This was a fairly enjoyable read. I really liked Sager’s writing voice and read this book quickly. The split chapters between ‘then’ and ‘now’ helped the pace and keep some level of intrigue.

A lot of people have recommended Sager’s writing to me as solidly thrilling and something a bit meatier than a casual summer read. Perhaps this wasn’t the book to start with? Whilst it was enjoyable, I wasn’t gripped. I found the main character mildly irritating and her reckless decisions right from the off a little unbelievable. But she is the most fully formed. I couldn’t really form an opinion about any other character as they felt very flat and not well developed.

I didn’t see the twist/s coming so there was some enjoyment in that but the supernatural development that unlocks it all didn’t fully convince me.

Overall an enjoyable read but not one I am likely to reach for again. I will however check out earlier Riley Sager novels to find what I’m looking for.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for gifting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really.enjoyed this. It was full of intrigue and suspense and I flew through it. I was surprised at the ending and thought it was good, but it also stopped me rating it five stars.....so ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 it is! Bloody brilliant and worth picking up!

The House Across the Lake is an eerie thriller with so many twists and turns I was completely gripped right up until the final page. Casey, overly reliant on alcohol to numb the grief of losing her husband, is hiding in her family's lake house when a couple move into the house across the lake from her. What follows is an edge of your seat mystery with a pinch of gothic horror.

I cannot recommend this book enough - it wrapped itself around me and still hasn't let go!

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 rounded to 5 for Goodreads/Netgalley

"The lake is darker than a coffin with the lid shut... and as deep as the ocean. if you sink under, you'll never come back up again. you'll be trapped forever."

WOW! I loved this book so much ! This is my third Riley Sager book and I am becoming addicted. This story is told from the POV of Casey, a widowed, alcoholic actress trying to hide away at her family's lake house after some bad publicity. She finds herself in a tricky situation while drinking her life away and spying on her famous neighbors- Tom and Katherine Royce. After she saves Katherine from drowning, she becomes even more obsessed and notices one day that she is missing. Instant detective mode ! The story goes back and forth from BEFORE she went missing and AFTER she goes missing, which I loved, and every time I thought I had it figured out what happened to Katherine, the road turned in a completely different direction ! I LOVE LOVE LOVED the twist !! never saw it coming and it was just the cherry on top!! so perfect and unexpected !! The beginning was a little slow IMO, but once the action starts it never stops and is incredible !! Highly Recommend!!!!

"I think he did, but I just can't prove it." -Taylor Swift, No Body, No Crime

Thank you Hodder and Stoughton, Netgalley and Riley Sager for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

I've read all of Riley Sager's books and was excited to read The House Across the Lake, but unfortunately ended up feeling very disappointed.

The characters were unlikeable and the plot felt like a generic domestic thriller until it started to descend into chaos towards the end. No spoilers but I HATED the direction this went in.

As I started to read this I began to get serious 'The Girl on the Train' vibes mixed with 'The Woman in the Window'. Casey is the alcoholic unreliable narrator, grieving the loss of her husband and her career that went into meltdown as she tried unsuccessfully to cope as a widow. Seeking refuge from the press in the family lake house, she becomes obsessed with the couple living across the lake.
After rescuing Katherine, the wife of the couple, she becomes starts to suspect that the husband, Tom, is responsible for her near drowning, and becomes convinced that he has murdered her when Katherine goes missing.

Of course, this is a Riley Sager novel, so there are plenty of twists and turns that throw every suspicion I had up in the air. However, this time they came quite late in the book, and boy did I need to suspend disbelief when they came. I wasn't expecting this type of twist at all, there was very little to suggest that the plot would go in this direction, so I felt kind of cheated that it did.

If you are new to Riley Sager I would suggest starting with one of his other books, probably The Last Time I Lied.

I would like to thank the publishers and NetGalley for the advance copy in return for an honest review.

To be honest: I do not always get the hype of Riley Sager's books. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy them all, but well, the last bit for a total 5-star was always missing for me.
And then The House Across the Lake came along. And finally: this one hit every single point in my definition of a perfect psychological thriller!
I immediately built an emotional relationship with Casey Fletcher, the widowed actress. And as a result of this could not stop reading!
Thanks #NetGalley #Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC of this book which will be published on 07 Jul 2022

Wow! I haven't read any of Riley Sager's books before but I will be.
This was such a great thriller with so many twists and turns it kept me guessing through the whole book.
I loved the dual timeline aspect and this added to the suspense and drama with more being revealed each time we went to the "now".
I will be recommending this to anyone who enjoys thrillers.

Recently widowed, Casey has escaped her high profile life as an actress by spending time at her secluded lake house. With little else to do, she's taken to watching her neighbours, the retired supermodel Katherine and her tech husband Tom Royce, across the lake. And the more Casey watches, the more obvious it becomes that Katherine and Tom have far from the perfect marriage. So when Katherine mysteriously disappears one night, Casey takes it upon herself to investigate. But she might uncover more than she bargained for.

I'm really not having a good time with Riley Sager these days. Although the atmosphere and build up for this were good, especially the scenes with Casey in the Royce house and the tension this creates with an obvious homage to Rear Window, it suffers a lot of the same problems that Survive the Night had for me. The characters are all deeply unlikeable, especially the female protagonists. Casey and Katherine don't really feel fleshed out or well developed, falling back onto the tired trope of the unreliable female narrator who drinks too much and has major personal issues. The story doesn't try to do anything new with this trope, and quite honestly I just found myself bored for a lot of the plot and didn't care about the characters. The only saving grace is that it was fast paced.

My other major issue, which is a bit of a spoiler, is that the supernatural elements go largely unexplained. You can't introduce such a massive fantastical element into the plot without any backstory to it otherwise it just feels unfinished and used only for shock value. I don't like supernatural elements to thrillers. I find it makes the plot twists lazy, and honestly if I wanted something fantastical I'd read a fantasy. I can't suspend my disbelief without a valid reason.

Disappointing, but if you liked Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough or Layla by Colleen Hoover you'll probably enjoy this.

Thank you NetGalley for the Arc of The House Across The Lake by Riley Sager in return for my honest review.
This is the first book I have read by this author and it certainly wont be the last, I was hooked from the very first chapter till the last, it is a brilliantly written thriller with a shocking twist I didn’t see coming. I will defiantly be adding Rileys other books to my ever growing to be read pile. I recommend reading this book you really wont be disappointed.

Riley Sager is one of my favorite thriller writers and I really wanted to love this book, but it didn‘t sweep me off my feet. The story was predictable, dull and not plausible though the writing style was as always impeccable. Hopefully his upcoming thriller will be a hit for me.

Thank you NetGalley / Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not 100% sold on this one. The beginning was a bit slow, I couldn’t really vibe with Casey. It reminded me of The Woman in the Window with a drunken lady watching her neighbours and then seeing something she shouldn’t have. As the action kicked in and the ‘twist’ was revealed it felt like a trope I’ve read in a few other thrillers and I must admit I was disappointed that that was what all the build up had mounted to. There was a few other twists that I didn’t see it coming towards the end of the book that improved it but all in all this wasn’t spectacular and wasn’t one of his better books.

Love love love this book! We are all nosey neighbours; some of us more willing than others to admit this! So imagine you lived where your neighbours have a glass house and you have a front row seat, add in drama, celebrity and psychopaths, and you have a recipe for a very very very good book. The characters are likeable yet annoying. The setting is idealic yet creepy. And the story is realistic yet spell binding! For all those who grew up in the era of the slasher movies ('Do you like scary movies?'), this is one not to be missed!

With a cast of mysterious post-fame characters, a creepy lakeside setting and a series of twists I did not see coming, this book has all the elements of a memorable thriller. And Riley Sager's sharp, unsettling writing style grabs hold of you from the very first line.

I'm a huge fan of the way Sager creates tension in scenes where not much is happening, and makes you newly suspicious whenever a character is introduced to the plot. I don't think I trusted any of the characters in this book, including the main character (as she was often befuddled by too much alcohol), and I felt on the edge of my seat at all times, even when Casey was doing nothing more than sitting on her porch.

I had theories about how the story would play out, having read other thrillers based on the concept of 'I saw something bad happen in the neighbours' house', but all my expectations were turned on their heads in the last quarter of the book. Trust me, you won't be expecting the crazy turn it takes. It's shocking and wild and a branch out into a genre I haven't seen much of from Sager, all of which certainly work in the story's favour.

I do have some unanswered questions about how the natural and supernatural combine, and how some of the legal procedures were handled, but any book that can keep me up late into the night (both terrifying and captivating me) certainly still deserves my recommendation.