Crime Fiction | 276 Pages
Publication Date: 12 September 2023

A desperate woman. An irresistible invitation. An escalating nightmare of secrets, lies, and murder.

All Bree wants is a good nights sleep unfortunately for her that is not going to happen. Homeless, penniless and out of options. Well until she finds a home in Beverley Hills that is currently unoccupied. She sneaks in to sleep in the pool house. The owner’s daughter – Sophie finds Bree has been staying at the home but instead of kicking her out she invites her to stay and drops a care package off to her with an invitation to a party at the house. A dead body is found in the pool the next morning. Who is it and why?

The book is told from the points of view of Bree, Sophie, Carter and Luke on different timelines. Don’t let the cast of characters surprise you, they all intertwined very well and you can follow the along very easily. I enjoyed each and every character. It was such a gripping and fast read for me, full of mystery and suspense. I finished this one in a few days and can’t wait to read more from Susan Walter in the future.

Thank you Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for sending me a gifted copy of this e-book for my honest book review.

A handful of perfectly ordinary young people become wrapped up in a shockingly large, organized crime ring in Southern California in this new novel by Susan Walters.

I absolutely loved everything about this book. I had very high expectations for this one because I loved 'Good as Dead' so much, but this one completely blew them away. Alternating the perspectives of some very normal people put in very high stakes situations kept the story moving so fast you can't put it down. It's hard to be more specific about things I loved without spoilers, but this book was just fantastic. I cannot wait for more from this author!!!

I'd had Lie by the Pool by Susan Walter awaiting me on my iPad for a while before getting to it. I'm not sure why I requested it, but something about it leapt out and I've seen other Aussie bookbloggers or bookstagrammers reading it too. In some ways it's a proverbial sleeper. We come into the story part-way through. Bree has lost everything - her husband and house - and is living out of her car. When we meet her she's sneaking into the poolhouse of a large house in Beverley Hills. It's obvious that it's familiar to her for some reason but that's all we know. And that's all we do know until Walter very cleverly starts pulling together multiple threads.

There are a few narrators here. Bree of course. And then there's Carter - the son of a builder who flips houses and who discovers his father has bought the Beverley Hills house. He's furious he wasn't told and doesn't understand why there's some secrecy surrounding it. Sophie, his sister - seems to be biding time waiting for her dream job, much to the frustration of her family. But when it's her turn as narrator she tells us she knows the secrets behind the house and whose belongings remain there.

Bree's a bit of an enigma and Walter purposely keeps her that way. She's retained two or three of her previous music students, so has some income - though maintaining her personal hygiene without access to showers is problematic and she barely eats. She's found quiet streets to sleep in her car at night but the temptation of the vacant pool house in Beverley Hills is too much and she returns. This time she's discovered by Sophie, who's there with Carter to scope the unoccupied house out for a party. Bree is surprised when Sophie leaves a care parcel and then invites her to the party, but attends nonetheless. And that's where things get kinda complicated. As the blurb indicates, there's a murder and Bree realises as an itinerant with no reason to be at the house, she's the obvious suspect.

Walter dips about in time here and it's cleverly done so we're not quite sure of our timelines though we're eventually taken back in time to Bree falling in love with Luke and the early years of their marriage. Not only does Walter manage to keep the threads just far enough apart that we can't quite see what's coming but she also manages to dangle hints in front of us. Just out of our reach.

There are connections that shouldn't be there and we don't know how they fit together. And while obviously there are secrets being kept, we don't know why. Finally, we're not entirely sure if those secrets involve good people doing stupid things, or bad people doing whatever the hell they want.

This is very nearly a (rare) 4.5 star read for me with the crafting of its structure the standout. The climax itself was probably a little clunky and I suspect that's because we didn't really ultimately end up with an identifiable threat (or baddie, to use technical terms!).

That said, I'll definitely be seeking out more of Walter's work as she's written a couple of previous novels and - from their titles (Good as Dead and Over Her Dead Body!) - they sound similarly twisty and dark.

I really loved this book and devoured it in one sitting. The surprised one the story line and the characters kept me reading until the very end as if their dates were in my hands. It was well written and fast paced. Great work! Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with an ARC. This is my honest review.

Down on her luck with no money and no place to sleep, other than her car, Bree is bone tired when she stops near a pool and pool house at a luxurious Beverly Hills estate. There doesn’t seem to be anyone there and no guard dogs, so she takes a chance to get one good night’s sleep. Just months ago, she was happily married to Luke and now he is dead. The only money she earns is cash for giving music lessons and when her car is vandalized and her savings stolen, she stays again in the home. She meets who she believes is the owner of the house, Sophie and her brother Carter. They are having a party, but in the morning, she finds Sophie, dead, floating in the pool. What does she do now, knowing that the police will suspect and likely arrest her? The story is told in rotating fashion between Bree, Carter, Sophie and Luke. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (paytonpuppy)

Bree is struggling. Living out of her car, she can't believe her luck when she finds a pool house to crash in one night. But when the owner, Sophie, finds her, she invites her back to the main house for a party. Bree then escapes the party in search of a bed and some sleep only to wake in the morning to find Bree dead in the pool.

If you're a thriller fan, you NEED to get this one. With short chapters, a fast paced storyline and so many twists, I guarantee you'll find this one as unputdownable as I did.

This was such a good popcorn thriller that had me glued to my kindle for an afternoon and I have no regrets!

I read this book in one sitting, as it kept building and building in thrilling suspense.

Tax fraud, money laundering, the Russian mob, homelessness, a Halloween party and murder collides together in a Beverly Hills home owned by two families.

Fast paced and wildly addictive!

What an intricate plot for this story! I really enjoyed it and all of the POVs--Bree, Sophie, Carter and Luke.

The story starts in the present and then goes back a few months. In the present, Bree is homeless and living in her car. She is barely scraping by with the money she makes from teaching piano. She is looking for a place to sleep (that is not her car), so she trespasses onto a Rodeo Drive backyard and sleeps in the pool house. Just five months earlier, she was happily married to Luke, celebrating their third anniversary. Her contractor husband, Luke, gifts her a house.

Sophie is the new owner of the house's daughter. She finds Bree and feels sorry for her. Sophie invites Bree to a Halloween party in the backyard that she and her brother, Carter, are having. After the party is over, Bree flees upstairs and decides to sleep in one of the vacant bedrooms. But when she wakes up in the morning, she sees a dead body floating in the pool...and she knows that this won't be good for her.

It all unravels from there.

Thank you to Thriller Book Lovers Promotions, Lake Union Publishing, NetGalley and the author for an advanced readers copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Happy Publication Day!!!!

Lie by the Pool by Susan Walter
Thank you to @susanwalter @thrillerbookloverpromotions @amazonpublishing for the #gifted arc copy.

Run to get this book. I promise you will not be disappointed. It was fast paced and suspenseful. I was hooked from the beginning. Bree is homeless and living out of her car, but she keeps sneaking back to her mansion. She misses her husband and she desperately wants to go back to what life was like before it all went wrong. Everything has to do with that house and it is only the beginning. Bree thinks everything that has happened is all her fault, but she is about to find out the truth. Can she pick up the pieces and put her life back together?

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
I found "Lie By The Pool" by Susan Walter to be an addictive, interesting & well written thriller that pulled me in right away & didn't let me go until its final page.
I enjoyed the author's writing style, how she told the story by connecting her main characters through
alternating chapters & timelines.
I would love to read another book by Ms. Walter.

DNF at 50% it just felt like a chore to read this one. I couldn’t get into any of the characters or the plot line. I felt weirdly disconnected for whatever reason.

Talented Susan Walter's third novel, LIE BY THE POOL, is a multi-layered, gripping, twisty suspense page-turner thriller of a homeless woman who witnesses a murder while sleeping in a luxury Beverly Hills pool house.

Captivating! I read in two sittings and could not wait to see how this twisty edge-of-your-seat gem would turn out. I loved it and the satisfying conclusion!

Told from POV: Past & present
Bree (homeless woman)
Carter (son of the homeowner)
Sophie (daughter of the homeowner)
Luke (Bree's husband)

We meet Bree, a pianist from Canada who later moved to New York and married the love of her life, Luke. They lived in LA, California, and now she is homeless. He was a building contractor with a successful business. She was a piano teacher, putting her musical tour on hold. We do not know what happened to her husband at this point, but she blames herself. The mystery of what happened leading her here is not uncovered until the end of the book.

She is still teaching piano lessons when she can get work. She is down on her luck. Her car is on its last leg; for now, it is her home. The problem is she has difficulty finding a place to park to sleep in her car. She finds free food samples when she can. She either gets pricey parking tickets, gets towed, and, at the latest, someone has broken into her car, knocking out her windows and no money to repair, while stealing all the money she has stored in the vehicle.

Bree finds herself in a Beverly Hills upscale home on Rodeo Drive. No one lives there for now, and she sleeps in the lounge chair by the pool and uses the pool house to shower. She keeps a rock in front of the gate to go in and out and parks away from the home.

The beautiful contemporary home is a temporary place to crash until a woman catches her but does not say anything. The next night, strangely, there is a bag left for her with great food, chocolates, cheese crackers, fruit, wine, and an encouraging note with a Halloween costume inviting her to a party there the following evening.

How could this be? Little does she know what lies ahead.

Sophie is throwing the Halloween party at the house on Rodeo Drive, which her father owns. (Of course, her parents do not know). They are out of town, so she talks her brother, Carter, and pool guy, Jared, into helping her.

However, the power goes out, and Bree winds up later staying over in the house in a bedroom upstairs and, shockingly, the next morning finds a body dead in the pool.

From here, the book speeds up to a high adrenaline-fueled, non-stop action thriller as all the pieces of this mysterious puzzle and secrets are unraveled. It was fun seeing all the characters collide from past to present in this thrilling, well-written, entertaining thriller! Unputdownable.

I loved all the characters, especially Luke and Bree, and I also enjoyed Carter and Sophie's parts and how the book was laid out.

I love Rodeo Drive, LA, Beverly Hills, and have spent much time in Santa Barbara and Montecito—I love the furniture shopping in quaint Ojai! —from Wilshire Boulevard to South Santa Monica Boulevard and the scenic Pacific Highway.

I love the musical elements as my ex-husband was a pianist, so I am familiar with all the references. I adore stories of FBI, crime, mobsters, and whistleblowers —this was tops, and I loved everything about LIE BY THE POOL and the author's style!

For fans of Robyn Harding's The Drowning Woman and Kaira Rouda! I cannot wait to see what the talented author comes up with next! I love the title and the cover.

I am looking forward to listening to the audiobook narrated by Michael Crouch (favorite), Jess Nahikian, Selah Victor, and Aaron Shedlock.

Thanks to Lake Union and NetGalley for a gifted ARC in exchange for an honest opinion.

Blog Review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: Sept 12, 2023
Sept 2023 Must-Read Books

Thank you Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the chance to read Lie by the pool by Susan Walter. This was a fast & fabulous thriller, and not what I was expecting! The story is told in the past and present with altering perspectives of Bree, Carter, Sophie and Luke and the chapters are clearly marked as who is narrating. There were some great twists that I didn't see coming, and totally recommend it!

Thank you to the author, Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The blurb on this sounded good, but sadly the writing made this a dud for me. Told in multiple POVs, which I usually enjoy, but with so, so much extraneous detail that added nothing to the plot, but rather detracted from the flow of the story - and with so, so many cliffhanger sentences in.every.single.chapter (at the end, and sometimes in the middle of the chapter as well) - this quickly became an annoying rather than a fun read. Due to aforementioned cliffhangers, by about 30% I knew what the twists and turns were going t0 be. Sorry, cannot recommend.

Living in her car, desperate for a decent night's sleep, Bree crashes in the pool house. And not just any house, but a vacant luxurious home in Beverly Hills. When Sophie, daughter of the absentee owner discovers her, she is surprised to be invited to a party Sophie is hosting.
Accepting an invitation leads to a night of fun, and Bree can't help herself sneaking to a real bed when the party is over. But the invitation leads to more than just a night of good sleep...


Written in multiple POV's we follow quite a few lies by the pool. You can see that not all is as it seems, and you are looking for an unreliable narrator. The story is written in short chapters, but at the end of it are, as opposed to cliffhangers, little reveals that give a glimpse into the next part.
The book had a lot of aspects that I normally enjoy, but in this case, I just couldn't connect to the story or characters. I wasn't fond of Bree and the 'dead' husband thing ruined the book for me.

Yowza!! I absolutely LOVED this one, it hooked me from the start and was such a great read. I loved both Bree and Sophie and just overall what Walter did with these characters. The book is told from several POV’s and timelines which I thought worked well. The pacing was steady and picks up toward the end, it kept you guessing throughout and I loved the twisty ending. I flew through the last half and could not put it down it was so suspenseful. You must add this to your list when it comes out on Tuesday, I really enjoyed this one so much.

A huge thank you to the author, Lake Union Publishing, and Thriller Book Lovers Promotions for the gifted copy to review.

Wow! This book was such a good bingeable weekend read!

The foreshadowing and dramatic irony in this story left me flipping through and needing to know what happens next. I had to know Bree’s secret and the plot twist behind the whole situation was something I didn’t see coming. I enjoyed the criminal element in this book and the politics behind it. The suspense of the last 25% was totally a page turner!

Though I really loved this book, there were parts of the backstory that I felt were unnecessary and the ending, though tense, felt unbelievable.

Definitely enjoyed this one! Thanks to the publisher for an advanced copy.

August seems like it was just the other day, but last week school began here in MA! I’m really excited about my course load and my students, and the first four days went much better than expected. And Lie by the Pool was a fun read to accompany my return to school. I read and enjoyed the author’s previous release, Over Her Dead Body, last fall. This one was quite enjoyable, too. The foreshadowing amped me up, even though my lingering sickness and the added exhaustion of the first week back at work meant I’d only get through a few pages nightly. But a few pages a day still makes progress!
I hate to give too much away when recommending a thriller, but I’ll tell you the mix of unknowns (Wait, who’s dead/alive?), secrets, money (the residential section of Rodeo Drive is the main setting), and even the FBI help make this an engaging read. Thanks to Lake Union Publishing for the ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion. Lie by the Pool will be available everywhere this Tuesday!

A desperate woman.
An irresistible invitation.
An escalating nightmare of secrets, lies, and murder.

How could you not already be hooked by this tag line? I love action packed, bingeable thrill rides, and Susan Walter’s Lie by the Pool is all of that and more. It’s a one-sitting, must-finish read with unpredictable twists and reveals. Thanks so much for the opportunity to review!