Rachel Caine (1962–2020)

"Stillhouse Lake" is one of the most tense, realistic and original thrillers I've read in a long time. From the brutal discovery of the opening scenes through to the violence of the conclusion, this was a narrative that grabbed hold of my attention and never let go.

The story is told from the point of view of Gina Royale, the innocent-but-believed-by-most-to-be-guilty wife of a sadistic serial killer who abducted young women and tortured them to death in his garage workshop. Gina and her two show more children have been hiding from the many vigilantes who want to harm her and her kids to avenge the murdered women. They have moved home and changed identities many times and live as much off the grid as possible. Gina has made herself into Gwen Proctor, a woman who knows how to shoot and how to hide in plain sight and who lives in a permanent state of paranoia.

Gwen Proctor doesn't trust, doesn't relax and doesn't ever let herself of her kids do anything that attracts attention. Her constant alertness, her security drills, her background checks and her insistence on a zero social media presence would seem paranoid were it not the brutality of the threat she is under.

Living in Gwen's head felt filled me with a very uncomfortable level of tension, and claustrophobia. The violence of what was done to the murdered woman and what trolls are threatening to do to Gwen and her children is described with brutal bluntness. There's no ghoulish exploitation but the actions themselves are so vile that they stain your mind as you read them. Gwen's calm risk assessments and detailed planning to protect herself and her children are chilling. Her inability to trust those who may be trying to help her poisons everything. I admired her courage but wondered how anyone could survive living with so much pressure for so long.

Then, in the second half of the book, everything goes to hell and the tension goes from a constant dull-ache to a wild scream of pain and adrenalin.

The plot is full of surprises but there is no cheating. Everything works. It's just hard to see the truth. Gwen is warrior-strong: vigilant, disciplined, fierce but constantly afraid, and often flooded with guilt about what she should have seen and done when the man she lived with and shared a bed with was torturing women,

"Stillhouse Lake" is not a comfortable read but it is tense, credible, suspenseful and surprising-

The audiobook version is brilliantly performed by Emily Sutton-Smith. show less

If you have a copy of Stillhouse Lake sitting on your TBR stack, don’t do what I did and let it keep slipping down the list. Read it now. It is fantastic.

Gwen used to be Gina, with a home, children, and a husband. Admittedly a husband who was a little bossy and needed his “alone time,” but they were happy. Not quite a perfect life, but pretty close. Until the day she comes home at a time she would normally be gone and finds a lot of commotion – policy activity – on her block. show more Activity that leads right to her garage where a car has gone out of control and broken through the wall - and interrupts her husband the serial killer in the middle of torturing a woman he has kidnapped. Not the first. Wow, can’t get a much bigger shock than that, can you? And nothing will ever be the same.

The police don’t believe Gina was as blissfully ignorant as she claims, but they have nothing to charge her with, so she’s free to get on with her life. What’s left of it. Because the general public doesn’t need proof to arrive at a guilty verdict and carry out a sentence, Gina and her children are trolled on the internet, threatened with physical violence in person and over the phone, and their home is vandalized. Freedom is subject to interpretation. So their life becomes going from town to town, job to job, school to school, and new identities to new identities. Nothing is permanent or normal, there is no future for her children other than just trying to make sure they survive.

The guilt and blame from the public are nothing compared to what Gwen puts on herself. How could she have been so blind; how could she have not known? How many of the deaths are her fault? How could she have let this monster in her life, in her arms, in her bed, let him hold her children?

But in the town of Stillhouse Lake they’ve kind of settled in. Until today, when a body is found in the lake and the threatening letters start arriving. That safe and secure help they thought they were getting? Maybe that helper has sold them out. Maybe her ex-husband has a very, very long reach from prison.

Don’t make the mistake of trying to analyze Stillhouse Lake and wonder how Gina the shy housewife could have become Gena the warrior mom. This book is propulsive, immersive, and exciting. Let it push you forward, pull you under, and suck you in. Go with it. Don’t think, just feel. When your heart stops pounding you’ll be glad you did.

I was sent a free book and am voluntarily leaving this honest review. All opinions are my own. show less

Spoilers for all previous books. Also, continuing my discussion of the historical aspects of 'Feast of Fools' the term, Lord of Misrule, is also associated with the celebration, but after some priests got a bit too jolly in Paris back in the 12th century heavy restrictions were placed upon the title (ordinarily the leader of the church) to keep the person in check.

I'm reluctant to put to paper (so to speak) my thoughts of Lord of Misrule because I'm honestly torn up. I don't think I can put show more words that don't involve 'freaked out' and 'oh gods no' and 'OH NO NOT THAT'. Bishop is...horrifying. Not just the vampire himself, but his whole ideology is so twisted and warped and inhuman I felt chills. And you know how some evil vampires have moments of weakness? Not Bishop. Oh no. He's kind of like a Vampire version of those Chuck Norris facts--you know the ones. 'Chuck Norris is the only man alive to slam a revolving door' those facts (which can be hilarious).

And it just gets worse as the book goes on.

Somehow this book makes the other four combined seem like Claire and Co. were merely having tea parties. Between friends who aren't so friendly, enemies who have no choice, neutrals who should know better and one person in particular Monica its Monica getting a nice comeuppance (let's face it with Bishop moving to take charge who needs her dad? No one was being nice to Monica because she was sweet after all) the entire power structure is torn down.

I felt kind of bad for most of the inhabitants--for the ones born there the way of life that they had become resigned to and understood at least was gone. For the out-of-towners (those poor college saps) the world just got a whole lot more terrifying.

And the teaser for the next book, Carpe Corpus? Only made me want to cry more.

(just to note, none of what I said is meant to be a negative criticism--I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It just also broke my heart a thousand different times.) show less

Published: March 9, 2021
Thomas & Mercer
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rachel Caine is the winner of several national awards, and most recently, was a finalist in both the International Thriller Writers awards and the Killer Nashville awards for her debut thriller novel Stillhouse Lake.

“I’m a suspicious bitch, but I’ve found it works for me.”

Gwen wants stability. She wants to provide normalcy for her family. And after everything they have been through, show more she thinks they are getting close. Until she receives a call from her dear friend, Kezia, in the middle of the night. In the blink of an eye, Gwen finds herself smack dab in the middle of another fight to the death.

This book hit differently, knowing it was Rachel Caines last. She sadly lost her battle with cancer. So this will be the end of Gwen's fight.

This was such a brutal but beautiful installment to this series. Everyone seems to be trying to heal and move past the trauma of Melvin and the madness he created. When Kez asked Gwen for help, Gwen showed up ready and willing. And it almost cost her her life.

The kids, Lanny and Connor, are so well developed at this point. Lanny has become a strong and vocal woman, who despite her past, is brave and loyal. Connor is healing from the things that he went through before, and he is becoming a man who knows the meaning of family.

Sam is now the legal guardian of Lanny and Connor and is as close to married to Gwen as he can get without actually having the paper stating so. The family is thriving until they find themselves a target yet again.

The twists in this book are so well done, and the story unfolds so quickly that it is impossible to put this book down. The power of choice, the bond of friendship, and the commitment to choosing our family is so well played.

This might be my favorite novel in this series. Not just because it’s the last, and it ends with a relatively happy ending but because the growth and development within these pages are pure.

It is so apparent that Rachel Caine loved these characters. She creates Gwen, who is a fighter and a survivor. She gave Gwen everything she could give herself. The heartbreaking beauty in that speaks volumes.

Thank you, Ms. Caine, for sharing these characters with us. For giving us an unlikely hero to cheer for, and a story that we could believe in. This book was beautifully written, the plot was flawlessly delivered, and the journey was worthy. show less