Andromeda Romano-Lax

The Publisher Says: In this atmospheric thriller set at a luxury memoir-writing workshop on the shores of Lake Atitlán, Guatemala, a grieving mother goes undercover to investigate her daughter’s mysterious death.

Rose, the mother of 20-something aspiring writer Jules, has waited three months for answers about her daughter’s death. Why was she swimming alone when she feared the water? Why did she stop texting days before she was last seen? When the official investigation rules the death an accidental drowning, the body possibly lost forever in Central America’s deepest lake, an unsatisfied Rose travels to the memoir workshop herself. She hopes to draw her own conclusion—and find closure.

When Rose arrives, she is swept into the curious world created by her daughter’s literary hero, the famous writing teacher Eva Marshall, a charismatic woman known for her candid—and controversial—memoirs. As Rose uncovers details about the days leading up to Jules’s disappearance, she begins to suspect that this glamorous retreat package is hiding ugly truths. Is Lake Atitlan a place where traumatized women come to heal or a place where deeper injury is inflicted?

Perfect for fans of Delia Owens, Celeste Ng, and Julia Bartz, The Deepest Lake is both a sharp look at the sometimes toxic, exclusionary world of high-class writing workshops and an achingly poignant view of a mother’s grief.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Simplicity is a virtue in plotting, if not writing, a thriller. What complexity there is, in a truly involving example of the genre, comes from the characters and what they want that takes them far outside the safe confines of bourgeois life. The death of a child's good for rage, and even revenge; but the death of a child who evokes a guilt or a regret in a parent...that will move one far outside behavioral norms.

This iteration of the mother-hunting-murderer starts to show us complexity about halfway through. The first half is a not-that-exciting takedown of the Writing Industry as a hollow, pretentious ego farm. Been there, read that. I kept going because, as a hardened old reader, there was something prickling my arm hairs, something I couldn't quite put a finger on. The writing about the titular lake was lovely, but not unusually so. The character of the snobby writing coach, if that's what she is and not some super Svengali creating murderous minions out of lonely women who like to write, is in a word predictable. The mother...easiest point of failure because pathos wears thin fast...it's the mother, I thought. But why? echoed back at me.

I couldn't answer myself.

On I read, waiting for the...something. That was it! I was reading a book waiting for this unknown, but subtly prefigured somehow I couldn't quite grasp...something to occur. Let me say that again: Without being able to say what, or when, I got my expectation set on, I was hooked into not being able to put this book down. To beat you about the forehead some more with what an impressive feat that is, I'll tell you that I started reading mysteries with the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew in...well, let's just say people born that year are grandparents. Several times over.

No, I won't tell you what happens. I will tell you that, while I was satisfied that what ended the book ended the story, I was that smallest bit, that vague hint, disgruntled at how long it took to get there. That constitutes a quibble given how much enjoyment I'm going to get from exploring Author Romano-Lax's back catalog from Soho Crime. The synopsis writer gives you some very apt comps, and those should hint at the direction you can expect the story to take.… (more)

Thank you to NetGalley, RB Media and the author for an ARC audiobook of this book.

This book was a wow for me all around- from the story to the characters to the narrators. And what a wild ride. It felt like a mashup of the The Writing Retreat by Julia Hartz and The Last Thing He Told Me by Celeste Ng and I was a huge fan of both of these, and obviously a huge fan of Deepest Lake.

A huge draw for me initially was how culty the story sounded. Daughter disappears after working for writer with a huge cult following and obsessed fans. However- as I started reading, I couldn't be sure of what was going on at the retreat.

The narrators: Susan Bennett and Rebecca Quinn Robertson both did excellent jobs narrating the parts of the daughter and her mother. Both voices really embodied the personality of the characters that they read as, making this a very easy listen.

That being said, I also thought the alternating perspectives between the mother, Rose, and daughter, Jules, really built the mystery and also explored how far a mother will go for her child. Of course our main mystery is what happened to Jules and where did she go after leaving home to work for favorite author in Guatemala in what looks from the outside to be a dream job. With Jules missing, Rose leaves to retrace her daughters steps and find out what happened and whether this beloved author of Jules could have had anything to do with her daughter's disappearance.

Because Jules is missing, we learn of Jules through the past; her arrival on the island and how she met/got hired by Eva (the author), then what it was like working at the writing workshops with Eva. Rose is searching for Jules in the present.

I loved both Jules and Rose, as both seemed to be genuinely kind people, and it was hard to not become invested in them and find Jules.

The twists that this story takes are nothing short of wild. This story went in directions I would have never guessed and cannot even begin to put into words without revealing too much of the story.

This was a 10 out of 10 for me, a please pick up if you like a good mystery, strong female lead, family drama, culty thriller, etc. book. Highly recommend.… (more)

I have a need to write a review of this book because, even now, almost three weeks after finishing, the story is still floating around in my head. Barring some unforeseen, amazing book, this may well turn out to be the best book of the year for me.

Let me talk about all the elements of this story that had great appeal to me....just the stuff that really gets me interested, excited and curious:

First, there is so much in our culture these days about how technology is going to destroy humanity, that AI is going to replace us, human workers are losing their jobs to automation, movies like Terminator, The Matrix, Bladerunner, etc...all tell the same apocalyptic story of humanity's ultimate demise at the hands of machines.

I happen to agree that this may actually end up being the case, but all the same, it was refreshing to find a story that actually referred back to Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics and has an AI character that is caring, gentle and kind. Remember I, Robot and the Robot series? If you haven't read any of them, please do. That is the reading country I grew up in...

I have an interest in the paleogenetic and linguistic history of Asia and (avoiding spoilers) part of the story revolves around the aboriginal culture of Formosa (now The Republic of China, Taiwan). This had me going to wikipedia and other pages to find out more and I went down the rabbit hole so far that I had to ILL books from local university libraries to learn a bit more.

My background and understanding of asian cultures is primarily from 7 years living in Korea so I don't have a depth of knowledge about Japan or the Philippines but, all the same, the characters and the way Romano-Lax tells their stories seems authentic and accurate. The slow unwinding and reaching for the kernel of the truth and the eventual trust that each of the characters gains for one another is the best part of this book.

Thinking back, this book encompasses a biting critique of Japanese culture. Historically it touches on the Japanese colonial period of the early 20th century, the atrocities of WWII and is set in a future where an aging Japanese population needs immigrant labor and expertise to care for the elderly and keep the wheels of the economy turning. Yet this same Japanese population because of prejudice, places unwarranted restrictions and disproportionate penalties on immigrants that often mean deportation despite the value they bring.

It is a moving book with well-drawn characters that you care about deeply before the book ends. Plum Rains ends well, it isn't all sunshine and rainbows, but it ends well just the same.
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