Under the Lake

"Under The Lake" is based on the true story of a Northeast Georgia town purchased by a large power company and covered with an upscale lake community,

It has a very different twist from his other novels and it is NOT Stone Barrington. Stuart Woods spins mystery, romance, and terror into this tale. It is a fast-moving and entertaining treat! However A geneology chart at the end would have been helpful.

Early Stuart Woods book shows many of the elements that will make his various serial books so successful. Fast pace, quirky characters, convoluted but interesting plot with a whizbang ending. Set in Nowhere, Georgia with a crooked sheriff and evil landlord, incestuous and inbred inhabitants; it could have used a genealogical chart to sort out who was related to whom.

It's a quick read and the story is fairly interesting but I wouldn't say it was a great book. A former journalist is hired to ghost write the autobiography of a chicken restaurant entrepreneur (a la Colonel Saunders). He heads to his brother-in-law's cabin in a remote part of Georgia to work on it. The cabin is on the edge of a lake created when a dam was built by a local businessman to provide hydro-electricity. The valley flooded by the dam was once home to a small group of Irish families who, obviously, lost their farms "under the lake". They were compensated quite well for their land but one family held out until the waters were starting to rise. The businessman believes the journalist is there to investigate and he is agitated show more because he has something to hide. He wants the sheriff to keep tabs on the journalist and make sure nothing gets out. There actually is a journalist working undercover in the sheriff's office but she is investigating the sheriff who may be involved in drug smuggling.

There's mystery, intrigue, crime, psychic phenomena, faith healing and sex so it's got something for everyone. I just found the ending too pat and some of the circumstances quite hackneyed for my taste which is the reason for the average rating. show less

Fast paced, fun, read. On top of the standard mystery novel, it's got some mysterious quirky parts that make you wonder. The final, ending, twist was quite unique. Gimmie another Stuart Woods book!

Lots of plot twists in this one, however, the ghost story line was not entertaining at all. The story would have done quite well on its own without that. The backwoods incest, inbreeding was a novel idea, however, the way it advanced was somewhat disconcerting and the relationship between two major characters was disturbing as the story clarified. At that point the use of that particular incest device seemed nothing more than gratuitous. I usually enjoy each of Woods' tales thoroughly but did not think this was up to his typical high bar story....

Under the Lake is a ghost story, a mystery, and page turner, all rolled into one! The flawed main character retreats from his marriage and his normal life to complete a special writing project at a friend's cabin. He becomes embroiled in the small community and its mysteries and tensions. I highly recommend this book.

Part mystery, part ghost story this early Stuart Woods was a good read. Ex-journalist, Howell has left his wife and gone to reside in a lakeside cottage while he "ghost writes" a biography. But the player piano plays a song to "Kathleen" no matter what roll he puts into it and he sees the ghostly shadow of a house under the lake at night. Soon, he and Scotty ( a young femaile journalist who has taken a job incognito at the sheriff's office) begin to get entangled in the web of the history of the town and the lake.