The House on the Lake ~ Nuala Ellwood
Genre: Mystery & Thriller
Published: 20 Feb 2020 | Penguin Books (UK)
Swathi’s Rating: 4/5
About the Book:
Lisa needs to disappear. And her friend’s rambling old home in the wilds of Yorkshire seems like the perfect place. It’s miles away from the closest town, and no one there knows her or her little boy, Joe.
But when a woman from the local village comes to visit them, Lisa realizes that she and Joe aren’t as safe as she thought.
What secrets have Rowan Isle House – and her friend – kept hidden all these years?
And what will Lisa have to do to survive, when her past finally catches up with her?
Swathi’s Thoughts:
Lisa is on the run from her controlling husband Mark along with her 3 year old son Joe who doesn’t seem to be very happy about it. She is set to stay at Rowan Isle House, an old abandoned house given to her by her in case she needed a safe place. But the house is nothing like she thought. For instance, there is no electricity nor any other basic facilities for that matter. It seems impossible to live in such a house in the modern day without any amenities present. But Lisa can’t afford to go anywhere else, can she?
On the other hand, we get to meet Grace whose story dates back to 2002 when she was 11 years old living in Rowan Isle with her soldier father. Isolated from the public eye without any human intervention, Grace’s childhood is devoid of any emotions except fear and curiosity.
These two timelines run side-by-side and I just cannot stop myself from turning the pages faster and faster. The curiosity and suspense keeps building and its impossible to put the book down! I personally loved the character of Grace, especially her childhood descriptions brought me fresh tears. There wasn’t much time to know Lisa better, as her past isn’t as furnished as Grace’s and I couldn’t give her the expected level of sympathy.
I’ve been reading a lot of domestic thrillers lately where a wife runs away from her abusive husband and tries to live a new life stealthily. Although, the plot is very similar here, it’s more of Grace’s story than Lisa’s. When the two plots collide, that’s when the magic happens. ‘The House on the Lake’ is a total package with it’s pacy, short n crips chapters gripping the reader till the very last page. I can’t recommend the book enough to all my fellow thriller fans who’d love a pacy mystery to binge read! Many, many thanks to Ellie Hudson from Viking Books, Penguin Books UK for having me on the official blog tour. Do follow these amazing bloggers to know more about the book!
Meet the Author:
Nuala Ellwood is the daughter of an award-winning journalist. She was inspired by his experiences and those of foreign correspondents such as Marie Colvin and Martha Gellhorn to secure Arts Council funding for her research into PTSD for her debut psychological thriller MY SISTER’S BONES.
