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A haunting story about the destructive power of secrets, Karen Katchur's The Secrets of Lake Road is an accomplished and gripping suspenseful women's fiction debut
Jo has been hiding the truth about her role in her high school boyfriend's drowning for sixteen years. Every summer, she drops her children off with her mother at the lakeside community where she spent summers growing up, but cannot bear to stay herself; everything about the lake reminds her of the guilt she feels. For her daughter Caroline, however, the lake is a precious world apart; its familiarity and sameness comforts her every year despite the changes in her life outside its bounds. At twelve-years-old and caught between childhood and adolescence, she longs to win her mother's love and doesn't understand why Jo keeps running away.
Then seven-year-old Sara Starr goes missing from the community beach. Rescue workers fail to uncover any sign of her-but instead dredge up the bones Jo hoped would never be discovered, shattering the quiet lakeside community's tranquility. Caroline was one of the last people to see Sara alive on the beach, and feels responsible for her disappearance. She takes it upon herself to figure out what happened to the little girl. As Caroline searches for Sara, she uncovers the secrets her mother has been hiding, unraveling the very foundation of everything she knows about herself and her family. Caroline's coming-of-age story, mirrored with Jo's troubled teenage past, makes for an enthralling read that is impossible to put down and hard to forget.
Jo has been hiding the truth about her role in her high school boyfriend's drowning for sixteen years. Every summer, she drops her children off with her mother at the lakeside community where she spent summers growing up, but cannot bear to stay herself; everything about the lake reminds her of the guilt she feels. For her daughter Caroline, however, the lake is a precious world apart; its familiarity and sameness comforts her every year despite the changes in her life outside its bounds. At twelve-years-old and caught between childhood and adolescence, she longs to win her mother's love and doesn't understand why Jo keeps running away.
Then seven-year-old Sara Starr goes missing from the community beach. Rescue workers fail to uncover any sign of her-but instead dredge up the bones Jo hoped would never be discovered, shattering the quiet lakeside community's tranquility. Caroline was one of the last people to see Sara alive on the beach, and feels responsible for her disappearance. She takes it upon herself to figure out what happened to the little girl. As Caroline searches for Sara, she uncovers the secrets her mother has been hiding, unraveling the very foundation of everything she knows about herself and her family. Caroline's coming-of-age story, mirrored with Jo's troubled teenage past, makes for an enthralling read that is impossible to put down and hard to forget.
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Reviews
"Karen Katchur's The Secrets of Lake Road gripped me with its provocative opening sentence and held me in its spell until its final, shattering revelations. This is a powerful thriller about buried secrets that painfully resurface, innocence lost across the generations, and the terrible price we pay for growing up and growing older. Karen Katchur knows how to write and write well about ordinary people stretched to their limits. A suspenseful, heartbreaking novel."
David Bell, bestselling author of The Forgotten Girl
"Karen Katchur's memorable debut is a haunting story taut with suspense and packed with hope, loss and poignancy. It's a tale about the heartbreak of parenthood, the exhilaration of first love, the evolution of friendship and the complexity of family. Readers won't want to put it down until the final page has been turned and the heart of the mystery revealed."
Marilyn Brant, New York Times bestselling author of The Road to You
"At once gripping and evocative, The Secrets of Lake Road conjures childhood's best and worst moments--its secret joys and terrors, its hopefulness and uncertainty. Kutcher skillfully weaves between past and present, revealing devastating truths along the way."
Paula Treick DeBoard, author of The Mourning Hours and The Fragile World