A woman escaping her violent ex. A derelict house with a reputation for bad luck with the locals. A killer on the loose on the fens…
Lakeview House is a psychological thriller and murder mystery with a splash of romance as well as ghosts!
I loved this book from the very first page and was totally engrossed in the plot and characters. We are introduced to Maddy, an author with writer’s block who is dealing with the realisation that her ex Connor is violent and dangerous. Her best friend Stella shows her the details for a caretaking job at a remote house in the Lake District and Maddy heads up there to clear her head and kickstart her writing.
But there is a killer in the area who uses the lake to dispose of his victims. Maddy is haunted by dreams and strange occurances begin to occur. Could her ex have found her or is there a ghostly presence in the house?
The book is written from various third person perspectives so we follow the individual plot strands and character development. The writing style was easy to read and the pace was fast with each chapter quite short to maintain the momentum of the plot. So tempting to read just one more chapter!
Danger and tension are cleverly created and sustained over the course of the book. I felt a mix of anger at Connor’s behaviour, fear for the safety of Stella and Maddy, genuinely spooked by the ghostly happenings and gruesomely fascinated by the killer.
Lakeview House was an absolutely gripping thriller!
Icy water laps against the wooden jetty. But the girl doesn’t notice the cold as she slips slowly under the freezing surface…
Running from a devastating relationship that almost cost her everything, Maddy Hart impulsively accepts a job as a live-in caretaker at imposing Lakeview House. She has no memories of having visited the crumbling mansion on the banks of Lake Thirlmere before, but when she arrives, something about the house feels familiar…
The more time Maddy spends in the house, the more unsettled she feels. Why does the local story about the last woman who lived here, who drowned on her wedding day, chill Maddy to the bone? By day, she clears out the dusty rooms, but in the dead of night it’s hard to explain away the eerie noises or crackly radio she hears hours after she turned it off. Slowly, Maddy begins to fear that her worst nightmare is coming true, has her past caught up with her…?
When a soaking wet wedding dress is left on Maddy’s doorstep she feels completely trapped. It is her exact measurements. Is her ex trying to send her a message? Or has Maddy’s digging uncovered an even deadlier secret? Will this perfect escape become the perfect trap?
A gripping thriller that will have you turning the pages until the final breathtaking twist. Perfect for fans of Lucy Foley, Lisa Gardner and Ruth Ware.
Lakeview House was previously published as What Lies Below.
Author Bio
Helen Phifer is the #1 Bestselling crime and horror novelist of the Annie Graham, Lucy Harwin and Beth Adams series. Helen lives in a small town in Cumbria. Surrounded by miles of coastline and only a short drive from the beautiful Lake District. She has always loved writing and reading since the days she learnt how to in infant school. She loves reading books that make the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and make her afraid to go to the toilet, alone in the middle of the night. Helen is eternally grateful to Stephen King, Dean Koontz, James Herbert and Graham Masterton for scaring her senseless in her teenage years. Unable to find enough of the scary stories she loves to read, she decided to write her own.
