Every Lake

Absolutely loved this book!
Very well written , great characters and excellent plot.
Read it in a weekend, recommend!

When Alice was 15, her friend Mia was found murdered in her dad's bed, and her dad was nowhere to be found. Over 10 years later, redundancy from her journalist job at a newspaper and what is shaping up to be an expensive divorce force Alice to return to 'the murder house' in scenic Tall Pines to prepare it for sale. She also wants to do her own investigation into Mia's murder and her dad's disappearance and get some answers. The Otago landscape might be picture perfect, but it's inhabitants aren't.

There must be something in the water here because every thriller I've read by a kiwi author in the last year or so has been incredible and this was just fantastic! I cannot believe this is a debut! I loved Alice - she was determined to find out the truth and she had a wickedly dark sense of humour. Ex-cop Peller ended up helping her tidy up the house and the banter they shared had me in fits. This is told in the present, but we did get some flashback scenes to when Alice first moved to Tall Pines and met Mia, which helped set the scene for Alice's current investigation. I truly didn't know who was guilty and was questioning everyone Alice came into contact with. I did not see the ending coming AT ALL and I was completely blown away by the twist! If you are a thriller lover I cannot recommend this highly enough - this was just excellent!