The Lake by Sheena Lambert

review by Maryom

In the long dry summer of 1975, the waters of Crumm reservoir are receding ..... and as they do a body is revealed. For Detective Sergeant Frank Ryan it's just an inconvenience - trekking down from Dublin to the remote countryside will disrupt his planned weekend off but he doesn't expect any long term repercussions. For the inhabitants of Crumm, though, it brings back memories of the dreadful time when the valley was cleared to make way for the dam - a time when it was easy for someone to go missing without notice......
Meanwhile, 23 year old Peggy Casey who runs the village's only pub, The Angler's Rest, has troubles of her own. Since her parents died, the ownership and running of the pub has been shared between her and her three siblings - but the others seem to prefer to be anywhere but in Crumm; Carla teaches in Wexford during the week and only returns at weekends, Jerome runs off to Dublin at the slightest excuse, and Hugo works over in London, doing no one quite knows what. Maybe the exciting discovery of a dead body will bring them back home to Crumm.....


Although there's a definite murder mystery here - after all a dead body has just been found - it's as much a tale of family secrets and lies. In that respect it's cosier, and a lot less bloody, than many modern crime thrillers but I rather liked it. It's a little like a good old Agatha Christie murder - all seems quiet and placid in this small Irish village but it's as full of secrets as Miss Marple's St Mary Mead. As I found out more about the villagers of Crumm, and particularly the Casey family, things that had been buried and forgotten came back to light and as you'd expect, many of them seem to have something to hide. I began to make my 'short-list' of possible murderers....the village gossip seems to favour the idea of an IRA related shooting but what about the old-timer who props up the bar every night till closing time, or Jerome off in Dublin up to who-knows-what or even Hugo, absent for so long but who shows a sudden interest when he hears a body has been discovered.....

 Maryom's review - 4 stars
Publisher -  Killer Reads (Harper Collins)
Genre - adult fiction, crime