Authors have favorite writers just like other avid readers. I periodically recommend books and writers I’ve particularly enjoyed. You may have seen my earlier series of book recommendations of great titles set in spectacular locales around the world. (Check the Michael Lindley Novels Instagram feed.)
This next series of posts will be featuring books that I have personally enjoyed by authors in the related genres of Mystery Thriller & Suspense like my own “Troubled Waters” series.
So, as promised, let me introduce you to one of my latest favorite writers, Rachel Caine, who many of you may have also been reading and following for years. She is the author of the Stillhouse Lake series of thrillers as well as 50+ other novels in various genres and series. Rachel has been kind enough to include a personal message I’ve included further down about this series of books and the latest release, Wolfhunter Creek, that will be coming out in April.
Rachel also offered to provide a signed set of all three novels in the Stillhouse Lake series for me to give away to one of my readers. More on that in a moment.
Click here win enter the giveaway for Rachel Caine's “Stillhouse Lake” series.
I came across Rachel’s books when she kept coming up in the “also boughts” listings of my books and other writers I follow on Amazon. She is a prolific author with numerous selections to the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. You can check out all her titles on Amazon or GoodReads, but let’s talk about her latest, the Stillhouse Lake series and Book #1, Stillhouse Lake.
If you read many book descriptions or blurbs in the Mystery Thriller & Suspense genre, you’ll see the word “gripping” used far too frequently. Stillhouse Lake lives up to every inch off that descriptor, literally grabbing you by the throat and not letting go until you’ve finished the book.
This book is not for the faint of heart, dealing with tough and gruesome crimes, but the prose is spectacular, and the story pulls you in so effortlessly, I found the book to be a joy to read, as Rachel brings the reader so deep into the emotions and frankly, terror, her characters are facing.
In Stillhouse Lake and the subsequent two books in the series to date, Gina Royal and her two children find their normal Midwestern life upended when they find their husband and father is a deadly serial killer who has kept his dark and deadly secret from them for years. When Melvin Royal is finally captured, convicted and imprisoned, Gina’s family’s troubles are only beginning. Vengeful and vindictive family members of the victims still think she had a role in the grisly crimes, and other internet trolls are stalking them and making their lives miserable in spite of numerous attempts to move and change their identities.
Gina, now living as Gwen Proctor has now found the latest refuge for her family in a remote town on Stillhouse Lake. Just when she is beginning to feel some sense of comfort and peace for her children, a body turns up in the lake in front of their cottage, killed in the same gruesome way her husband took his victims. Gina struggles to find help, but who can she trust and who is behind this latest murder?
Here’s Rachel Caine’s personal note about the Stillhouse Lake series…
When I had the idea for Stillhouse Lake, I honestly wasn't sure anyone but me would want to hear that story, but the families of serial killers rarely get discussed, and that seemed like unexplored territory to me. It's especially true in this hothouse, ever-connected culture we've developed over the past 20 years or so; being anonymous isn't nearly as easy as it used to be, and just moving or changing names won't protect people from dedicated stalkers and angry Internet harassers, as we've seen demonstrated several times now. There's a ton of emotional trauma and tension to wrap into a thriller like that, and it just wouldn't leave me alone (even though I was, at the time, writing two successful series over in the Young Adult category).
I'm so glad I dove in and wrote this book. Gwen Proctor/Gina Royal has been an absolute revelation to me as a storyteller; she's a complex, difficult character and so rewarding to write. Her kids are just as interesting to me, and Sam, and every character that came on the scene and expanded the universe as I went along. Stillhouse Lake could have been a one-off, but I knew there was more to Gwen and her story. I knew that likewise Killman Creek wasn't the end of Gwen's challenges and character journey. So, I'm so pleased to continue the story now into Wolfhunter River, which takes Gwen and her family into new and dangerous territory yet again … and past battles that may never be completely behind them. I'm working on Bitter Falls, the next book in the series, and I am excited to see where this story takes me this time.
Thanks for coming on this journey, and I hope every book is just as gripping as the first!
Register to win free signed copies of the first three books in the “Stillhouse Lake “series. (Thank you Rachel!
At the link below, you can register to win this exciting set of novels. Rachel will send these books out signed to one luck winner. Good luck!
Click here to enter the giveaway for Rachel Caine's “Stillhouse Lake” series.
Stay tuned for my next author review and book recommendation soon, and I’ll keep you posted on the progress of Book #6 in my own “Troubled Waters” series, New Moon Tides, with more danger and excitement for the Hanna Walsh and Alex Frank.
All the best,
Michael Lindley
