Review: The House Across the Lake

The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This book can be described as "Rear Window" on a lake in Maine--the narrator, Casey, even admits it at one point in the book. Casey, a widowed actress who has been "banished" to her family's lake house after spiraling into alcoholism after her husband's untimely death, witnesses some strange and unsettling actions through her window and comes to the conclusion that the wealthy man across the lake has murdered his ex-model wife. Casey spends the rest of the book trying to discover what exactly happened at her neighbors' mansion, and make sure the killer pays.
I will admit that I went into this book with trepidation, because I haven't always liked Sager's books in the past, and because I am SO INCREDIBLY TIRED of the unreliable female narrator who abuses alcohol/drugs and who inserts herself into her neighbors'/friends' affairs. But I will also admit that after a few chapters in, I really did like Casey and was rooting for her; Sager gave her rooting value and made me "get" her motivations (or at least I thought I understood them with the information I had at hand...).
So up until the "big twist" was revealed, I was enjoying the book. I--naively--thought that I had figured out the twist, and it was really adding to my enjoyment. But then when Casey went into her neighbors' cellar looking for answers, the wheels just fell off for me. What she found there was just too much. I am all for a creepy paranormal element in a book, but in this case it did not feel at all organic or in keeping with the rest of the tone up to that point. And from then on I was just rolling my eyes and groaning. It was all too much--including the "you-thought-you-had-it-solved-but-what-about-this!" stuff at the very end. I was not at all impressed. The plot was just ridiculous.
I would not recommend this book, although I know a lot of Sager fans will read it and enjoy it, regardless. I personally will probably avoid any other Sager books in the future, however.

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