Stranger in the Lake

I was not familiar with any of Kimberly Belle's earlier works, but this was a well done thriller that kept me engaged throughout. Charlotte (nee Charlie) was born to a mother so addicted to drugs that nothing else mattered, including food for her children. Young Charlie was often left to care for an always hungry infant brother. But she escapes the trailer park and eventually falls in love with and marries an older man, Paul Keller, an architect to the rich who like to build their second homes in the tourist town of Lake Crosby, NC. Now Charlotte (after legally changing her name) works at Paul's company as a client relations manager, and lives with him in his beautiful house overlooking the lake. She feels lucky never to have to worry about being hungry or cold, again. She chooses to ignore the small town rumors that Paul was somehow complicit in the drowning of his first wife. But when a woman Charlotte had seen Paul talking to in town turns up dead and floating under their lakeside dock, Charlotte begins to wonder if she has been blind. Then Paul disappears for 2 days while the investigators, including Micah, underwater retrieval expert, son of the police chief, and Paul's best friend, scour for clues as to the woman's identity and what she was doing in town. Charlotte initially lies to the police about having ever seen the woman and backs up Paul's assertion that he'd never met her. But as Charlotte digs deeper, she find that Paul and his two best friends have all been keeping a dark secret for decades that the dead woman was about to bring into the light. All three have a motive, but who would be willing to kill to keep the secret. Not a conventional happy ending, but a strong female protagonist and some great plot twists will make this a worthwhile diversion. Review available from Publishers' Weekly.