The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey

A Mystery/Thriller, 2017 by Allen & Unwin, 440 Pages

What I Didn’t Like:

• Unlikeable MC. Adultery, selfish nature, hidden secrets, and a generally spoiled attitude made her my least favorite kind of character. That made this one very difficult to really enjoy.
• Anticlimactic ending. I wanted more. I wanted something different. This felt rushed or like a last minute decision. 
• The victim is a flat character. I kept expecting to get more depth to her as the detectives worked the case but she stayed flat. We know nothing about her as a person (other than that she’s beautiful) even when the book ends. 

What I Did Like:

• Setting this one in Australia in summer was a good choice. Often books associate Christmas time with winter and snow. I liked the change and the glimpse at that hemisphere.
• Scott (I think that’s his name) is a good character. Funny he’s the one I picked out since he’s on maybe 10% of these pages and he gets no respect, but he is the one I picked. He’s a good dad and he deserves so much better! 

Who Should Read This One:

• Wow, that’s tough. If you want to try an unreliable narrator detective mystery you might like this one more than I did. I usually enjoy the unreliable narrator but this felt like a bad decision since our unreliable narrator is also a detective. I don’t know, something about that just felt too heavy.

My Rating: 2 Stars

• No connection to any characters and an anticlimactic ending are problematic for me in a mystery.