"Shared secrets allowed you to love someone for what they were, just as confession cleared your conscience. If only she had the courage to trade secrets with Robert, so their marriage could be strengthened by the knowledge they kept, the ability it gave them to save and to betray one another. Then perhaps she might not be so afraid.
Because fear, like loyalty and friendship, made you do terrible, terrible things".
Death on the Lake by Jo Allen is a traditional British detective novel set in Cumbria. This is the fifth book in the DCI Jude Satterthwaite series.
Three young people are having a jolly good time on board the boat on Ullswater. High on drugs and drunk, the twins don't notice immediately that their female companion is missing.
When a young woman, Summer Raine, is found drowned, her death appears to be a tragic accident.
DCI Jude Satterthwaite is having niggles about the manner of her drowning. While he is deeply concerned that the accident might be not what it appears, his boss categorically refuses to let him dig deeper. Her hands are tied by the powers above. There is a fraud investigation going on, and they cannot compromise it. The father of the twins, Mr Neilson is "one of several subjects of a wide-ranging, very hush-hush, investigation into fraud and money-laundering on an international scale".
Their stepmother Miranda is a sensible woman, who knows her place in the family dynamics. She has secrets of her own.
An elderly gentleman called George is a local character, cantankerous and prickly. Living in a cottage which has a vantage point over the neighbourhood, George knows everything that goes on around him. He might be in his mid-90s, but his mind is sharp, and he's very observant. When he has a stroke, his death is explained by natural causes.
Two deaths are seemingly unrelated. They are followed by a violent murder, military execution-style. This time it is an on-and-off boyfriend of Summer, a rude bully of a man, Luke. He has been generally unliked in the dale, but who would kill him and why?!
On top of all the deaths in the dale, Jude's personal life is complicated. His current girlfriend Ashleigh is still carrying a torch for her cheating ex. Jude's also not recovered from his relationship with Becca. They are honest with each other about their feelings, but that doesn't make their relationship smooth.
They make a good working team though. "For Jude detection was all about your brain and the evidence in front of it, whereas for Ashleigh the job benefited from intuition. You needed evidence but you needed intuition too".
Jude is determined to uncover the killer which brings him into a direct conflict with his boss, and puts him in danger.
Death on the Lake is a gripping, twisty mystery. It's a stellar ensemble of the police procedural with the intriguing storyline.
Purchase Links
UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08XY25KBM
US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XY25KBM
Author Bio – Jo Allen is the author of the successful DCI Satterthwaite series of detective novels set in and around the English Lake District, where she lives. After a career in economic consultancy she took up writing and was first published under the name Jennifer Young in genres of short stories, romance and romantic suspense. In 2017 she took the plunge and began writing the genre she most likes to read – crime. In common with all her favourite characters, she loves football (she's a season ticket holder with her beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers) and cats.
Social Media Links –
Twitter @JoAllenAuthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoAllenAuthor
Instagram @JoAllenAuthor
This post is part of the blog tour. Many thanks to Jo Allen and Rachel's Random Resources for my copy of the book!
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