Stranger in the Lake

Written by Kimberly Belle

Narrated by Xe Sands

When Charlotte married the wealthy widower Paul, it caused a ripple of gossip in their small lakeside town. They have a charmed life together, despite the cruel whispers about her humble past and his first marriage. But everything starts to unravel when she discovers a young woman’s body floating in the exact same spot where Paul’s first wife tragically drowned.

At first, it seems like a horrific coincidence, but the stranger in the lake is no stranger. Charlotte saw Paul talking to her the day before, even though Paul tells the police he’s never met the woman. His lie exposes cracks in their fragile new marriage, cracks Charlotte is determined to keep from breaking them in two.

As Charlotte uncovers dark mysteries about the man she married, she doesn’t know what to trust — her heart, which knows Paul to be a good man, or her growing suspicion that there’s something he’s hiding in the water.

‘Spellbinding. Another outstanding novel by Kimberly Belle, masterfully written to lure you in and never let go.’ — Samantha Downing, USA Today bestselling author of My Lovely Wife

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Dec 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781867228110

Kimberly Belle

Kimberly Belle is the USA Today and internationally bestselling author of five novels of suspense. Her third, The Marriage Lie, was a semifinalist in the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Mystery & Thriller, and has been translated into a dozen languages. Before turning to fiction, Kimberly worked in marketing and nonprofit fundraising. 

Reviews for Stranger in the Lake

[nyiper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another great Kimberly Belle novel....just a tiny, tiny bit of a gulp at the ending...FINE, but.......

[sennebec · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Present killings connected to events a long time ago that swirl back and forth very nicely. Readers will be kept busy guessing who did what and when. Ultimately a very satisfying whodunit.

[bookanonjeff · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Good Life. This book has a few intriguing storylines deeper than the primary mystery - which itself is compelling and very well told. One of which I know well the temptation of, because I'm actively living a version of it. (Though in my version, I didn't marry into it but instead created it for myself.) And here the subtle commentary (well, in some cases not quite so subtle) is pretty spot on in my own experience in a similar region (a small Southern US town on the shores of a large lake). Still, the commentary is (again, mostly) subtle enough that if you didn't live that life, you might not catch just how true it rings, and instead the focus of the tale is the central mystery of the description: who is this stranger, how did she get in the lake, why are so many bodies being found in this lake, and why do they all seem to be connected to Charlotte's husband? Very well told and with Belle's usual swerves even until the last pages, this is one you're going to want to pick up. Very much recommended.

[vanessa_menez-453497 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Initially when I started reading it, I thought it was going to be amazing but finally it ended up being just okay for me.

The atmospheric setting was good and obviously finding a stranger’s dead body in the water under your dock is creepy. The secrets, suspicions as well as the investigation were all great.

But I just couldn’t connect with Charlotte’s character and the ending was somewhat predictable.

[dcoward_6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Charlotte is from the poor side of town, and she is thrilled to marry older, wealthy, charming Paul, whose first wife tragically drowned. When another woman is found drowned in the same place as Paul's wife, she starts to wonder if something more is going on. I would have liked to see some more depth in these characters. In the end, I found Paul's mom to be one of the most interesting, and sadly she's not in the book that much.

[rmarcin-630843 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoy Kimberly Belle’s thrillers, and this was no exception. I read it in one long sitting. Charlotte (Charlie) grew up poor in a trailer park with a drug addicted mother, and caring for her baby brother. However, all her dreams came true when she met Paul, a wealthy architect. Now married to Paul, she is living an idyllic life until one morning when she finds a body floating under their dock. This is the second woman to be found dead in the lake under their dock. The first woman was Paul’s first wife, Katherine. Strangely, these aren’t the only 2 bodies that have been found in the lake. Another was Skeleton Bob, a local drug dealer found in his old Camaro at the bottom of the lake. Are these three bodies connected? If so, how?Charlotte’s husband begins acting very erratically, and now Charlotte doesn’t know whether or not she can believe him.Adding to her suspicions is the way Paul’s friends are behaving- Batty Jax and Lake Hunter Micah. Sam, Charlie’s old friend, is cold towards her, telling Charlie she shouldn’t have married Paul. Diana, Paul’s mother, has never truly warmed to Charlie.Charlie turns to her brother, Chet, for help - but he hasn’t told her the whole truth either. As Charlotte tries to discover the truth, she learns more than she expected, turning her world upside down and putting herself in great danger. The novel keeps the tension level high, and keeps you guessing, but I definitely had my suspicions of who committed the murders. It turns out I did guess correctly, but I didn’t guess the reason. So the reason behind the motive for the murders was definitely a surprise! I am looking forward to the next Kimberly Belle novel. #StrangerInTheLake #Kimberly Belle

[lorikboyd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

What happens when the girl from the wrong side of the tracks falls in love and marries the man from the right side of the tracks in a small town? He comes with secrets and a dead ex-wife, she comes from a horrible background and the whole town is watching and talking. Enter a pretty stranger that is going to blow the top off of a cold case. Not the one you might think. I’m a huge Kimberly Belle fan. Love her writing, plot twists, story lines. This wasn’t my favorite though. But, it was an enjoyable thriller and held my attention. I did find this read more straight forward, figuring out the ‘Who Done Its’ pretty early. The descriptive scenery is top notch...beautiful and scary at the same time. The relationships described between friends and family members is excellent. I thought the character development was excellent, revealing to us a little at a time, the true nature of the characters. Thanks to Ms Belle, Harlequin, and NetGalley for this ARC. Opinion is mine alone.

[bettytaylor56 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the third book I have read by Kimberly Belle; I loved her last one “Dear Wife”. It pains me to admit that I had a difficult time getting into this one as the narrative in the beginning was drawn out with the main female protagonist Charlie (aka Charlotte) spending an inordinate amount of time just waiting in her house trying to figure out what was going on with her husband Paul and his friends. Once the story started moving, it got better although I figured out what who the murderer was about halfway through, and accurately anticipated some of the plot twists.I would have loved to see the characters more developed. The whole story of the friendship among Paul, Jax, and Micah, in my opinion, needed to have been developed more in the flashbacks. And Sam was, regretfully, really underutilized. It isn’t a bad book; it just left me wanting more from it. Her last book, “Dear Wife”, set a really high bar.

[grandmacootie · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Stranger in the Lake is an entertaining thriller about murder, long-hidden secrets and old and new lies in a small Appalachian town. If you look hard enough, every character has a connection to every other character, and nothing is what it appears to be at first glance. Old grudges hang on, and you can’t always successfully cross from the wrong side of town to the right side.There is a rich cast of characters. Paul seems like a good man who’s found love and happiness again after losing his first wife. Charlotte loves Paul and feels protected and safe in his wealth after her anything but easy childhood. They are surrounded by Charlotte’s brother Chet, Paul’s childhood friends Micah and Jax, Paul’s mother, Micah’s police chief father, Charlotte’s old friend Sam from the days she was just Charlie. And then a mysterious women comes to town and begins to shake things up. Until she is found floating in the lake. Paul was accused and exonerated of killing his first wife, but this death is nearly identical. Is there really any such thing as a coincidence?I had a hard time rating this book. On the one hand it was a gripping story and once I started reading I didn’t want to stop. Author Kimberly Belle’s writing style flows smoothly and is easy to read. On the other hand, although there was a large cast of characters, it seemed like their stories dropped off just as they were getting interesting. The narrative switched from Charlotte’s telling of current events to Jax’s story from 1999, the summer before the boys were to go to college. The switch wasn’t always very smooth and at times it took a minute to place a character from the past in the present.As soon as the body was discovered there was a sense of danger and uncertainty surrounding Charlotte and she began to question what she really knew about Paul and his past. What caused my difficulty in reviewing and rating was that the mystery and actual events were pretty easy to figure out early on in the story. My desire to read on through was more to see how the author would wrap things up than to learn who did what.This is the first book I have read by this author and I do recommend it and will read more of what she writes. It’s a good read and the deep dive into the psychological motives of the characters is very interesting. Thanks to the author and publisher for providing an advance copy of Stranger in the Lake via NetGalley for my honest review. All opinions are my own.