It Happened On The Lake - Lisa Jackson
The title and author’s name, plus a teaser tagline over the picture of a house on a lake surrounded by trees.
3.5 Stars
It Happened On The Lake by Lisa Jackson is a thriller novel set to be published on the 24th of June 2025 by Hodder and Stoughton.
It's October 1988 and Harper Prescott is returning to her grandmother's house on Lake Twilight aged 37 (the age her Gram deemed her old enough to inherit it). Alone, divorced and with her daughter at university, returning after so many years brings back memories of her time there, with Gram, her Gramps, her father, her late mother (who is implied to have had mental health issues) and tragically killed brother Evan.
One night in 1968, when she was looking after her by this time wheelchair-bound Gram, she is much more focussed on meeting up with her secret boyfriend Chase than playing Gin Rummy well past her Gram’s bedtime. When he fails to show up, disappeared without a trace and Gram dies following a faux pas Harper made, suspicions flare (including her stepmother’s).
In the present (1988), Harper rallies to the lake when she sees a boat on fire, soon realising the woman trapped is Chase's mother, Cynthia. Old wounds and suspicions open, and once again it seems everyone has something to hide and everyone wants a piece of Harper - gossip, inheritance, some things never seem to change in Almsville. Is there more to all the tragedy than meets the eye? A curse? And is Harper more involved than she appears?
If this novel is anything to go by, Jackson is brilliant at writing twisty thrillers. Every time I felt like I understood a situation or felt I knew my opinion on a character, Jackson would subvert it. Although sometimes I found some of their actions unbelievable, the characters themselves are incredibly well drawn. Nothing is cut and dry, and the characters all have so many layers and none are completely good, though a few are completely bad. But even most of the morally bad characters have redeeming qualities, usually not enough to make up for their shortcomings but there nonetheless, much like real life.
My one criticism when it comes to the characters is the lack of diversity. There is the odd character who may be a character of colour and Gram is a wheelchair user at the time of her death, but aside from this it is a very white, cis-het story, which is a shame.
I was initially daunted by the almost-600 page length of It Happened On The Lake but Jackson kept me hooked all the way, and I wouldn't say that you could criticise the length too much at all. Some books meander, but I think that almost all of this book is necessary considering the 20+ year mysterIES featured within it.
A note on the the star rating (SEMI-SPOILER WARNING):
I was originally planning to give this book 4 or even 4.5 stars, however, the Epilogue and the fact that the two romances were shoehorned in at the end meant I had to lower my score. Both had little chemistry and felt incredibly forced, if anything Harper and Levi would've made more sense as a pairing, if there really had to be one. An ending doesn't need to have romantic relationships to be happy, fulfilling or good, and this one would have been much better without them. To me, endings written so the protagonists are all cis-het and in relationships come across as unimaginative at best.
