Summit Lake

By: Charlie Donlea

Narrated by: Shannon McManus

“A gem of a mystery, fast-paced and suspenseful.” --Catherine Coulter, # 1 New York Times bestselling author

No suspects. No persons of interest. Just a girl who was alive one day and dead the next.

Some places seem too beautiful to be touched by horror. Summit Lake, nestled in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, is that kind of place. But two weeks ago, Becca Eckersley, a first-year law student and daughter of a powerful attorney, was brutally murdered there. Now the town is reeling with grief, and the police are baffled.

“An exciting debut, with all the right touches, captivating from the first page to the last.” --Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author

At first, investigative reporter Kelsey Castle thinks of the assignment as a fluff piece. But the savagery of the crime, and the efforts to keep it quiet, hint at something far more sinister than a random attack by a stranger. As Kelsey digs deeper, despite danger and warnings, she feels a growing connection to the dead girl. And the more she learns about Becca’s friendships, her love life - and her secrets - the more convinced she becomes that walking in Becca’s footsteps could lead her out of her own dark past....

“A swift, outstanding debut.” --Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author

“Fans of contemporary suspense will enjoy this brisk read.” --Booklist

©2016 Charlie Donlea (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Lyrics to “She Don’t Like Roses” used by permission of Christine Kane.

I'm easy to please with a book, but this was off.

If you can get past the narrator's voice and some story flaws (some of which are explained later in the book), this is actually a decent book. After I was 3 hours in, I contemplated just scrapping it and listening to something else. I wrote the review below at that time. Since I was already intrigued enough to want to know who the murderer was, I kept going. The same things still irritated me, but in the end I thought the story was woven together nicely. I liked the back and forth format between the days / weeks / months / years leading up to her death and the days after her death so we can understand the progress of the journalist's investigation. It's quite a sad story, actually. A series of unfortunate events had a major impact on a group of young friends with so much promise.

I could do without the "Hallmark movie" vibe (out-of-towner shows up in small town to write and is instantly embraced by multiple locals). But, that aside, this wasn't the waste of time I was expecting it to be after hour 3. I wouldn't recommend this book outright, but if someone was specifically interested in reading it and asked my opinion, I'd tell them to give it a go. Not exactly a glowing review, but those are my thoughts.
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Warning - After 3 hours of the book, I wrote the following: I'm not sure I'll be able to finish. The main character (journalist) is 30, so this should not be a YA read. But, the narration has had me wondering if this is a YA book multiple times. Her voice is very young, "valley girl" like and not right for this story. Although the alternating storyline takes place when the murdered girl is in college, I don't think the author intended them to sound as dumb and naive as the narrator makes it seem.

Story-wise, there have already been so many things that don't line up. If you're sensitive to spoilers, maybe skip this next part. Nothing earth shattering here, but could be spoilerish. I don't buy that someone who is a total stranger can get people - PROFESSIONALS - to bend or break the rules with little to no hesitation to help them out. Especially a journalist. She's not a private investigator or something. She's a stranger and a journalist! In 2 sentences, it goes "I'm not allowed to do that" to "meet me for dinner and I'll give you the scoop." No way. The timeline of the girl who now runs the coffee shop seems off, too. The owner / operator decided she's going to skip town because she's getting too many questions about the murder. This has already escalated to her leaving the business behind and bringing someone else in to buy it from her? This murder happened like 3 weeks ago. Not buying it. And, how convenient that the owner's mother was able to recount every single little detail about the girl's time at the coffee shop the night she was murdered. The old woman wasn't even there. But, apparently her daughter "tells her everything." Down the the look on this girl's face and the conversations she had and the subjects of the books she was studying? Nope. No way. These might sound like dumb things to comment on, but I feel like the author was sloppy about these details and/or assumes the readers are idiots.

After re-reading the reviews, I'm pretty sure that Charlie Donlea and/or Shannon McManus teaches some sort of class and threatened all of his students that they would fail unless they wrote a glowing review of this audiobook. Someone mentioned that the narrator beautifully captured the essence of the written word. What?! Were we listening to the same book?

While I might finish the book because I'm wondering who killed the girl, I wish I'd skipped this one altogether. I'd recommend you skip it too!

Enjoyed the book greatly.

The plot kept my interest throughout and the narrator was very good. Recommend this book.

Action, Suspense, what's not to love!

What did you love best about Summit Lake?

This book is very will written and keeps you on the edge of your seat! The character development is superb and there was no point that I wasn't excited for the next chapter!

Kept me interested!

Clean and easy, listening, but still very mysterious with a surprise ending. Loved the story.

Good. BUT.. Less is definitely more

Omg it dragged. it was like she went off on tangents. I guess in order to make 300 pages she just added unneeded words . The editor must have been sleeping.