Lake of Secrets
Seventeen-year-old Callie Quinn's vacation is off to a terrible start. Her parents have forced her to spend the summer before her senior year of high school with an elderly aunt in Deerville, Pennsylvania, where there's nothing to do but watch old Westerns on TV and read the classics.
But soon, a mystery catches Callie's attention: the drowning suicide of a pregnant teen during the 1940s. Haunted by dreams of the girl, Callie realizes the story isn't what it appears to be. Why would a teen bent on suicide make a blanket for a baby who wouldn't survive?
For help, Callie turns to her only friend in Deerville, another outsider named Brian. Little by little, he and Callie get closer to the mystery of the girl's death, deep into the prejudices of the 1940s. They also become closer with each other.
As Callie begins to open up about her past to Brian, she is forced to face hard truths-not only about a murderer who has been hiding in plain sight, but also the turbulent personal events which led to Callie's exile to Deerville in the first place.
Published: February 4, 2025
Pages: 214
ISBN: 9781967163939
Reader Reviews
1 rating
Liz M.
What else is there to do in a quaint small town with your shut in 89 year old great-great aunt? Turn to reading to not waste your days away watching tv all day long when you don’t know anyone else your age in town.
Doing just that Callie finds a decades old newspaper clipping was used as a bookmark in her new found copy of “A scarlet letter” where she reads about a teenage Betty was found dead at the local lake ruled Suicide. Well that doesn’t sit well or right with Callie.
As Callie is reading this clipping her new sort of friend Brian sees it as well, little does Callie know Betty is his relative.
Over the course of the summer Callie & Brian become on their own detectives with the help of Brian’s grandfather who was Betty’s cousin granted his grandfather was only a child at the time and doesn’t have too many memories of Betty. And end up solving the case.
It didn’t feel rushed at all and as the story went on it gave just right right amount of information at just the right times to keep you wanting more.
Now I know this is Callie’s story but it really feels like it actually belongs to Betty.
For being a YA story Callie’s character development is phenomenal as we slowly get to watch her grow up over the summer.
Well well done.
Thank you for the chance to ARC read this copy. Very well done.