Stillhouse Lake: 1

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Gina Royal thinks she’s living a wonderful, suburban life with a loving husband and two great kids. Then she comes home one day to a street clogged with police cars and ambulances. A car accident has revealed that her husband’s hobby in the garage—one she never inquired about—was gruesome—he’s a serial killer. But I’ve kept them safe from the wolves, at least: the most basic and important job of a parent, to keep her offspring from being eaten by predators. Even the ones I can’t see. They’re hunting a killer so silent, so invisible, that his unspeakable crimes are the only proof he exists.

Stillhouse Lake Series by Rachel Caine - Goodreads

Mel infected me like a virus, and I have an unhealthy surety deep down that I’ll never get completely well again.” This book was unexpectedly good — gripping, tense and wonderfully suspenseful. I don’t usually read many thrillers, but books like this are enough to redeem that genre for me. The audiobook hours flew by, and I loved it. My first issue: it was relentlessly repetitive. I thought nobody could repeat themselves like Liv is Stay Awake, but Gwen said hold my mfn conceal and carry permit! She doesn't miss a chance to tell us how her life has been changed because of Melvin, how Melvin was just putting on an act, and how her kids couldn't lead normal lives because of Melvin's atrocities. WE GET IT!!!! You don't need to spell it out to us. Nobody expects your life to be regular degular when your husband was running a chop shop out of his garage. Not every interaction needs to be compared and contrasted with your Ted Bundy ass ex. Let's move on. A car submerged in a remote pond. The bodies of two girls strapped into their seats. The mystery of their mother, vanished without a trace, leads Gwen Proctor and Kezia Claremont into dangerous territory. But then the letters start arriving, shattering her tiny moment of peace. Hating the prospect of forcing her family to start over somewhere else, yet again, Gwen is afraid she may have no choice when Stillhouse Lake becomes fraught with suspicion and danger… Gwen Proctor plans to use herself as bait to catch her serial killer ex-husband. Melvin Royal is AWFUL and she wants to take him down now that he has escaped from prison.

Gina was arrested because a neighbour apparently saw her carrying a body, but this neighbour is a known gossip and Gina was eventually acquitted.

Rachel Caine | New York Times bestselling author

What a fascinating premise! A story told from the perspective of a serial killer’s wife. Told after he is discovered, she and her family have had to go into hiding, changing their identities. Dealing with the trolls who want to punish them for her husband’s crimes. And she still struggles with how she never knew. The public thinks she was his helper. So while he’s sentenced to actual prison, Gina is on the run from public opinion which is not always confined to horrific online messages. Gina transforms herself into Gwen and for the next four years she and her kids are in hiding with new identities, never knowing who they can trust. When more bodies start showing up, the police think this is proof that Gina/Gwen was in fact in on her husband’s grotesque and unimaginably cruel activities. For her safety and the safety of her children, Gwen needs to figure out who she can trust—and who has betrayed her in the remote area where she’s been hiding out, Stillhouse Lake.I'm glad I've escaped a hell I had hardly even recognized when I was burning in it. Glad that I've pulled the kids out, too." Gwen receives another letter from Melvin which mentions a lake house, which means he knows where they are. She decides she’s going to visit him in prison for the first time.

Stillhouse, Stillhouse Hollow Lake - Recreation.gov Stillhouse, Stillhouse Hollow Lake - Recreation.gov

A body is found in the lake. Atlanta heard the splash when it was dumped, and says she saw a small white boat out on the lake. Gwen Proctor isn’t the name she was born with. She’s changed it to hide herself away from the past. Because the past brings with it a brutal serial killer ex-husband, suspicion that she got away with murder, and enemies she can’t even begin to count. Every time Gwen closed her eyes, she saw him in her nightmares. Now her eyes are open, and he’s not going away. A fast-paced and intense psychological thriller. Pulls you right in and doesn't let go. Who can be trusted? Is there anywhere that is safe?As I've remarked before, my general MO when reading thrillers is to trust no one. I really was wondering how Caine would resolve everything, and while I felt like I had to stretch my disbelief a bit, it didn't frustrate me that much. Caine is an amazing storyteller—there aren't a lot of books that would keep me reading late into the night, desperately needing to see how the book ended! Gwen relocates her family to Stillhouse Lake, where she finally allows herself, and her children, to let their guard down in small ways. Yet, the internet trolls, convinced Gwen was complicit in her husband’s crimes, are still a constant threat.

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The book begins with Gina Royal returning home to a drunk driver having crashed into her husband’s garage. There was a dead body in there. Kezia offers to watch over the house for Gwen. She doesn’t believe that she did it, and her father suggested she help out. Gwen wakes up in a plantation house in Louisiana. She plans to fight. She wounds Melvin and kills a guard all by herself. Yesssss! Kezia and Sam arrive and they go to the cabin to find the kids. The Graham boys are there, and they shoot at the trio. Kezia handcuffs them. Gwen finds her kids in a secret basement.All she wants to do is survive and keep her kids safe. She runs crisis drills. They have an escape plan. They have an alarm set at all times, and Gwen is armed to the teeth! Gina Royal no longer exists…she’s now Gwen Proctor. And there are a LOT of differences between the two. Where Gina was weak and submissive, Gwen is strong and dominant.