Secrets At Meadow Lake by Wendy Owens Review
⭐⭐⭐ Stars
Book Blurb
A dark secret separated them, a sinister invitation brought them all back together again.
A group of college friends got away with an unthinkable crime, or so they thought.
Ten years after that fateful night, Riley and her friends all receive a mysterious invitation to spend the weekend at a cabin on Meadow Lake. It's obvious to all that it isn't a coincidence the gathering falls on the anniversary of the evening that changed their lives forever.
Once everyone arrives, tensions run high in the midst of a snowstorm, as everyone tries to figure out who brought them together and to what end.
As the snow continues to fall, the body count begins to rise. The survivors must confront their dark pasts and the secret that brought them back together if they have any chance of surviving.
Will they make it out alive, or does whoever knows their secret have other plans for them?
Secrets At Meadow Lake Review
I received a free copy of this book and my thanks to the author, Wendy Owens and the team of BookSirens for the copy.
All views expressed in this review are my own and based on my reading of this book. Some of the initial comments were made as I progressed in this book and I have not tried editing them as it expresses my contiguous thoughts as I proceeded with the story.
The blurb gave out a scenario which has been used in numerous scenarios. There have been a number of books and movies with this theme where a crime has been committed and as a group a number of people have decided to bury it and then some time later someone informs them about the deceit and gathers them at one place. Think, "I Know What You Did Last Summer", Agatha Christies "10 little Indians" or as known popularly "And Then There Were None" but I wanted to read how Wendy Owens approached this well beaten track.
The initial pages which create the context for the story is a bit slow and is filled with friends and acquaintances meeting each other after years, some having kept in touch, others not much and everyone apprehensive and seeming to hope that this situation would go away.
The isolated cabin in the middle of nowhere with zero cellular reception was an expected and as they catch up with each other it is obvious that the past incident is the reason for this unexpected reunion and it seems the entire lot are appraising their friends afresh to identify the suspect. The killer starts striking and with a snowstorm raging the group is stuck in the cabin. Who the killer is - whether one of them or an outsider is the crux of the story.
The story arc follows a similar path like other stories, except here there is a crime behind the crime. The original crime is the reason for the latter and both of them together the reason for the current predicament.
The story about a group of college mates who have been lured to a remote cabin with the knowledge of a crime that they buried back in college. The initial crime was their college professor who was a predator on his students and some of the girls in this group were the victims. Rape is a terrible crime and when it is in an administrative set-up like in college, it is a much more severe and vicious crime. Institutes not going through on complaints received is something much more terrible and an unfortunate happening that keeps occurring. With the complaints falling to deaf ears the friends concoct a plan to get back at the professor and remove him from commission.
The retribution led to an unfortunate side effect, another death by the wayside, the wife of the professor which made the justifiable deed hollow.
Years down the line the crime has raised its ugly head once again and the group which has grown with age and experience has also found that they have grown apart and there were other gaps in thoughts that have grown over the years. There has been rethinking over the issue and lots of blame games.
The current issue and restrictions begin to drive wedges in already loose relationships and forces the group to question each others roles in the situation.
The best part of the story and where the author deserves credit is the fast storyline and the easy constant bickering in the group and the way lines are drawn in the group. The length of the story which is short to medium size for a novel is also in the story's favor.
What did not work for me in this book was the interaction between the characters. With the current time a decade after college, the group would be more matured in terms of age, situation and stage. The bickering and finger pointing and grouping seems too juvenile and over the top. The deaths right from the start provide the out for outside interference and the story falls apart towards its gory end. As a person addicted to thrillers, I was able to guess the end game earlier and narrow it down to two items. The end justified my deductions although it was handled awkwardly to some extent. But overall the story was good and would be loved by most readers.
This was my second book by the author after "An Influential Murder" which was a slightly better book and prompted me to try more of her books.
⭐⭐⭐ Stars
Recommended
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