Genre: Psychological Thriller / Mystery
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5 Stars)
A law student murdered in a picture perfect mountain town. No suspects. No persons of interest. Just a girl who was alive one day and dead the next.
Summit Lake was my first Charlie Donlea book and I already have four more of his sitting on my shelf before I even finished writing this review. That tells you everything you need to know about where this one landed for me.
Heard It on The Unfiltered Bookshelf
This review is also featured inside my monthly podcast series The Unfiltered Bookshelf on Mindset Health Empowerment: The Unfiltered Trainer. The Unfiltered Bookshelf drops on the first Tuesday of every month and is available as both a video and audio podcast. Watch on YouTube or listen on any streaming platform, links below!
The Premise
Becca Eckersley is a first year law student and daughter of a powerful attorney. She is found brutally murdered in Summit Lake, North Carolina, a small town nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains that looks too beautiful to hold anything dark inside it. Two weeks after her death the town is still reeling and the police are completely baffled. No suspects. No motive. No answers.
Kelsey Castle is the investigative reporter assigned to cover it. Her editor wants a human interest piece. What Kelsey finds instead is something far more sinister than a random attack and a community that is very motivated to keep its secrets buried.
The more she learns about Becca’s friendships, her love life, and her secrets, the more convinced Kelsey becomes that walking in this dead girl’s footsteps might finally lead her out of her own dark past.
The Dual Perspective
The structure of Summit Lake is what sets it apart and honestly what made me fall in love with Charlie Donlea’s writing immediately.
We get two timelines running simultaneously. Becca’s story told in the past, showing us her life, her relationships, her secrets, and the events leading up to her murder. And Kelsey’s story in the present as she pieces together who Becca really was beneath the surface and what actually happened in Summit Lake.
What Donlea does brilliantly is make you feel deeply connected to Becca even though you know from the very first page that she is already gone. Her chapters are written with so much life and depth that you genuinely grieve her. And that grief is what drives you through Kelsey’s timeline because you want justice for someone who feels real.
That is not easy to pull off and he does it with impressive craft.
My Honest Take on the Pacing
The first half of this book is a slow burn and I want to be upfront about that because I think it matters going in. Donlea takes his time building these characters, their worlds, and their secrets. If you go in expecting to be immediately gripped you might feel the drag in those early chapters.
But here is what I want you to understand. That slow build is doing real work. Every detail planted in the first half pays off in the second. And when Summit Lake starts to move it does not stop.
Push through the slow start. The payoff is absolutely worth it.
Did I Figure It Out?
I had two theories on who the murderer was throughout the entire book. I ended up being right about one of them.
But right or wrong does not capture the full reading experience because the twists and the way the final ending comes together still surprised me enough that I closed this book feeling genuinely satisfied. There is a difference between guessing correctly and seeing the full picture and Donlea makes sure those are two very different things.
Final Verdict
Summit Lake is a slow burn dual timeline thriller with impressive writing, a dual perspective that actually earns its structure, and an ending that delivers even when you think you have figured it out. My first Charlie Donlea read and absolutely not my last.
4 out of 5 stars. If you love atmospheric mysteries with rich character work and a payoff that rewards your patience this one belongs on your TBR immediately.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Have you read Summit Lake or anything else by Charlie Donlea? Drop your rating in the comments and tell me which one I should read next because I clearly cannot stop buying his books! 📚👇
