“I keep my secrets safe.”
Lola is the daughter of a famous horror movie director and the actress who was a star in his most famous film – Nightjar. The filming of Nightjar took place in her mother’s hometown, Harrow Lake, and tourists gather there every year as there is a cult following of the movie. The town looks just like it did for the movie – how it’s always looked, except for when the land shifted and a sinkhole swallowed the church. After her father is stabbed, Lola ends up in Harrow Lake with her maternal grandmother, whom she hasn’t had contact with since her own mother disappeared when she was five years old. Harrow Lake might holds secrets about her mother as it definitely holds secrets about its own past.
As part of TheWriteReads Book Bloggers group, I was offered to be on a book blog tour for Harrow Lake. While I don’t normally read many thriller books, I was promised this one wouldn’t be gory. The rest of the plot intrigued me and I was given a free advanced copy in exchange for a fair review and a blog posting for the tour. The book comes out July 9, 2020.
As Lola finds herself staying in her mother’s old room, wearing her mother’s old clothes, she starts uncovering the secrets surrounding the town. There are rumors of a man in the caves who became a monster and eats people. This creature, Mister Jitters, seemed to fill her mother’s imagination and Lola starts to get taken with the story, too. Yet, Lola can’t seem to make the pieces of her mother’s story fit and she finds out the most important secrets are the ones she was keeping from herself.
Harrow Lake is a bit of a suspenseful book. I didn’t read it before bed just in case it got scary, but I didn’t need to worry that much. The thrill comes more from not knowing what the secrets are. The books touches on some adult topics, so I would recommend it to mature readers, but while they are not graphic, I won’t list them here or it will give the ending of the book away. Readers who enjoyed The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins will enjoy Harrow Lake.
Do you enjoy thrillers? Share your favorite in the comments!