WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 57Review_FICTION
writer to watch. Agent: Mollie Glick,
Creative Artists Agency. (June)
Stranger in the Lake
Kimberly Belle. Park Row, $17.99 trade paper
(352p) ISBN 978-0-7783-0981-9
Charlotte, the narrator of this well-
paced novel set in Lake Crosby, N.C.,
from Belle (Dear Wife), was raised in
poverty, but she has achieved her dream of
a better life by marrying Paul Keller, the
richest man in the Appalachian tourist
town of Lake Crosby, N.C., despite the
local gossip that Paul drowned his first
wife four years earlier. Then one day she’s
disturbed to spot a nervous-looking Paul
talking to a strange woman. The next day,
Charlotte finds the woman’s body floating
under their lakefront dock, just like Paul’s
first wife. When shown the body, Paul
tells the police he’s never seen the woman.
He later takes off without telling anyone
where he’s going. Frightened and con-
fused, Charlotte turns to Paul’s two best
friends for support, one the town crazy,
the other the police chief’s son, both with
dark secrets of their own. Belle weaves an
intricate web of connections among the
characters as the action moves toward the
surprising ending. Those who like a
message of hope in their psychological
thrillers will be satisfied. Agent: Nikki
Terpilowski, Holloway Literary. (June)
Meg: Generations
Steve Alten. Forge, $17.99 trade paper
(384p) ISBN 978-1-250-62152-8
Some 30 years before the present-day
action of Alten’s predictable sixth
thriller centered on rapacious prehistoric
creatures (after 2016’s Meg: Nightstalkers),
Navy Cmdr. Jonas Taylor encountered a
Megalodon, a humongous shark believed
long extinct. After officials dismissed
his account, Taylor left the navy and
retrained as a paleobiologist. Eventually,
he captured a Megalodon pup, which led
to the creation of “a monster shark cot-
tage industry.” The latest iteration is a
marine park in Dubai, featuring other
dangerous living fossils, which somehow
survived in a sea beneath the Mariana
Trench. When one such animal, a mon-
strous whale, escapes the tanker it’s
being transferred in, the vessel sinks,
drowning most of its human occupants.
A Liopleurodon, a giant, crocodile-like
marine reptile, which was intended to be
displayed in Dubai, also gets away. As if
efforts to recapture the beasts and minimize
carnage aren’t enough, Alten tosses in a
miraculous cancer cure subplot, which
involves Taylor, whose wife has the disease.
Series fans who won’t mind more of the
same will be pleased. Agent: Danny Baror,
Baror International. (June)The Clutter Corpse
Simon Brett. Crème de la Crime, $28.99
(192p) ISBN 978-1-78029-124-6
Set in Chichester, England, this gentle
series launch from Brett (the Fethering
mysteries) introduces Ellen Curtis, a
widow with two grown children who runs
her own business called SpaceWoman,
which offers decluttering and interior
restyling. As Ellen goes about a typical
workday, she
chats engag-
ingly about her
clients, her
friends, her
actor mother,
her children,
her deceased
husband, and
her adven-
turous youth.
However, her
afternoon takes an unexpected turn when
she stops in at the cluttered apartment
of Maureen Ogden, whose grown son,
Nate, has recently been released on
parole from prison where he was serving
time for his live-in girlfriend’s murder.
Amid the stacked newspapers and piles
of debris, Ellen finds the body of an
emaciated young woman. Could Nate
be the killer? Ellen decides to investigate.
The languid lead-up to the body’s discovery
turns out to be necessary preparation for
another murder and the denouement.
The appealing Ellen is fortunate to
pursue a profession that allows her to
enter into the homes and minds of her
clients. She is sure to win many loyal
fans. Agent: Lisa Moylett, CMM Agency
(U.K.). (June)Don’t Make a Sound
T.R. Ragan. Thomas & Mercer, $15.95 trade
paper (328p) ISBN 978-1-5420-9387-3
Fantasies of domination and revenge
overwhelm this intense series launchfrom Ragan (the Jessie Cole novels).
Sawyer Brooks, a 29-year-old newly pro-
moted crime reporter for a Sacramento,
Calif., newspaper, suffered a traumatic
experience as a child. One night, while
Sawyer’s parents were traveling on busi-
ness, her two older sisters left the young
teen alone in their house in River Rock.
Just after their departure, the uncle who
usually looked after the sisters while
their parents were away showed up at
the house and rented her to four men
who sexually abused her. Ever since,
Sawyer has had trouble trusting people,
and she flinches when anyone touches her.
Nevertheless, her hunger for justice leads
her back to River Rock to investigate a
teenage girl’s murder that reminds her of
two unsolved killings from her youth.
She’s horrified to discover that child
molesters are lurking almost everywhere
in River Rock. Meanwhile, back in
Sacramento, five young women whose
sexual attackers were insufficiently pun-
ished have formed a vigilante group to
teach the men a lesson. Their plan goes
awry with predictably bloody results.
Readers should be prepared for overheated
prose in line with the subject matter
(“River Rock... reeks of death, abandon-
ment, and abduction”). Those who like to
see evil men get their just desserts will
look forward to Sawyer’s further exploits.
Agent: Amy Tannenbaum, Jane Rotrosen
Agency. (June)Murder Goes to Market
Daisy Bateman. Seventh Street, $15.95 trade
paper (248p) ISBN 978-1-64506-012-3
Set in the seaside town of San Elmo,
Calif., Bateman’s entertaining debut and
series launch introduces former software
engineer Claudia Simcoe, who now runs
a marketplace for independent busi-
nesses selling “local and/or artisanal”
products.
Claudia has the
unsavory task
of confronting
Lori Roth,
owner of Lori’s
Handmade
Creations, when
she discovers
that Lori’s
merchandise is
in fact made in