By James Caine

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Sydney is a successful author who had published a dark best seller from a serial killer’s perspective. But no sooner had she reached literary stardom does an enthusiastic fan start emailing her. This fan, only known as “iwritealone2009”, starts getting a little too close for comfort, tracking Sydney’s movements and documenting her everyday whereabouts in their emails. The police have no leads and at the suggestion of her boyfriend/fiance, Matt, Sydney stops all communication with iwritealone2009. But the fear of a psycho stalker plunges Sydney into deep depression and anxiety, causing her to cancel any future book tours and events and slowly she stops writing all together.

But Sydney agrees to one more event – to be key-note speaker at a convention to promote her serial killer book. This event changes everything because while at dinner with Matt, Sydney runs into an old flame, Cole, and his girlfriend, Tess. While they catch up, Cole invites Matt and Sydney to spend the weekend at their lake house – which Sydney politely refuses. But when Sydney’s hotel room is broken into and trashed, and Matt doesn’t seem to want to go home just yet, they decide to take Cole and Tess up on their offer.

But where Cole and Tess seemed warm and inviting, it’s clear there is more to their relationship than what meets the eye. Sydney notices that Cole is not the same person she knew all those years ago. He’s harsh and controlling while Tess is timid and shy. But she also can’t help but feel an old glint of attraction to him.

Inspired by the scenery and the company, Sydney decides to write again using the old desktop computer in the office. But when she opens her email for the first time in ages, she’s greeted with a message from none other than iwritealone2009 with a picture of her at the grocery store in town. And now that Sydney knows iwritealone2009 is here, she’s ready to leave. Could Cole be iwritealone? Did he lure her here? What does he want?

This is one vacation no one comes back from.

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I chose “The Couple at the Lake House” because it popped up when I filtered “available titles” on my library’s digital catalog. At around 250 pages, I knew I could read it in about a day – which I did. Thrillers, especially psychological thrillers, are my jam so this was right up my alley. And while I did enjoy a fast read with a good plot, I have some thoughts…

First of all, I’m always skeptical when we have a male author writing a female main character. I’m not saying it can’t be done right, but it’s always tricky. Sydney is a character riddled with anxiety due to internet stalker drama which should have probably been taken more seriously by law enforcement (but as we see in many true crime cases, law enforcement generally will not act unless an *actual crime* has taken place – even though stalking and cyber stalking is on the books in most states). So she retreats and isolates herself. Strangely, once she’s out of the public eye, iwritealone2009 stops communication. Her publisher offers to pay for therapy but for whatever reason, Sydney decides against it. When she finds out her fiance cheated on her, they work through it and move on. But when she meets Cole for the first time in years, she fantasizes about him almost constantly.

Fine, whatever, these are all very possible reactions someone might take in a situation like this – that’s not the part I have a problem with. The issue I have with this character is how she bounces from isolation to leaning and relying solely on Matt for reassurance, to taking a vacation at a lake house with two practically total strangers. Her anxiety triggers every few pages (again, not the part I have an issue with) and she begs Matt for them to go home, but Matt is less than supportive, so they stay. She ends up causing at least two or three scenes at the lake house, accusing Cole of being her stalker but backs down almost immediately when an explanation is provided.

So listen, if they had just gone home after the first incident, there would be no book. The author needed the build up to make us believe certain things and then give us the surprise twist at the end. But none of this felt natural and, frankly, made me cringe.

I briefly mentioned that I’m weary of male authors writing female main characters and this book was right on the line for me. Sydney felt more dimensional than some other female interpretations I’ve read, but there was something missing for me. It felt too much like a man’s view of a woman: she’s not completely fulfilled in her job or relationship so a handsome man is introduced to mix things up. Sure, it creates drama, but, she goes back and forth thinking this man is going to kill her and then still fantasizes about him. If that doesn’t scream therapy, I don’t know what does.

And don’t even get me started on Matt, who not only cheats on her prior to our story beginning, but is not the most supportive partner a girl could have. Sydney begs him multiple times to leave the conference, leave the hotel, leave the lake house – and each time Matt calms her down by basically laying it out how paranoid and ridiculous she’s being. Looking back at certain parts of the story, you can really see his gaslighting and manipulation. He sort of redeems himself in the end but I don’t know if he’s completely absolved of all the harm he did early on.

Now we’re down to Cole and Tess who are so hot and cold – I couldn’t keep up. As I said earlier Tess is the shy, timid one and Cole seems to be the dominant of the two. What I did enjoy was that the author had me going back and forth suspecting Cole as the stalker. At any chapter I was like, “he definitely did it, oh wait, no he didn’t – wait YES HE DID – WAIT”. If it weren’t for Sydney’s inability to follow her gut instincts, we wouldn’t have had that kind of suspense.

It probably sounds like I hated this book, but all in all it was a quick easy read. If you don’t give it too much thought, it’s pretty suspenseful. No one is who you think they are and you never know what someone is capable of.