Lake of the Dead
A Winston Radhauser Mystery
#5
by Susan
Clayton-Goldner
Published: January
16, 2019
Publisher: Tirgearr Publishing
Genre: Mystery, Suspense,
Thriller
Blurb:
When Parker Collins, a gifted writing student at Southern
Oregon University in Ashland, fails to show up for the first day of fall
classes, his frantic girlfriend, Rishima Reynolds, files a missing person’s
report. Though Parker has a history of alcohol abuse, disorderly conduct, and
truancy, she insists he is committed to his writing classes, and is adamant
something is very wrong.
Persuaded by the depth of her conviction, Radhauser drives
up to a cabin at Sunset Lake where Parker spent the last month finishing a
novel. It’s a manuscript his mentor, Professor Madison Hollingsworth, claims is
brilliant. The Hollingsworth cabin has been trashed—the padlock on the liquor
cabinet cut and empty bottles are strewn around the kitchen. It appears Parker
has gone on a binge and disappeared with the Hollingsworth boat. Radhauser
knows appearances are often deceiving. He returns to Ashland, hoping Parker is
out on the lake and nursing a gigantic headache. But something about the cabin
scene nags at Radhauser and won’t let him go.
The following morning, 72-year-old Homer "Sully"
Sullivan, one of the lake's few year-round residents, finds a bloated body
floating face-down near his cottage. He phones Radhauser, terrified it could be
Parker Collins—the boy Sully befriended and has come to love. Will this missing
person’s case become a murder investigation?
My Review:
A young college student, Parker Collins goes to Sunset Lake to
spend a month at a cabin that belongs to one of his professors at Southern
Oregon University in Ashland. Parker intends on doing some writing in his
manuscript.
At the end of his month stay at Sunset Lake Parker is supposed
to return to college as it is the first day of classes. When he fails to show
up his girlfriend Rishima Reynolds, contacts Detective Winston Radhauser to
report Parker missing. Parker has had some issues in the past but Rishima unlike
others knows how much writing means to him.
Radhauser takes a drive up to the lake to see if he can find
Parker upon his arrival he finds that Parker is nowhere to be seen but the
cabin looks as if Parker or someone decided to have a party. Either Parker went
on a drinking binge all by himself or he had a few friends over. The cabin had
been trashed with beer bottles lying all over the place.
After his investigation at the cabin Radhauser talks to a
few of the residents who live at the lake year round. One of the people he
talks to is Homer “Sully” Sullivan who has a lot to tell Radhauser about
Parker, about how nice of a guy he seemed to be and that they had become
friends in the short time he had been at the lake. Later on after Radhauser
returns home he gets a call from Sully letting him know that he found a dead
body floating in the lake. Sully is not sure who the person is and hopes that
it is not Parker.
After Radhauser starts his investigation, suspects start
turning up left and right. Radhauser has more suspects than he knows what to do
with. The suspects all have their motives and secrets to hide. Lake of the Dead has lots of secrets and it
hides them well between its covers only spewing them out at the right moment in
time.
Lake of
the Dead had me hanging on like a fish on hook it would reel me giving me
just enough information to keep me hooked and flipping the pages. One minute I
would think that I had it all figured out and just knew whodunit and the next I
was like what no way but all of Susan’s books are like that. Lake of the Dead took me down so many roads
and each one looked as if they could be the right one but then there would be a
twist and I would be headed in a complete different direction.
Lake of
the Dead is the fifth book in the Winston Radhauser Mystery. I have read
all of the books in the Winston Radhauser Mystery and each one seems to get
better and better. In my opinion each of the Winston Radhauser Mystery books
can be read in any order but I do suggest that you begin with the first book in
the series, Redemption
Lake for a more enjoyable experience and to get Detective Winston Radhauser’s
back ground info first hand so to speak.
Although each book gives you enough info so that you don’t
feel lost or that you are missing out it is so much better if you are there as
they say, so that you can experience it all for yourself. What I am trying to
say is check out all of the books in the Winston Radhauser Mystery. My
suggested reading order is as follows - Redemption
Lake, When Time is a River, A River of Silence, and River of Shame.
AUTHOR BIO:
Susan Clayton-Goldner was born in New
Castle, Delaware and grew up with four brothers along the banks of the Delaware
River. She is a graduate of the University of Arizona's Creative Writing
Program and has been writing most of her life. Her novels have been finalists
for The Hemingway Award, the Heeken Foundation Fellowship, the Writers
Foundation and the Publishing On-line Contest. Susan won the National Writers'
Association Novel Award twice for unpublished novels and her poetry was
nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Her work has appeared in numerous
literary journals and anthologies including Animals as Teachers and Healers,
published by Ballantine Books, Our Mothers/Ourselves, by the Greenwood
Publishing Group, The Hawaii Pacific Review-Best of a Decade, and New
Millennium Writings. A collection of her poems, A Question of Mortality was released in 2014 by Wellstone Press.
Prior to writing full time, Susan worked as the Director of Corporate Relations
for University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona.
Susan
shares a life in Grants Pass, Oregon with her husband, Andreas, her fictional
characters, and more books than one person could count.
Author
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