Happy Publication Day to Sheena Lambert! Her first Killer Reads imprint novel, The Lake, is out today in eBook format. We have the privilege of sharing an exclusive blog post from Sheena in celebration of its release. Continue reading to learn more from the author on the namesake behind this far-from-placid Irish thriller.
Lakes are ominous entities. Even on a clear day when it seems like the sun has scattered diamonds on its surface and its clear water laps gently at the shore, a lake is foreboding. Its stillness, ever threatening.
It’s usual to associate water with cleansing and renewal; what could be more refreshing than a racing, gurgling river, or more of a balm to the soul than the crashing waves of the churning tides?
But lakes are different. Lakes are silent; they sit, still, their apparently stagnant water deep and heavy. Lakes keep secrets. Unlike those rivers and oceans which like playful children cannot resist the temptation to throw up their hidden treasures, flinging them on their banks and beaches for all to see, lakes hold their secrets close, interred, weighted down by deep, cold water, never willingly revealing what they hide.
Is it any wonder that lakes have been the scene of many murderous crimes? Some of the most gruesome and shocking killings have had connections to lakes – Lake Bodom in Finland, Coniston Water in England and Lake Shelbyville in the USA are just a few of the lakes that have played a role in serious crime around the world over the past decades.
Even more mysterious are the manmade lakes that spread across the planet like a contagion in the mid 1900s in man’s pursuit of industrialisation. These lakes, the progeny of great dams built across rivers in rural areas, served to further the development of cities through the provision of fresh water and electricity, while destroying the lives and livelihoods of thousands of country people. All around the world there are lakes which didn’t exist 100 years ago, their waters guiltily concealing the broken lives and the broken homes of the Washed-Outs who had no choice but to leave.
It is one such lake that sits, quietly, in the townland of Crumm in the Irish midlands. In 1975, a year of exceptionally warm and dry weather, the water level drops lower than ever before, mysteriously revealing a shallow grave in the drying silt. Now those, like Peggy Casey and her siblings, descendants of the Wash-Outs who have lived beside the lake all of their lives without giving it much consideration, have no choice but to notice.
And just like every other, this lake has secrets it wants to keep.
Be sure to keep up with the latest from Sheena by following her on Twitter @shewithonee. You can also find her on Facebook and her website.
More from Sheena around the web today.
Writing.ie Magazine: A Killer Read: Sheena Lambert on The Lake
Catherine, Caffeinated: 5 Ways To Get a Book Deal
