Whispers of the Lake by Shanora Williams-review

Amazon.com / Amazon.ca / B&N / KOBO / Google Play / Chapters Indigo /

ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date June 24, 2025

Investigative reporter Rose Howard is exhausted from trying to manage her seemingly perfect life. With her marriage to the man she thought was her one true love collapsing, she desperately needs for one thing to go right.

While striving for a promotion to senior reporter, her efforts are interrupted when she learns her former best friend and travel vlogger, Eve Castillo, isn’t responding to attempts to contact her at the North Carolina cottage she’s reviewing. Rose knows Eve can be flaky and irresponsible. And after Eve breaks the ultimate ethical friendship code and crosses boundaries to the point of no return, Rose wants nothing to do with her. Still, Rose heads to the tranquil small town of Sage Hill . . .

Rose soon discovers that Eve has vanished without her purse and passport—even after booking a trip abroad. The personable cabin owners’ accounts of Eve’s stay just don’t add up . . . and most of the town’s initially hospitable inhabitants become increasingly less helpful . . .

Rose’s instincts tell her the solution lies somewhere in Eve’s—and Sage Hill’s—past. To get answers, she’ll have to ask inconvenient questions, stumble onto shocking truths, and face vicious attempts on her life. But some truths are best left alone. And secrets Rose never saw coming could easily sink her, and her future, without a trace .

•••••

REVIEW: WHISPERS OF THE LAKE by Shanora Williams is a contemporary, adult, psychological thriller focusing on investigative reporter Rose Howard, and the search for a missing, former friend.

Told from first person perspectives ( Rose), and journal entries from Eve Castillo, WHISPERS ON THE LAKE follows investigative reporter Rose Howard . On the fast track to make senior reporter, Rose’s energetic investigation into an adulterous politician will take a backseat when a call from a childhood friend begs our heroine to look into the disappearance of travel vlogger Eve Castillo. Eve and her sister Zoey were once best friends with Rose Howard and her husband Cole but a personal betrayal pushed Eve out of Rose’s life, and in the interim, Rose refused all of Eve’s attempts at apologies and reconciliation but a desperate phone call from Eve’s younger sister Zoey, finds Rose on the hunt for the woman who destroyed her life. From unanswered emails and phone calls, Eve’s last known location finds Rose on the road, to cottage country in North Carolina where the local inhabitants have something to hide. Questions without answers, hide the secrets buried in Sage Hill, and local law enforcement is unwillingly to play along.

The world building follows several paths that all lead back to Sage Hill, North Carolina. As Rose begins an investigation of her own, the closer to the truth finds our heroine with a target on her back, and the possibility of never returning home.

We are introduce to several interesting and questionable secondary and supporting characters including Eve’s sister Zoey, Rose’s sister Diana and their father; hacker Nico, Rose’s ex husband Cole Howard, and her friend with benefits Jayson Daniels, as well as Sheriff James Reed, his nephews and niece Alex, Damien and Rory; Officer Kennedy Windsor, and several townies and locals.

WHISPERS OF THE LAKE is a story of secrets and lies, betrayal and trust, family and friendships, moving on without regret. The thought-provoking character driven premise is dramatic, dark, twisted and edgy; the characters are numerous and animated .

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy