Review--Lake Silence by Anne Bishop

In this thrilling and suspenseful fantasy, set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Others series, Vicki DeVine and her lodger, the shapeshifter Aggie Crowe, stumble onto a dead body . . . and find themselves enmeshed in danger and dark secrets.

Human laws do not apply in the territory controlled by the Others–vampires, shapeshifters, and paranormal beings even more deadly. And this is a fact that humans should never, ever forget . . .

After her divorce, Vicki DeVine took over a rustic resort near Lake Silence, in a human town that is not human controlled. Towns like Vicki’s have no distance from the Others, the dominant predators that rule most of the land and all of the water throughout the world. And when a place has no boundaries, you never really know what’s out there watching you.

Vicki was hoping to find a new career and a new life. But when her lodger, Aggie Crowe–one of the shapeshifting Others–discovers a dead body, Vicki finds trouble instead. The detectives want to pin the man’s death on her, despite the evidence that nothing human could have killed the victim. As Vicki and her friends search for answers, things get dangerous–and it’ll take everything they have to stay alive.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.

New York Times bestselling author, Anne Bishop returns to the world of The Others with her newest novel, Lake Silence that also starts off the new spinoff series. While our favorite characters are not in this book, they do get mentioned, we are able to meet a whole new cast of characters and I have to say, I liked them a lot! They’re all so different from the characters we’ve met before, I think this series will turn out to be just as remarkable as its predecessor!

Vicki DeVine is a newly divorcee who has come into possession of a cabin resort near Lake Silence. She knows she only got it so her lowly ex, Yorick Dane and his new wife got to keep all the cooler “toys” they owned during their marriage, but Vicki was happy to have a place of her own and a way to continue on living her life with the money that would come in once the resort is up and running. She’s in Other territory, even has a Crow as her first resident, but she adjusts well to her new situation and is even starting to like being a business owner. Then one morning, she notices Aggie Crow trying to heat up an eyeball. Yes, an eyeball. This soon leads to the discovery of a dead body on her property and launches a full investigation into his death, but this is only the start of the chaos that Vicki will have to endure.

It seems that her ex-husband, Yorick, didn’t realize a good thing when he had it. Namely that piece of property Vicki now calls him and he will do everything possible to get it back in his possession, not knowing that Vicki has gained herself quite the array of allies in town.

I had initially thought that this one would be a sort of murder mystery given the premise, but that’s not the case. I can’t say I was overly disappointed, because the story that began to unfold held my attention just as strongly as Anne’s previous books. As before, we get many points of view from the cast of characters. Even the notorious villains of the story who are only know as Them. It was interesting to get their perspective on things and kind of gave you the heads up for when something scandalous was about to happen.

In a way, Vicki was like Meg in some ways. Not that she was a blood prophet, but her insecurities over herself made her a relatable heroine. Like Meg, she was getting adjusted to a new way of life, though unlike Meg, she was used to the most basic of things and all that kind of jazz. But it felt like she shared an innocence that was similar to Meg’s.

As before, the pacing to this one wasn’t as fast paced as I usually like. It had a more sedate pace, but one that still keeps you highly engaged with the story and wanting to know what happens next. This sort of pace usually wouldn’t work for me, but for some reason, Anne does it in a way that keeps me hooked!

There’s not a whole lot of romance in this one either, but if Anne’s first series of The Others was anything to go by, I have full hope to see something happen eventually. There is already some things going into motion with Vicki and town resident, Julian who’s also an Intuit. They are friends as it is, but it seems like there’s a potential for more to come. Best thing about Julian? He runs the bookstore in town! Oh yeah!! Lol! And Vicki is a pretty big reader too, so there’s more reason to love this heroine!

The ending to this one was packed with action! There was so much going on and I found myself really enjoying this part! Let’s just say that the things that were happening with the villains of this story were served justice Other style and I couldn’t help but love it. I might be harboring a dark side that enjoys a good dose of vengeance! Lol! Happily I found that there were no cliffhangers in this one! I don’t know if Anne plans to stick with these characters for the future books to come or how this new series will play out, but I can say that I am eagerly looking forward to finding out!

You can easily read this book without needing to read the previous series, there are some occurrences that are mentioned in this book that played a role in the first series, but nothing that would lead to confusion and other than mentioning the first set of characters as well, there were no real cameo appearances, though I hope that might change in the future! Lake Silence was a most engaging read that I enjoyed to the fullest!


Overall Rating 4.5/5 stars