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Every Lake
Set against a postcard-perfect Otago landscape, Every Lake is a gripping, darkly funny thriller about a small town with deep secrets.
Scary stories told around a bonfire are fun ... until your life becomes one.
Twelve years ago, teenage Alice and her father Jon were finding their feet in a new hometown after losing Alice's mother to cancer. Trying their best to escape their grief by moving across the country, they settled into a rundown cottage in a small lakeside town called Tall Pines.
The postcard-perfect Otago landscape hides a deep divide between the rich listers in their holiday homes and the working class who live there year-round, and both Alice and Jon find it hard to form ties in a community that's deeply suspicious of newcomers. Any attempt to start afresh is ruined when Alice's one new friend from high school, Mia, turns up dead in Jon's bed after a local party goes off the rails. Jon disappears into the woods and Alice flees Tall Pines after everyone assumes her dad is the murderer.
Over a decade later, redundancy and an expensive divorce eventually mean Alice has to return to what the town has dubbed 'the murder house' to put it on the market. Now a journalist, Alice decides to investigate what really happened that night. She finds Tall Pines as toxic as ever, where the locals remain desperate to believe her still-missing dad really is the killer rather than delve too deeply into the town's own troubled past.
But when Mia's tragic death is linked to another unsolved murder, two dead girls start to look less like an accident and more like a pattern. A gripping, darkly funny thriller about a small town with secrets and a compelling heroine hell-bent on clearing her family name.
Scary stories told around a bonfire are fun ... until your life becomes one.
Twelve years ago, teenage Alice and her father Jon were finding their feet in a new hometown after losing Alice's mother to cancer. Trying their best to escape their grief by moving across the country, they settled into a rundown cottage in a small lakeside town called Tall Pines.
The postcard-perfect Otago landscape hides a deep divide between the rich listers in their holiday homes and the working class who live there year-round, and both Alice and Jon find it hard to form ties in a community that's deeply suspicious of newcomers. Any attempt to start afresh is ruined when Alice's one new friend from high school, Mia, turns up dead in Jon's bed after a local party goes off the rails. Jon disappears into the woods and Alice flees Tall Pines after everyone assumes her dad is the murderer.
Over a decade later, redundancy and an expensive divorce eventually mean Alice has to return to what the town has dubbed 'the murder house' to put it on the market. Now a journalist, Alice decides to investigate what really happened that night. She finds Tall Pines as toxic as ever, where the locals remain desperate to believe her still-missing dad really is the killer rather than delve too deeply into the town's own troubled past.
But when Mia's tragic death is linked to another unsolved murder, two dead girls start to look less like an accident and more like a pattern. A gripping, darkly funny thriller about a small town with secrets and a compelling heroine hell-bent on clearing her family name.
329 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 21, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 18, 2026
Good first time effort for this author. Great Kiwi surroundings. Had me hooked until the end
August 11, 2026
This is not my usual genre, but I enjoyed it! I loved the lil kiwi references throughout- good to have a grimy mystery set in New Zealand!
July 11, 2026
When Alice was 15, her friend Mia was found murdered in her dad’s bed, and her dad was nowhere to be found. Over 10 years later, redundancy from her journalist job at a newspaper and what is shaping up to be an expensive divorce forces Alice to return to ‘the murder house’ in scenic Tall Pines to prepare it for sale. She also wants to do her own investigation into Mia’s murder and her dad’s disappearance and get some answers. The Otago landscape might be picture perfect, but it’s inhabitants aren’t.
There must be something in the water here because every thriller I’ve read by a kiwi author in the last year or so has been incredible and this was just fantastic! I cannot believe this is a debut! I loved Alice - she was determined to find out the truth and she had a wickedly dark sense of humour. Ex-cop Peller ended up helping her tidy up the house and the banter they shared had me in fits. This is told in the present, but we did get some flashback scenes to when Alice first moved to Tall Pines as a teen and met Mia, which helped set the scene for Alice’s current investigation. I truly didn’t know who was guilty and was questioning everyone Alice came into contact with. I did not see the ending coming AT ALL and I was completely blown away by the twist! If you are a thriller lover I cannot recommend this highly enough - this was just excellent!
There must be something in the water here because every thriller I’ve read by a kiwi author in the last year or so has been incredible and this was just fantastic! I cannot believe this is a debut! I loved Alice - she was determined to find out the truth and she had a wickedly dark sense of humour. Ex-cop Peller ended up helping her tidy up the house and the banter they shared had me in fits. This is told in the present, but we did get some flashback scenes to when Alice first moved to Tall Pines as a teen and met Mia, which helped set the scene for Alice’s current investigation. I truly didn’t know who was guilty and was questioning everyone Alice came into contact with. I did not see the ending coming AT ALL and I was completely blown away by the twist! If you are a thriller lover I cannot recommend this highly enough - this was just excellent!
September 29, 2026
I absolutely LOVED this! Total page turner with an added bonus of being set in our beautiful Te Waipounamu. Loved the characters too.
Can't wait for another Adam Perry novel 🌟
Can't wait for another Adam Perry novel 🌟
August 1, 2026
New Zealand fiction is coming along leaps and bounds. Every year there are more and more new releases and what’s really exciting is the way that the reading public is embracing them
Every Lake is a debut crime novel set in the Southern Lakes region of the South Island (also home to Queenstown and Wānaka). It’s about a journalist called Alice who’s come back to the home that she and her father lived in briefly when she was a teenager – before her best friend was murdered and her father, the presumed murderer, disappeared. Alice has dual motivations: to clean up the house before she can sell it, and to prove her father’s innocence.
Or as the author’s note that I received with the book puts it, “it’s a tale of creaking pines, roaring bonfires and deep secrets, with a darkly funny heroine who is desperate to find out the truth”.
There’s a lot to like about Every Lake. The setting is evocative. Alice is a ballsy heroine with a flair for witty observations. The “journalist investigating a cold case” plot reminded me of books like The Night Swim by Megan Goldin and if you liked that, I think you’d like this too. The author’s writing style is easy to read and he’s adopted the David Baldacci style of ending chapters with a mini cliffhanger which makes it hard to stop reading. The remote location of the house means Alice doesn’t have wifi or phone connectivity and this gives a credible recurring source of tension.
Sounds good, yes? It IS a first novel and it’s not perfect. The pace is sometimes uneven and the plot gets a bit far-fetched (although that’s true of most books in this genre). But there’s a lot here to like and I’m excited to see what Adam Perry writes next.
Every Lake is a debut crime novel set in the Southern Lakes region of the South Island (also home to Queenstown and Wānaka). It’s about a journalist called Alice who’s come back to the home that she and her father lived in briefly when she was a teenager – before her best friend was murdered and her father, the presumed murderer, disappeared. Alice has dual motivations: to clean up the house before she can sell it, and to prove her father’s innocence.
Or as the author’s note that I received with the book puts it, “it’s a tale of creaking pines, roaring bonfires and deep secrets, with a darkly funny heroine who is desperate to find out the truth”.
There’s a lot to like about Every Lake. The setting is evocative. Alice is a ballsy heroine with a flair for witty observations. The “journalist investigating a cold case” plot reminded me of books like The Night Swim by Megan Goldin and if you liked that, I think you’d like this too. The author’s writing style is easy to read and he’s adopted the David Baldacci style of ending chapters with a mini cliffhanger which makes it hard to stop reading. The remote location of the house means Alice doesn’t have wifi or phone connectivity and this gives a credible recurring source of tension.
Sounds good, yes? It IS a first novel and it’s not perfect. The pace is sometimes uneven and the plot gets a bit far-fetched (although that’s true of most books in this genre). But there’s a lot here to like and I’m excited to see what Adam Perry writes next.
September 28, 2026
A darkly funny thriller set in Otago, from a talented New Zealand author!
Following the death of her mother, Alice and her father Jon buy a home in the isolated Dark Cove. Alice makes a new friend (kind of), Mia - but things take a horrifying turn when Mia is found in her father’s bed… and her father is gone.
Ten years later, Alice returns to Dark Cove looking for answers (classic “now I’m a journalist and I’m going to open the cold case to absolve my father of his guilt”).
This was SO hard to put down. The story is really well built, the character development is excellent, and I loved that so many of the characters were somehow both lovable and completely untrustworthy.
And SURPRISE - I did not guess the ending! 😂 Although, to be fair, I am pretty rubbish at guessing thriller twists.
I particularly enjoyed all the Kiwiisms scattered throughout. There’s something extra fun about reading a thriller that feels unmistakably New Zealand.
Dark, funny (Alice has got some serious wit on hand), twisty and very readable. A little cray cray at times, but thrillers have to suspend disbelief sometimes! Definitely one to pick up if you enjoy a mystery where you’re never entirely sure who to trust.
Following the death of her mother, Alice and her father Jon buy a home in the isolated Dark Cove. Alice makes a new friend (kind of), Mia - but things take a horrifying turn when Mia is found in her father’s bed… and her father is gone.
Ten years later, Alice returns to Dark Cove looking for answers (classic “now I’m a journalist and I’m going to open the cold case to absolve my father of his guilt”).
This was SO hard to put down. The story is really well built, the character development is excellent, and I loved that so many of the characters were somehow both lovable and completely untrustworthy.
And SURPRISE - I did not guess the ending! 😂 Although, to be fair, I am pretty rubbish at guessing thriller twists.
I particularly enjoyed all the Kiwiisms scattered throughout. There’s something extra fun about reading a thriller that feels unmistakably New Zealand.
Dark, funny (Alice has got some serious wit on hand), twisty and very readable. A little cray cray at times, but thrillers have to suspend disbelief sometimes! Definitely one to pick up if you enjoy a mystery where you’re never entirely sure who to trust.
October 6, 2026
This is Adam Perry's debut novel. In this one, Alice lives with her father and when her mother dies, they are both devastated, and decide to go back to Tall Pines, where their lakeside home is. They want to get away from the memories, go back to where they all can remember good times. Alice and her father work on updating the cottage during the days and enjoy the nights by a bonfire and swimming in the lake. But, when Alice is 15, her whole life changes. Her father is accused of killing one of the local girls there, one that was a friend of Alices' and a student of her father.
After living with her aunts, after her father has gone missing, she now had a job as a journalist, but the business has been sold, she needs money, and iis going through an expensive divorce. Alice decides to go back to Tall Pines, get the lake house in good condition and sell it. After all, it has been called the Murder House and rumors of her father still stalking the woods around the town have Alice wanting to return and find out who really killed Mia.
Great debut novel and hope he has another one in the works!!!
After living with her aunts, after her father has gone missing, she now had a job as a journalist, but the business has been sold, she needs money, and iis going through an expensive divorce. Alice decides to go back to Tall Pines, get the lake house in good condition and sell it. After all, it has been called the Murder House and rumors of her father still stalking the woods around the town have Alice wanting to return and find out who really killed Mia.
Great debut novel and hope he has another one in the works!!!
August 21, 2026
Ah the mystery of lakes. So beautiful, so dark, keepers of secrets.
I was hooked from the start. Alice, the protagonist is sassy and unafraid. Her determination to find what has happened to her father and establish the truth about Mia’s murder puts her right back in a world she thought she’d left behind.
The characters in this novel were all memorable, each with distinct voices. The dialogue crisp and strong.
This novel kept me guessing to the end.
A delicious read.
I was hooked from the start. Alice, the protagonist is sassy and unafraid. Her determination to find what has happened to her father and establish the truth about Mia’s murder puts her right back in a world she thought she’d left behind.
The characters in this novel were all memorable, each with distinct voices. The dialogue crisp and strong.
This novel kept me guessing to the end.
A delicious read.
August 12, 2026
An excellent thriller and debut novel from a New Zealand author. Initially split over 2 times getting to know the characters then and now. Small snippets of information to piece together what once happened at the lake and full of lots of twists making it touch to know which characters can be trusted. I enjoyed a bit of kiwi slang, terms and places being mentioned throughout the story
August 2, 2026
Enjoyable debut
August 9, 2026
Good story. Easy to read. Enjoyed.
August 21, 2026
2.5 ⭐️’s
August 22, 2026
Excellent holiday read. Great depiction of small town NZ with fun plot twist and excellent writing!
August 30, 2026
I was hooked straight away and didn't want to put the book down. I loved the Kiwi flavour and the main character. Very believable and suspenseful with lovely humour throughout.
August 31, 2026
Holy shit, what an ending. One of the best books that I've read for 2026
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews