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The Brooding Lake
What had happened to Camilla? Was it voluntary flight, an accident? Or murder...?
Ever since Camilla had disappeared, Alice had been living in her friend's eerie, isolated house deep in the woods, where the strange night sounds could be the cry of a bird -- or the hypnotic voice of a murderer.
Camilla was gone, leaving only a cryptic note, and no one else seemed to care. Alice cared, but there were none to help her, except Felix, the man she had loved and lost. And when poking and prying brought to light three men with strong reasons for wanting Camilla out of the way, one of the three was Felix.
Alice couldn't forget that Felix had once casually thrown her over. Why, then, was his interest in her suddenly revived? Was he afraid of what she would find in the whispering shadows of Camilla's house? Was it Felix who callously engineered the attempts on Alice's life?
Ever since Camilla had disappeared, Alice had been living in her friend's eerie, isolated house deep in the woods, where the strange night sounds could be the cry of a bird -- or the hypnotic voice of a murderer.
Camilla was gone, leaving only a cryptic note, and no one else seemed to care. Alice cared, but there were none to help her, except Felix, the man she had loved and lost. And when poking and prying brought to light three men with strong reasons for wanting Camilla out of the way, one of the three was Felix.
Alice couldn't forget that Felix had once casually thrown her over. Why, then, was his interest in her suddenly revived? Was he afraid of what she would find in the whispering shadows of Camilla's house? Was it Felix who callously engineered the attempts on Alice's life?
246 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1953
About the author
Dorothy Eden
90 books173 followersAka Mary Paradise.
Dorothy Eden was born in 1912 in New Zealand and died in 1982. She moved to England in 1954 after taking a trip around the world and falling in love with the country. She was best known for her many mystery and romance books as well as short stories that were published in periodicals. As a novelist, Dorothy Eden was renowned for her ability to create fear and suspense. This earned her many devoted readers throughout her lifetime.
Dorothy Eden was born in 1912 in New Zealand and died in 1982. She moved to England in 1954 after taking a trip around the world and falling in love with the country. She was best known for her many mystery and romance books as well as short stories that were published in periodicals. As a novelist, Dorothy Eden was renowned for her ability to create fear and suspense. This earned her many devoted readers throughout her lifetime.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
October 16, 2018
One of the interesting things about these mid-century gothic romances is the surprising amount of time it takes to read a book that is so slender. This book was originally published in 1953 under the title "The Lamb to the Slaughter." This is actually a bit earlier than most of the gothics I read, which are generally from the 1960's.
In The Brooding Lake, Eden, who was born in New Zealand, returns to New Zealand for her story.
By the time Alice arrives, however, Camilla is no where to be found. Alice installs herself in the rundown cottage in the woods where Camilla has been living, finding no one there but a (very hungry) cat and a magpie who yells random concerning things like "lend it to me" and "get out." Alice finds a letter from Camilla joyously informing her that she is getting married.
Upon arrival, three men present themselves as possible suitors for our fair Alice: Dalton, the enigmatic, wealthy man who lives in a beautiful home with his friendly sister, Katherine, Dundas, and older widower who lives in a small house with his daughter Margaretta, and Felix Dodson, who is an old flame of Alice's who just happens to be a bus driver in the area.
As the book proceeds, things get weird as they do in gothic romances. On an exceptionally dark and stormy night, Alice is trapped in Dalton & Katherine's home when someone punctures the tires so Dalton can't drive her home. One of the servants, Tottie, whispers to Alice that she should lock her door. Alice fails to heed the advice and someone comes into her room at night, ties her hair to the bed post, and whispers creepy stuff like "Camilla is here" as she flees in terror into the night.
The relationship with Dundas takes a turn as well, when Alice is clonked on the head with a branch during the storm and ends up in his home with Margaretta in charge of nursing her back to health. Dundas declares his love for Alice with a disturbing focus on her petite size - the whole thing was weird as all get out, and at one point had me convinced that Eden was going to make Dundas a cross-dresser, which would have been shocking indeed to the 1953 mind. Alas, that was not what was going on.
Anyway, the book comes to an emotional climax in a boat on the brooding lake, with a rather Ripley-esque few moments that Alice must handle. As is also the tradition with gothic romance, the story wraps up very quickly, in a few pages, with one of the suitors proving his love by saving the heroine, one of the suitors being exposed as a murderer, and one of the suitors leaving town.
In The Brooding Lake, Eden, who was born in New Zealand, returns to New Zealand for her story.
By the time Alice arrives, however, Camilla is no where to be found. Alice installs herself in the rundown cottage in the woods where Camilla has been living, finding no one there but a (very hungry) cat and a magpie who yells random concerning things like "lend it to me" and "get out." Alice finds a letter from Camilla joyously informing her that she is getting married.
Upon arrival, three men present themselves as possible suitors for our fair Alice: Dalton, the enigmatic, wealthy man who lives in a beautiful home with his friendly sister, Katherine, Dundas, and older widower who lives in a small house with his daughter Margaretta, and Felix Dodson, who is an old flame of Alice's who just happens to be a bus driver in the area.
As the book proceeds, things get weird as they do in gothic romances. On an exceptionally dark and stormy night, Alice is trapped in Dalton & Katherine's home when someone punctures the tires so Dalton can't drive her home. One of the servants, Tottie, whispers to Alice that she should lock her door. Alice fails to heed the advice and someone comes into her room at night, ties her hair to the bed post, and whispers creepy stuff like "Camilla is here" as she flees in terror into the night.
The relationship with Dundas takes a turn as well, when Alice is clonked on the head with a branch during the storm and ends up in his home with Margaretta in charge of nursing her back to health. Dundas declares his love for Alice with a disturbing focus on her petite size - the whole thing was weird as all get out, and at one point had me convinced that Eden was going to make Dundas a cross-dresser, which would have been shocking indeed to the 1953 mind. Alas, that was not what was going on.
Anyway, the book comes to an emotional climax in a boat on the brooding lake, with a rather Ripley-esque few moments that Alice must handle. As is also the tradition with gothic romance, the story wraps up very quickly, in a few pages, with one of the suitors proving his love by saving the heroine, one of the suitors being exposed as a murderer, and one of the suitors leaving town.
April 20, 2025
*Actual rating: 2.5 stars*
The story itself isn’t bad. Our hapless heroine shows up in a rainy New Zealand village to visit her friend, who has mysteriously disappeared. Everyone tries to convince her that her friend just ran off with someone because she’s just an impulsive little “flirt” (the book is too staid to call her a slut, but the slut-shaming was heavily implied) and tells her to go away, there’s nothing to see here.
Instead of going away, she bumbles around a cast of very odd characters, putting herself in more and more danger. I swear, all these Gothic heroines share a single brain cell between them, and it was definitely being used by someone else during the course of this book.
Does that sound too harsh? Well, at one point in the story, she becomes engaged to the character who is literally giving off serial killer vibes, while this dude’s daughter keeps spoon-feeding her clue after clue after clue, and is only spared the same horrible fate because her smarter friends intervene. And why does she agree to this engagement? Not because she’s been swept away by a dashing villain and convinced herself she’s in love, oh no. She thinks he’s weird and fussy. And not because she’s poor and desperate (she’s an heiress). No, she does it because…because…the plot told her to?
Why did I round up to three stars? Because I still had fun reading this stupid thing.
The story itself isn’t bad. Our hapless heroine shows up in a rainy New Zealand village to visit her friend, who has mysteriously disappeared. Everyone tries to convince her that her friend just ran off with someone because she’s just an impulsive little “flirt” (the book is too staid to call her a slut, but the slut-shaming was heavily implied) and tells her to go away, there’s nothing to see here.
Instead of going away, she bumbles around a cast of very odd characters, putting herself in more and more danger. I swear, all these Gothic heroines share a single brain cell between them, and it was definitely being used by someone else during the course of this book.
Does that sound too harsh? Well, at one point in the story, she becomes engaged to the character who is literally giving off serial killer vibes, while this dude’s daughter keeps spoon-feeding her clue after clue after clue, and is only spared the same horrible fate because her smarter friends intervene. And why does she agree to this engagement? Not because she’s been swept away by a dashing villain and convinced herself she’s in love, oh no. She thinks he’s weird and fussy. And not because she’s poor and desperate (she’s an heiress). No, she does it because…because…the plot told her to?
Why did I round up to three stars? Because I still had fun reading this stupid thing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 21, 2015
I won't say this wasn't good, it was in its on way. The story took entirely too long to play out and began to feel like Alice was running around in pointless circles. After a while, I got tired of hearing about Camilla and trying to figure out what really may have happened to her, I just wanted to know so I could be done with the book.
Alice arrived at her best friend Camilla's rental house for a planned visit one night, Camilla was nowhere in sight. Instead of going to a hotel for the night, she decides to stay in the rundown cottage alone. Once inside, Alice hears someone run out the back door in the kitchen. Alice still refuses to leave. She goes through Camilla's things which are laying around as if Camilla truly did plan to return shortly.
One part of Alice's mind seems convinced that something terrible has happened to Camilla, while the other part shies away from that theory. She locates Camilla's diary, and realizes that she was dating a lot of men, all of which have first or last names that begin with D, so Alice isn't sure exactly which man each entry pertains to because Camilla refers to them all as D most of the time.
Alice did not strike me as the brightest star in the sky. There were so many times when she knew something was wrong yet she kept running her mouth off to everybody and their cat. She blabbed to everyone about not really believing what had supposedly happened to Camilla, she blabbed about things that she had read in Camilla's diary, she blabbed about her theory that Camilla would have never left her expensive fur coat behind willingly.
Even when Alice suspected certain people of Camilla's absence, she would STILL let them in on her disbeliefs and fears of what had really happened to her friend. She would realize that she was being careless, but then she would do it again, and then again. It got so that I almost felt Alice was deserving of something untoward happening to her. I didn't like her.
Alice arrived at her best friend Camilla's rental house for a planned visit one night, Camilla was nowhere in sight. Instead of going to a hotel for the night, she decides to stay in the rundown cottage alone. Once inside, Alice hears someone run out the back door in the kitchen. Alice still refuses to leave. She goes through Camilla's things which are laying around as if Camilla truly did plan to return shortly.
One part of Alice's mind seems convinced that something terrible has happened to Camilla, while the other part shies away from that theory. She locates Camilla's diary, and realizes that she was dating a lot of men, all of which have first or last names that begin with D, so Alice isn't sure exactly which man each entry pertains to because Camilla refers to them all as D most of the time.
Alice did not strike me as the brightest star in the sky. There were so many times when she knew something was wrong yet she kept running her mouth off to everybody and their cat. She blabbed to everyone about not really believing what had supposedly happened to Camilla, she blabbed about things that she had read in Camilla's diary, she blabbed about her theory that Camilla would have never left her expensive fur coat behind willingly.
Even when Alice suspected certain people of Camilla's absence, she would STILL let them in on her disbeliefs and fears of what had really happened to her friend. She would realize that she was being careless, but then she would do it again, and then again. It got so that I almost felt Alice was deserving of something untoward happening to her. I didn't like her.
March 10, 2019
oh man, this one is a mixed bag. a lot of the book was infuriating because the bad guy was SO obvious. every time they were in a scene, it was mentioned how trustworthy and kind they were, and that they couldn't possibly hurt anyone! so there was no real suspense, and the main character just came off as a little dumb, since she seemed to ignore every clue that pointed to this person. BUT! there was amazing atmosphere, and the way the bad guy was revealed was so weird but interesting that it made all of the annoyance of the previous chapters worth it. so 3.5 stars??
March 9, 2019
Another solid Gothic/suspense romance by Eden. A bit predictable, but a fun read.
March 3, 2017
My brain when I finished reading it: "WHUT?"
November 2, 2023
A woman named Alice is invited to meet her friend Camilla, but when she arrives at the designated location, Camilla is nowhere to be found. The rest of the story is dedicated to finding out what happened.
This isn't too bad for a mass market gothic. The author manages to throw in a lot of distracting and diverting detail which keeps the story interesting and gives rise to a lot of speculation about what actually happened to Camilla. Sadly, the identity of the villain of the story is fairly easy to guess, and Alice's very perfunctory decision to accept a marriage proposal from someone she doesn't appear to have had any prior romantic interest in struck me as very unrealistic. There is a very abrupt dramatic climax set on the "brooding lake", but this is a feint, followed by a second climax that is a lot more entertaining. Apart from the poorly conceived notion of Alice getting engaged, I quite enjoyed this.
This isn't too bad for a mass market gothic. The author manages to throw in a lot of distracting and diverting detail which keeps the story interesting and gives rise to a lot of speculation about what actually happened to Camilla. Sadly, the identity of the villain of the story is fairly easy to guess, and Alice's very perfunctory decision to accept a marriage proposal from someone she doesn't appear to have had any prior romantic interest in struck me as very unrealistic. There is a very abrupt dramatic climax set on the "brooding lake", but this is a feint, followed by a second climax that is a lot more entertaining. Apart from the poorly conceived notion of Alice getting engaged, I quite enjoyed this.
December 11, 2018
A bit a of a disappointment. When staying with my grandparents as a child, I fell in love with authors like Agatha Christie, Phyllis Whitney, Ngaio Marsh, and other creators of mystery and suspense. I was hoping Dorothy Eden would recall the love of those early books, but no, not even close. While the story started off well with a rich and suspenseful atmosphere, the characters soon lost me.
If Alice is typical of other Eden heroines, count me out. Who agrees to marry someone after knowing them less than two weeks, particularly when they consider that person a suspect in their friend's disappearance and possible murder? I thoroughly disliked Alice by the end of the book and didn't particularly care for anyone else in the book either. Definitely a let down.
If Alice is typical of other Eden heroines, count me out. Who agrees to marry someone after knowing them less than two weeks, particularly when they consider that person a suspect in their friend's disappearance and possible murder? I thoroughly disliked Alice by the end of the book and didn't particularly care for anyone else in the book either. Definitely a let down.
December 2, 2018
A Classic
I've been re-reading books by Dorothy Eden that I read many years ago. This one wasn't a favorite. I made myself finish because I bought it but I felt it dragged on and on and surely no one would be as dumb as the heroine?
I've been re-reading books by Dorothy Eden that I read many years ago. This one wasn't a favorite. I made myself finish because I bought it but I felt it dragged on and on and surely no one would be as dumb as the heroine?
September 30, 2018
This is one of the silliest books I've ever read. Normally, I love Dorothy Eden books, but Lamb to the Slaughter was not worth the time I devoted to finishing it.
July 21, 2026
3½ Stars
Clever plotting, well developed characters, make this gothic romance by Miss Eden a page turner. While this reader had a fair idea which of the three D's was the culprit early on, the poor heroine was given a thoroughly shivery time until she clued in. I love that Miss Eden always has an amateur sleuth to help the key characters along. A swift by lovely HEA.
Clever plotting, well developed characters, make this gothic romance by Miss Eden a page turner. While this reader had a fair idea which of the three D's was the culprit early on, the poor heroine was given a thoroughly shivery time until she clued in. I love that Miss Eden always has an amateur sleuth to help the key characters along. A swift by lovely HEA.
A bed made for an unexpected guest, a wardrobe full of clothes, a starving cat, a fur coat locked in a tin trunk, a blithe diary full of innocent intrigue, a passionate note from a lover, a whispered voice in the night, a dead magpie ... Those were the airy clues on which she had to base her uneasiness about Camilla.
August 29, 2024
hilariously bad gothic non romance!! we had so much fun reading it with friends. there are several points at which one wants to bodily throw the book at the wall and in fact the copy we read from had a piece of its spine missing
the main character is so impressively stupid that sometimes the author’s narration suspends all disbelief because there’s no way that she thought something so smart one moment then completely forgot it the next
the main character is so impressively stupid that sometimes the author’s narration suspends all disbelief because there’s no way that she thought something so smart one moment then completely forgot it the next
February 18, 2026
Too gullable a heroine, too many lose threads.
November 5, 2025
I love this book! It's one of my favorites from Dorothy Eden so far. What I love about this one is how immersed I was in the sense of place. The environment is so exquisitely written that I felt I was there. I could feel the fear and the dread...the feeling that something might come up and grab me at any moment. This is what I love about Dorothy Eden's best books. She can give you a sense of fear and at the same time describe a beautiful place that you know you want to linger...what a combo!
If you love vivid imagery of abandoned or semi-abandoned lushly landscaped places with strange and intriguing characters that live in or nearby that semi-abandoned place, then you may also love this book! If you loved An Afternoon Walk, I think you'd also love this one, although this one is darker and spookier of a plot!
If you love vivid imagery of abandoned or semi-abandoned lushly landscaped places with strange and intriguing characters that live in or nearby that semi-abandoned place, then you may also love this book! If you loved An Afternoon Walk, I think you'd also love this one, although this one is darker and spookier of a plot!
August 6, 2014
tremendously gothic
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews