A child is missing, a body is found in Bone Lake, and a mother’s frantic search uncovers small-town corruption, dirty secrets and her own hidden desires.
Colleen Thompson began writing the contemporary romantic suspense novels she loves in 2004. Since then, her work has been honored with the Texas Gold Award, nominations for the RITA, Daphne du Maurier, multiple reviewers' choice honors, along with starred reviews from Romantic Times and Publisher's Weekly. A former teacher living with her family and their latest rescue dog in the Houston area, Colleen can be found on the web at www.colleen-thompson.com.
This is the secret novel of the 40 or so that I have read and reviewed for 2018, that has left me breathless. At one point I was hyperventilating so badly I had to put the book down and take a walk. Colleen Thompson is definitely a master of suspense. Beneath Bone Lake grabs you from the very first sentence. Talk about a hook? The characters and plot are so well woven, the reader is invested in seeing justice served, however the plot rolls out. Makes going through hell easy when you know there are just rewards for perpetrators of crime.
Such a good book. This is the first book I read by this author and I loved it. It caught me attention and I never wanted to put it down. I recommend this to people who love mystery with a twist of romance.
now i am hooked. This was such a great, easy and creative book. i was hooked after the first page.
The characters were easy to fall in love with and follow, along with the story. the author made the mental visions so easy and vivid of the surroundings and the characters actions felt so real.
i would highly recommend this author and this book.
Beneath Bone Lake by Colleen Thompson starts out with a mystery as Ruby Monroe returns to her Texas hometown after a year spent in Iraq, working as a bus driver. She impatiently waits at the airport for the arrival of her sister, Misty, and four-year-old daughter, Zoe, holding with her a secret she's itching to get rid of. Only someone else seems to have gotten a hold of not only her secret, but her family, as well.
Arriving at her house with dangerous and drugged strangers in residence, Ruby calls the local law enforcement for help. Before anyone arrives, Sam McCoy, her neighbor and late husband's foster brother, is on the scene and as trouble escalates, Sam tries to help Ruby as much as he can without getting too involved. After all, it wouldn't do well for someone with a criminal past to be tangled up in drugs, shootings, missing people, and an unidentified body that turns up in Misty's car in Bone Lake, would it?
Ruby Monroe is a woman who simply wants her family back. What should have been a happy reunion with her sister and daughter, turns into a nightmare as she fights against gunmen, corrupt cops, and even those she thought she knew best, with secrets that are starting to unravel.
Sam McCoy is a hero who always seems to be getting caught doing the wrong things for all the right reasons. While trying to stay away from the trouble surrounding Ruby's return, he is nonetheless drawn to her and to helping her cause. Before he realizes it, he's willing to go to any lengths to help secure Ruby and her family's safety, even if that means breaking the terms of his parole.
Beneath Bone Lake is different from other books in the Romantic Suspense genre that I've recently read. This is a complex story with more mystery, action, and suspense in the plot than romance. I do applaud the way Colleen Thompson concocted the mystery, never letting you know what is really going on or who is behind it all. While this story may have moved slowly for me during the first two-thirds, I was glued to the pages towards the end in... well, in suspense.
Beneath Bone Lake would not be a book I'd recommend for those looking for more romance in their novels, but for those who enjoy a good mystery and suspense with just a dash of romance, this should be one to check out. Find out more about Colleen Thompson and her novels on her website, http://www.colleen-thompson.com/ .
I read this book a couple of years ago when I was in the hospital and loved it, and not just because it helped me keep the pain at bay, so here's why: You have a strong heroine in the character of Ruby, a woman who worked in one of roughest urban battlegrounds in the world, and all she wants is to return to her beloved home in Texas and hold her 4 yr old baby daughter in her arms. It pulls at all those mother instincts we have. But when she finally sets foot on native soil, neither her sister Misty or her baby girl Zoe are there to greet her.
From there, Ruby has to find where her missing sister and child are, who has them, and why they were taken. To help Ruby on her journey for the truth is a handsome but reluctant neighbor in the form of ex-con Sam McCoy. Sam is a good guy who always ends up in trouble and just knows that helping Ruby will probably land him in the deep thick of it.
Ms. Thompson's writing style pulls no punches, it's honest prose, and it paints word pictures you follow like a movie. A scary, terrifying movie with twists and turns you don't see coming. As a pure mystery thriller, this exceeds any expectations. As a suspense thriller, it keeps you turning those pages late into the night. As a romance, Beneath Bone Lake may not fulfill all your desires, but it hints at so much more with romantic elements all present.
I give highest praise to the fact that the ending was completely satisfying, but no spoilers, because I want you to enjoy it for yourselves.
Wow. Finished this in one day, it was so engrossing. Start to finish action that had very few (if any) slow parts. The romance (while I'm fine not having any) didn't distract from the story and was well handled considering this was definitely more of a mystery and suspense story then harlequin romance. I liked that the plot got more complex as you went along, as opposed to just being about who took the MC's family, it became more of who took them, why, how were these others involved, what else was going on, and etc. I feel like it kept the sorry moving and proved more entertaining then expected.
Hard to put down. Very identifiable heroine and a hero you rooted for. Although the perpetrator came out of left field and didn't seem to have the creepy motive I thought he should - the glimpses into his character screams serial killer /sicko- I thought the read worthwhile.