This book has recently been getting a lot of hype on my Facebook feed, so I was interested to find out if it is good as it sounds. And the good news is – The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey is a real winner!
I was gripped by the tension, plot and characters right from the very first page. Sarah Bailey is a young Australian writer and this is her first novel. My suggestion, if this is any indication of how good her writing is, the reading public welcomes another excellent Australian writer.
Set in a small Australian town called Smithson, Local policewoman Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock and her partner Detective Sergeant Felix McKinnon are called to investigate the murder of a local young woman, Rosalind Ryan – an extremely popular English and Drama teacher at the local high school. Her body was found lying on the shore of the local lake, with her head bashed in and red roses floating around her.
An immediate sense of tension is created in the plot as the reader becomes aware that, as a local, Gemma knew Rosalind from school; yet she insists that she is impartial and only had a superficial relationship with the deceased woman.
What follows is the unravelling of many secrets.
Gemma has her own secrets that she does not want to be exposed, and her relationship with partner Scott, which is cemented by their shared love for their small son Ben, is threatened by forces outside the relationship. The reader is invited into the inner world of Gemma Woodstock, a young woman making it in a male-dominated workforce, a woman who lost her own mother very young, and who was involved with a young man as a teenager who committed suicide. She is also having an affair, and it too must remain secret any threat of it being exposed will shatter the fragile happiness she is feeling.
As Felix and Gemma investigate, Roses (Rosalind’s) family are questioned, as are her pupils and colleagues. The beautiful and creative young teacher when having the layers of her life peeled back appears to be an aloof and remote person. Her small apartment gives no clue to her personality. It is through her effect upon others that we see a picture emerging of the young woman.
Her students had been involved in the production of a play, and she is deeply mourned by them. Her past is examined but as the heat of an Australian summer pounds the small town tempers and emotions are raw as the people come to terms with the loss of the young teacher, but there is the sense that she was not what they really thought and that nobody really knew her.
In the December heat with Christmas approaching and the threat of bushfires escalating nearby Gemma is obsessed with finding the killer, but there seems to be no clue or motive – except that Rose was pregnant. Although this fact is not known publicly, gossip suggests that she was overly friendly with some of her male students and also the head teacher at the school.
As this novel progresses, Gemma allows the reader into a darker and more sinister time in her own life when jealousy and rage spurred her on to do something that had eternal repercussions. Her relationship with her partner is strained, and her workload is draining. When her own small son is threatened as a warning to leave the case alone, Gemma comes close to breaking point.
The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey is an astute, tightly written examination of human nature, of rage, revenge and dark secrets. As Gemma’s life unravels, so do her relationship and those she thought she could depend on are no longer there to support her. Sarah Bailey has succeeded in bringing the dark underbelly of human nature to the surface in this penetrating debut novel. And yet skilfully we have no idea as readers who the murderer is until the very end.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Dark Lake and will keenly look forward to Sarah Bailey’s next offering.
The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey is available now from Dymocks. Click here to learn more.