He was convicted and is on death row, and she was tried as an accessory to his crimes but acquitted. She had no idea about what kind of person she was married to until he was caught. The premise is pretty simple: the main character was once married to, and in fact had two children with, a man who turned out to be a serial killer. And I’m about to say something about this book that I’m fairly certain I’ve rarely if ever said about a book before: it scared the hell out of me. So it’s quite different from her previous work that I’ve read.

(She has a series, called the Morganville Vampires, which I haven’t read and could conceivably be a horror series? But vampires are rarely scary anymore and I suspect it’s more urban fantasy.) It’s also the only book of hers I’ve read that is undeniably a horror story. There’s nothing supernatural about it at all. This is the only Rachel Caine book I own that fits squarely into the modern world. Her series tend (not all, but mostly) to fit squarely into the Urban Fantasy genre: first-person stories about impossibly attractive women with some sort of supernatural abilities who fight against some sort of shadowy world-dominating evil cabal of some sort. Here’s the thing about Stillhouse Lake, though: I feel like Rachel Caine was writing outside of her comfort zone for this book.

This isn’t an insult! Everybody loves eating M&Ms! Sometimes you find yourself really craving them! But you don’t really talk about your love of M&Ms with other people, right? They’re just there, and they’re delicious, and there are always new M&Ms available whenever you’re ready for a new M&M. That is a lot of books! There are probably not many authors who I have that many books by in fact, King is the only writer I can think of who I’m certain I have more books by than I do by Rachel Caine.Īnd yet I’m pretty sure I’ve not listed her previously on any list of my favorite authors, despite that, and I think Stillhouse Lake is the first of her books that I’ve been moved to review here.(*) Her books, to me, are like candy. She’s one of the most prolific authors I’m aware of, up there with Seanan McGuire and Stephen King, and I have eighteen of her books. Rachel Caine is– and I hope somebody out there understands what I’m talking about here, because I feel like I might be talking out of my ass– an author that I’m a stealth fan of.

Stillhouse lake series book 7