For my next read, I chose The Body at Blackwell Lake: An Amateur Sleuth Paranormal Mystery by A.M. Caplan. It’s the first book I’ve read from her, and I was not disappointed.
This was an interesting read because it was more of a mystery thriller than a psychological thriller. We learn about the rich history of Blackwell Lake. The town of Blackwell had been owned by Atticus Blackwell. The town included the mine. When he found out his wife had cheated on him, he flooded the mine and the whole town after strangling her with a necklace. That’s right, there’s an entire town beneath the cold black lake.
In the present day, we meet Cora. She has a knack for finding lost things. But she has no control over it. Plus, it’s made her famous. Well, her dog Rocky, anyway. She attributes the finds to him. He’s even found lost kids!
But on this day, she finds a dead body flung over the grave of Fiona Blackwell. It was Ashley Benson. As it turns out, Ashley was also a relative of the Blackwell family. The police don’t have much to go on, and when Ashley’s fiance, Jacob Adler, turns up to ask her for more help, she, unwilling at first, does. She’s enraptured by him, and he’s very sweet to her. Maybe too sweet, too kind. As it turns out, he killed Ashley while looking for her necklace, passed down the family tree…the one Atticus killed his wife with.
Jacob thinks Cora has the necklace, which is why he’s been trying to seduce her. He ends up back at her home ransacking the place while Cora and her sister Kimmy look on in horror. Jacob ends up killing Kimmy, shooting Rocky, shooting Cora, and burning her place to the ground.
Rocky and Cora make it out with the help of the neighbor boy. But Kimmy was dead. The only family Cora had left. Her friend Sam, is waiting for her when she gets out of the hospital. The two of them dive into this mystery of the body at Blackwell Lake to learn where Jacob Adler might be.
Cora, with the help of Rocky, finds that necklace. It turns out Rocky had it this whole time. He had found what looked like a walnut at the cemetery and ended up burying it at Cora’s house. To lure Jacob out of hiding, she posts it online to sell. Sam is furious, but it works. While Sam, Cora, and Rocky are on their way to Sam’s cabin to hide out, Jacob rams the car.
Here is where we learn that Jacob is also a decendant of the Blackwell family. He wants what he believes is rightfully his. The necklace. He killed Ashley for it. Cora ends up back at the cemetery and finds Sam. Jacob is about to kill them both when Rocky leaps out of nowhere and wrestles Jacob to the ground.
Jacob never ends up going to prison. Instead, his debts caught up to him. People he owed money to ended up taking him out.
As for Cora, she, Rocky, and Sam will hopefully live a full and happy life.