Rita Herron returns with her newest release in the Detective Ellie Reeves series, Widow Lake. Read on and learn the reason this series would be perfect for readers of crime fiction and police procedurals.
“Help,” a tiny voice cried out into the darkness. Little Betsy trembled, praying someone would hear her, save her. “Please,” she whimpered. “I’m scared.” I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. This post contains affiliate links you can use to purchase the book. If you buy the book using that link, I will receive a small commission from the sale.
Title: Widow Lake
Author(s): Rita Herron
Series: Detective Ellie Reeves #8
Also in this series: The Burning Girls , The Sleeping Girls
Published by Bookouture on May 31, 2023
Pages: 427
Genre(s): Crime Fiction
Source: Publisher
Format: eArc 
Purchase: Amazon|Audible
Rating: 
Series Rating:
On the hottest day of the year, as a heatwave takes hold of the Appalachian Mountains, a five-year-old girl goes missing. Just as the sun is setting, a family vacation becomes a worst nightmare—Betsy, with her green eyes, ponytail and rainbow t-shirt—disappears in the woods by Widow Lake. Detective Ellie Reeves is straight on the scene, promising Betsy’s heartbroken parents that she will stop at nothing to find their precious daughter.
Hours later, Ellie is called back to the lake. One of her team have discovered some remains near where Betsy disappeared. The bones belong to a local girl, Amy Dean, who vanished ten years ago to the day, along with her two-year-old baby girl Paisley. But why was Paisley never reported missing? And could she still be alive?
Ellie is suddenly up against the toughest case of her career. Her instincts tell her that the two cases are somehow connected, and she works day and night to uncover the link. When she comes across some little graves beside the water’s edge, she knows she needs to stop the evil lurking around this tranquil lake.
When Ellie discovers a notebook scrawled with the handwriting of a little girl, it could be the breakthrough she needs. Can she unravel a decades-old mystery, and stop the monster claiming innocent lives?
Widow Lake by Rita Herron is book 8 in the Detective Ellie Reeves series. Each book works well on its own, as a different case is featured in each. Although this is the second book in the series I have read, I encountered no issues in catching up with the character’s personal lives.
When the story began, Ellie and her team, along with search and rescue, were searching for a child who went missing from a campground. From that moment, the story pulled me in and kept me on tenterhooks until the end. The search for the missing girl led to a gruesome discovery. A discovery which led to the reopening of a ten-year-old missing person case. As Ellie and her team investigates, they made several more chilling discoveries. The discoveries have them puzzled as the modus operandi mimics that of a serial killer currently on death row. The question on everyone’s mind is there a copycat and what’s the connection to the serial killer in prison?
Widow Lake took me on a chilling journey filled with suspense and action. Now Ellie faces the complicated task of unravelling all the evidence, and the things uncovered during this process were shocking. The perps are many and not knowing their identity presented a challenge. However, Ellie is not one to give up and she will not stop until the truth reveals itself.
As mentioned before, the story had me on the edge of my seat. The story, with its chilling details, moved quickly and delivered several twists and turns, with a jaw dropping conclusion.
With such a conclusion, I am curious to learn what’s next in store for the characters. Readers who enjoy police procedurals will get a kick out of this series.
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About Rita Herron
USA Today Bestselling and award-winning author Rita Herron fell in love with books at the ripe age of eight when she read her first Trixie Belden mystery. Although she wanted to be a writer then and actually scrawled her first novel at age twelve, she didn’t think real people grew up to be writers, so she became a kindergarten teacher instead. Ten years ago, she traded her classroom storytelling and puppets for a computer and now writes so she doesn’t have to get a real job. Having sold over fifty books to date, she enjoys spinning spine-tingling romantic suspense tales filled with murder, mayhem, and spicy romance as well as sexy romantic comedies. Rita Herron currently writes romantic suspense for Harlequin Intrigue and she’s writing dark, gritty romantic suspense thrillers for Amazon Montlake.
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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
I’ve been meaning to try her books. This mystery sounds really good. Great review, Nadene!
Thanks Sophia! The mystery is good and I know you would enjoy it.
I think I have read a different series by this author and maybe collected one or two in this series. Nice review! I’m sure I would love this.
I have not heard of this author, or this series, but Ellie sounds like the kind of strong female character I like in detective/mystery series. I definitely have to check this one out. 😀 (And I’m glad to know that each book works well alone; it makes it easier for me to jump into this series.)
That really sounds good. I like stories like this one where more and more discoveries are made.
I need to try this author and series. Wonderful review Nadene.