The Deepest Lake

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Description

In this atmospheric thriller set at a luxury memoir-writing workshop on the shores of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, a grieving mother goes undercover to investigate her daughter's mysterious death. In this atmospheric thriller set at a luxury memoir-writing workshop on the shores of Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, a grieving mother goes undercover toinvestigate her daughter's mysterious death. Rose, the mother of twentysomething aspiring writer Jules, has waited three months for answers about her daughter's death. Why was she swimming alone when she feared the water Why did she stop texting days before she was last seen When the official investigation rules the death an accidental drowning, the body possibly lost forever in Central America's deepest lake, an unsatisfied Rose travels to the memoir workshop herself. She hopes to draw her own conclusion-and find closure. When Rose arrives, she is swept into the curious world created by her daughter's literary hero, the famous writing teacher Eva Marshall, a charismatic woman known for her candid-and controversial-memoirs. As Rose uncovers details about the days leading up to Jules's disappearance, she begins to suspect that this glamorous retreat package is hiding ugly truths. Is Lake Atitlan a place where traumatized women come to heal or a place where deeper injury is inflicted The Deepest Lake is both a sharp look at the sometimes toxic, exclusionary world of high-class writing workshops and an achingly poignant view of a mother's grief.

Reviews

Praise for The Deepest Lake

An AmazonEditors' Pick: Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
CrimeReads Best Psychological Thrillers of May

An incisive critique of our cultural fascination with personal narrative and its concurrent demand that people and women especially divulge their deepest secrets for the purpose of voyeuristic entertainment. The plot keeps things moving forward at a brisk clip, but it is the deeper psychological concerns that elevate the novel.
Toronto Star

As a seasoned novelist, Romano-Lax takes readers into Roses point of view and also that of her daughter, Jules, to get to the bottom of this great mystery, which is as deep as the lake where Jules presumably drowned.
Observer

With The Deepest Lake, Andromeda Romano-Lax has crafted an unpredictable, juicy, and scandalizing thriller set in Central America; it is exactly the kind of novel that will cause you to miss your bus stop.
The British Columbia Review

A piercing look at obsession and grief and a vivid portrayal of the Guatemalan landscape and the sometimes-toxic culture created by charismatic leaders.
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

The Deepest Lake is a mesmerizing, twisty page-turner combined with a complex mother-daughter family drama. Andromeda Romano-Laxs insightful interrogation of the confessional memoir culture and the nature of obsession will stay with you long after the novels last nail-biting pages. I couldnt put it down.
Angie Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Miracle Creek

Celeste Ng meets Lisa Jewell in this mesmerizing story about a writing retreat thats as inspiring as it is insular, as alluring as it is alarmingand the mother and daughter who risk their lives to uncover the dark secrets of its leader. Chillingly atmospheric and filled with disturbing twists, The Deepest Lake will have you glued to its pages until its surprising and satisfying conclusion.
Megan Collins, author of Thicker Than Water and The Family Plot

A richly evocative and suspenseful read that plumbs the depths ofgrief, motherhood, and the endless hunger to tell our storieswith page-turning twists you won't see coming. Hold your breath and dive in.
AmyGentry, bestselling author of Good as Gone

Atmospheric, psychological, and surprising, The Deepest Lake mines the depths of mother-daughter relationships and the risks we take in the name of creativity. With humor and lush language, Andromeda Romano-Lax has created a taut suspense story . . . I finished this book wanting to call my mom and tell her how much I loved her.
Caitlin Wahrer, author of Edgar Award finalist The Damage

At a reclusive writing retreat led by a charismatic memoirist, a mother searches for clues into her daughters death. From the adrenaline-spiked first words, The Deepest Lake pulls you under. What follows are twists and turns that can only be unraveled through the stories these characters tell themselves about who they are and who they want to be. Asking provocative questions about motherhood, truth, and what well do to ensure our own survival, The Deepest Lake is one of the most suspenseful, thought-provoking novels of the year.
Erin Flanagan, Edgar-winning author of Come With Me

A scintillating psychological thriller with deeply woven characters and a jaw-dropping twist. I absolutely loved it.
Cate Quinn, bestselling author of The Clinic

The best thriller I've read in years! At once a heart-pounding mystery and a profound take on the dangers of our confessional age. I loved it.
Joanna Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year

Pulls you into its depths from page one . . . A tense and compelling story of the bonds between women as profound as the lake at its heart.
Melissa Adelman, author of What the Neighbors Saw

Immersive, atmospheric, and beautifully rendered, The Deepest Lake weaves the stories of a missing daughter and a mother driven to uncover the truth into a suspenseful, cant-miss thriller.
Laura McHugh, award-winning author of What's Done in Darkness

Welcome to the memoir workshop from hell. In dual timelines, a young writer looks for creative inspiration in a dangerous paradise and a mother searches for answers about her daughter's last days. I relished this insider's look at the glittering, intimate, and sometimes toxic world of writing retreats. The Deepest Lake is a gripping yet thoughtful novel about overcoming trauma, meeting our inheritance, and what happens when we seize the power to rewrite our own stories.
Alison B. Hart, author of The Work Wife

With The Deepest Lake, Andromeda Romano-Lax has crafted a suspensenovel rich in emotional insight. This gripping story, set against a captivating landscape filled with unraveling secrets, is an exploration of the depths we travel and the shadowy places we confront along the way.
Maggie Downs, author of Braver Than You Think

All who enjoy writer-focused thrillers will be enthralled by Romano-Laxs morally and intellectually intricate tale, while her fans will marvel at her versatility as she shifts from complexly imagined literary fiction like Annie and the Wolves (2021), to this psychologically and culturally spiky work of suspense.
Booklist

The suspenseful narrative is hardly short on surprises, but its the sharp characterizations that make this stand out. Romano-Lax delivers a chilling look at maternal grief and the lengths people will go to tell their own stories.
Publishers Weekly

Praise for Andromeda Romano-Lax

Riveting.
People

Will keep you mesmerized to the last page.
Christian Science Monitor

Shocking and thought-provoking . . . The intimate struggles of a woman weighing her value, utility, and satisfaction both within and outside the home certainly resonate today.
The Boston Globe

On its most powerful level, the book is a hyperactive psychological thriller, exploring the enduring damage done by childhood trauma and the need to mine and process it to become healthy, and the various ways in which victims do so . . . A highly imaginative and compelling read.
Minneapolis Star Tribune

An engaging read which will not only entertain you but also teach you a great deal about these giants in the history of psychology, and the ethics of those times, which we now see as abhorrent.
Psychology Today

When this story grabs hold of you, and it will, there will be no setting it down until youve finished the last page. A morally complex, genre-shattering thriller.
Eowyn Ivey, New York Times bestselling author of To the Bright Edge of the World

Romano-Laxs brilliantly conceived characters, delicate exploration of abuse and childhood trauma, and examination of vengeance and its power to heal will entrance from the very first page. Her latest is a tour de force that will appeal to a wide variety of readers.
Library Journal, Starred Review

Daring and imaginative Romano-Lax puts another provocative spin on historical fiction as she has both Ruth McClintock, a struggling small-town Minnesota historian, and her obsession, sharpshooter Annie Oakley, take turns narrating in this highly original time-warping tale . . . As she illuminates Oakleys extraordinary life, Romano-Lax conjures supernatural dimensions in pursuit of psychological revelations, grapples with the sexual predation of wolves and the muzzle of shame, and dramatizes the slipperiness of memory and history, creating a compassionate, heady, and witty whirl of fact and insight, mesmerizing characters and suspenseful predicaments.
Booklist, Starred Review

Author Bio

Andromeda Romano-Lax is the author of five novels translated into eleven languages, including The Spanish Bow, a New York Times Editors' Choice, and Annie and the Wolves, selected by Booklist as a Top Ten Historical Novel. Her novels reflect her interest in topics as varied as art acquisition during the Nazi era (The Detour), psychological scandals of the 1920s (Behave), and artificial intelligence and the future of eldercare (Plum Rains). Born in Chicago, she lived in Alaska (where she co-founded 49 Writers), Taiwan, and Mexico before settling on a small island in British Columbia, Canada.