{I've Been Reading} The Loch

 

The Loch by Fran Dorricott 

After rain spoils their camping trip, three friends find  themselves staying in a rental house at the edge of Loch Aven. The last signatures in the guest book are from before they were born. The local residents of the small town aren't welcoming. Michaela, who made the arrangements for their trip, says she has a surprise for Eleanor, dropping some vague hints about a podcast she'd listened to. Then Michaela vanishes. The premise had me intrigued, but the plot moves very slowly and it feels like it would be almost impossible not to guess where things are going to end up. There was a small twist I didn't expect, but the important details are mentioned over and over again. 

The Last Wife by J A Baker

This one sounded right up my alley. Fiona and her husband move to Winters End, a small island where they can hide from what they did. The locals are unwelcoming and it's not long before she realizes that there are almost no women in the small town. The local cemetery is filled with gravestones, most of them recent. It's an atmospheric, slow burn that held me interest most of the way through. The revelations -- both of the awful thing Fiona did and of what happened to the local women left me a bit underwhelmed.  It's a solid read, but nothing unique. 

Eve in Overdrive by Faith Gardner 

A journalist picks up her new luxury car. There's just one problem -- the columns that earned the money that paid for her solar powered, self-driven vehicle really made some people angry. The engineer who programmed her car is one of those people. I loved this novella. It's a fast paced psychological thriller that plunges the reader almost immediately into the action and I read it straight through, hoping that somehow Eve was going to escape the nightmarish situation. There are other, longer, thrillers by this author, set in the same universe. I'll be downloading those as soon as I get the chance!

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance review copy. This post contains affiliate links.