The Lake Escape has a summery setting and I added it to my List of Mysteries and Thrillers Set at the Lake. My Readers Guide has a character list, spoilers, and the ending explained. This book was a LOT to digest at the end, so let’s figure it out together!
Readers Guide to The Lake Escape
Table of Contents for The Readers Guide to The Lake Escape
- Jen’s Quick Take
- Character List
- What Happened? Spoilers and the Ending Explained (as best as I can)
Jen’s Quick Take on The Lake Escape
- I’d call this sort of a neighborhood thriller, as it is a closed circle mystery that takes place at a small community of homes around Lake Timmeny in Vermont
- It gave me Four Seasons on Netflix vibes, as the main characters are three couple: two married, and one divorced with a new girlfriend.
- Some readers have really enjoyed it, and I did at first, but I am in the camp of the readers who found the ending overly complicated
- I think this was because the plot was also overly complicated, meaning that a LOT got explained at the end. I think if the revelations had been spaced out more, that could have helped.
- Publication date: July 15, 2025 by St Martins Press. Thanks to the publisher for the advance copy for review.
Character List for The Lake Escape
This will be SPOILER FREE:
The “Lake Gang” are three families:
- Julia Crawford
- Christian: Julia’s husband
- Taylor: Christian and Julia’s teen daughter
- Erika Gallagher Sullivan
- Rick Sullivan: Erika’s husband
- Cormac Gallagher: Erika’s father
- Erika’s mother: disappeared when Erika was a child; I don’t think anyone mentions her name. If you know it, please leave me a comment!
- Lucas: Erika and David’s 18 year-old son
- David Dunne
- Debbie: his ex-wife
- Becca and Brody: David and Debbie’s four year old twins
- Isabelle “Izzy” Greene: David’s summer nanny
- Fiona Maxwell: David’s girlfriend
The Missing Women and their families
- Anna Olsen: missing in the mid 1960s.
- Grace Olsen: Anna’s sister, who still lives on the lake.
- Susan “Susie” Welch: missing in the mid 1990s
- Noah: he’s described as Grace’s nephew who checks on her. Then at the end, we find out he’s actually her grand-nephew. I’m guessing he is the grandson of Grace’s older brother, Tom, whom Grace mentioned in an interview in the Boston Globe in chapter 12.
Spoilers for The Lake Escape
I wish I could recap this whole plot. I tried to take notes, but it was just TOO MUCH.
So below I will answer the top questions I had at the end.
If you are reading or listening and need answers, please drop your questions in the comments and I (and other readers) will try to answer them and I will add them to the post!
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First off, we have a lot of people who aren’t who they say they are so:
Who the Characters Really Are:
Izzy the nanny is the niece of missing woman Susie Welch and the daughter of Lauren Welch, two sisters that Julia and Erika used to play with growing up. She’s also an aspiring podcaster who wants to crack the case of the missing women.
Fiona Maxwell’s maiden name is Fiona Tracey. She’s the daughter of James “Jimmy T” Tracey, a mobster whom her boyfriend David works for.
Erika Sullivan is Erika Gallagher Sullivan, daughter of Cormac Sullivan. Though she calls James Tracey “Uncle James,” Jimmy and Cormac are not related by blood or marriage. They are mob associates.
The Lake Escape Ending Explained
I have to say this is the most confusing book I’ve read in a long time. Was it just me?
The WTF moments in the book:
A few year back, Christian cheated on Julia, who then revenge-cheated with David.
David runs a porn empire for Jimmy T, Fiona’s father.
No one seems to be looking for Erika’s mother, which is weird, right?
Let’s Get to Who Killed Whom in The Lake Escape:
There are a lot of missing people in the book, so what happened to all of them? Let’s recap:
Who killed Anna Olsen?
Cormac Gallagher killed her to keep her quiet. She got pregnant by Cormac and left a letter for her sister Grace saying that the baby’s father was a) married and b) in the Mafia.
I’m assuming her unborn baby didn’t survive?
What happened to Erika’s mother?
Does this poor woman have a name?
In any case, it seems like Cormac killed her too. I think he must have killed her at the same time he killed Ann.
Julia remembers a time when Cormac locked her and Erika in the playroom during an argument and then the rug was gone. This was when Erika was four years old.
Who killed Susie Welch?
Erika confesses to accidentally killing Susie. Honestly, I’m also a little confused by this.
Erika says that Susie accused Cormac of shielding David of sexually assaulting Susie (that’s a whole other plot line) and Cormac wanted to keep her quiet.
Erika was threatening Susie with a gun and it went off. David knew what happened and later blackmailed Erika and Rick over it.
What happened to Fiona?
Fiona wanted to break free of her mob family and asked Erika for help. (Weird, since Erika was also the daughter of a mobster, but okay…)
They decide Fiona will disappear and they set up David as revenge for his part in Bella’s death.
What happened to Bella?
Bella was Fiona’s best friend. David was helping Jimmy T with a porn site and posted a video of Bella that an old boyfriend submitted.
After her fiancé saw it and dumped her, Bella took her own life.
What was the meaning of David’s Riddle?
When Julia drove to Burlington and questioned the bartender, the bartender said that David gave him a riddle: “how to you kill someone without pulling the trigger?”
This was discussed again in the podcast transcript by which time I had HAD IT.
Erika thought the gun she waved at Susie was unloaded but that David put a live round in there because he wanted to kill Susie to shut her up about the assault.
But even Detective Baker says that a riddle is not enough evidence to put David in jail, even if he’s a bad guy. Too bad!
What are your questions? Can you help me with mine? Please leave a comment!
Ok. I thought it was just me who couldn’t follow the ending. It seemed as though Cormac appeared out of thin air.
It got so crazy at the end. I love a twisty book but for me, it was just too much!
Who was the nephew of Grace Olson who came by to check on her? Turns out he was her great nephew and at the end Izzy had a date with him? But who are his parents? Did Grace & Anna have siblings?
Hi Lilybean!
Yes, in chapter 12 when Izzy is researching Anna, she reads a newspaper interview with Grace in which Grace says that she and Anna had an older brother, Tom. Since the book doesn’t mention Grace being married, I am guessing that Noah, the grand-nephew, is Tom’s grandson. Thanks for asking and I added Noah to the character list!
I loved the plot and ALL the moving parts and pieces. I don’t mind re reading or re listening to understand a complicated story line. All the twists and turns kept me interested and gives our book club enough to discuss.
I really enjoyed this one too and hope this guide helped you if you were listening! 🙂
I felt let down by the overcomplicated ending, too. And by the dubious legal claim that someone is not responsible for shooting what they think is an unloaded gun, which actually has a bullet in the chamber. That fails Gun Safety 101- you always check for that possibility of you are a experienced as Rick supposedly was.
It was not a bad read, apart from that deflating ending.
Oh, interesting. Despite the very sad Rust shooting, that did not occur to me when I read it!