This was a great prequel to These Still Black Waters, the new Jess Lambert series. It gives you some insight in who Jess is and really helps to develop her character. It was suspenseful and surprising - there were several good twists. I look forward to reading the next in the series, What Lies In Darkness. Thanks to NetGalley for the digital ARC. ( )

Writing twisty and enthralling thrillers is the amazing Christina McDonald’s forte! I was thoroughly drawn into the hectic, stressful, unpredictable and sometimes dangerous world of Jess Lambert, in her latest novella THE STRANGER AT BLACK LAKE.

Jess and her husband Mac, move to Black Lake, a quiet and quaint town, to start their family. However, Jess’s encounter with a stranger at the local coffee shop has tremendously changed the course of her life, for better or worse?

I am totally blown away by the chilling suspense with some very dark secrets of THE STRANGER AT BLACK LAKE which sets path to the beginning of Jess Lambert series. I truly loved it, and highly recommend it to readers who enjoy such genres! ( )

This background on Detective Jess was so good! There was so much packed into this novella but it gave so much insight into her character and her past. I loved this mystery and how she came to be at Black Lake and I am really looking forward to the cases that Jess will work on in this series. Brand new in town, she meets a woman at a coffee shop and feels she may have just met her first new friend. But when she finds her new friend disoriented and she leads her into her house with a body and blood everywhere, Jess is questioning this new little town. Who is this new friend of hers and what is she now tangled in? Rumors and newspaper clippings from the past only seem to create more havoc in this case. Can the local police solve what happened and who these people are? The first book was so good, and now I cannot wait to dive into the second one! Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the complementary ebook. This review is of my own opinion and accord. ( )