Daughters of the Lake

This book follows several generations of women that have a connection to Lake Superior and goes between current time and the 1900’s in alternating chapters.  Kate Granger goes to her family’s house along the lake after splitting with her husband and a body washes up on shore.  Kate realizes she has been dreaming about this woman since before she washed up on shore and that is why she knows the woman is holding an infant.  When she dreams it is through this woman’s eyes and gives her glimpses into the woman’s life.  This knowledge along with the fact that she left her husband makes her a suspect in the murder.  (I know what you are thinking, that sounds flimsy, but… well you would be right it is flimsy)  The sheriff of the town is a family friend and can tell she is lying about something so he sends the new hunky, just transferred from the big city detective to investigate.

She goes to stay with her cousin in their old family mansion, The Harrison House, to help sort out the mystery.  The mansion was converted in to a B&B by her cousin who is written as a pretty one dimensional, gay clichéd character.  At one point during one of their conversation she exclaims “but you love antiquing!”

She is helping him go through old family photos for the third floor renovation when she finds a family photo from the 1900’s that show the woman and her husband on a picnic with her great grandparents.   From there she unravels the mystery and family secrets. The 1900’s story follows Addie, the body that washes up on the shore, from her birth to her murder.  Kate re-lives parts of her life as she works out why she is having these dreams, what they mean, and what Addie wants her to do with the information.  She tells the cousin and the detective love interest at different times of the story about her dreams and they are both a little too easily convinced that she is not crazy and go along as she is working out the mystery.

I don’t remember buying it so it must have been one of the Amazon free monthly picks. It was a quick and easy read and since it was free I probably enjoyed it more that if I had paid for the book. Mild spoilers to follow…   You can figure out the mystery around the half way mark so I guess that is why they tacked on a twist ending that really didn’t make much sense to me or add anything to the story.  This started with folk lore, turned into a ghost story then shifted to poltergeist and mild possession at the very end that also didn’t add much to the story.