Summit Lake by Charlie Donlea

Summit Lake by Charlie Donlea is a good entry level debut mystery. A horrifying murder of a smart, beautiful, young law student, Becca, sets the stage for the mystery in Summit Lake, a small town in the Blue Ridge mountains. An investigative reporter named Kelsey, who writes for Events magazine, based in Miami, is sent to cover the story and ferret out any information she can find. Kelsey herself, has some things to deal with, namely her own recent brush with a brutal attack. Her trip to Summit Lake could be seen as a type of therapy, which along with her jogging, may be just what is needed. Kelsey becomes embroiled in the local town, listens to much gossip, gets semi-involved with a doctor, and receives plenty of access to police information from the police chief. This dance does require a little suspension of disbelief from the reader. The actions taken by many characters didn't seem likely, but oh well. Told through two different frames of reference, this is a fairly well crafted mystery, with enough character development to be appealing. The twist at the end was slightly not-twisty, but worked fine in the end. I look forward to reading more from Charlie Donlea, this is a solid, if underperforming novel. I kindly thank Netgalley.com for an advance copy.