Book Review: Lake Lurkers by MP Johnson

The Land of 10,000 Lakes is about to become the Land of 10,000 Deaths!

After years of saving, Tess is finally able to move into her dream home: a gorgeous house in the wealthiest neighborhood in Minneapolis, right across from Lake Harriet. But something vicious has moved into the lake at the same time, and the housewarming party is going to be brutal.

When the remains of missing neighbors start floating to the surface, Tess has to decide whether to go head-to-head against the fangs and tentacles of the creatures lurking in the lake or take shelter in her new home.

Unfortunately, the enemy may be even closer than she thinks. 

My Review: 
It was a beautiful lake, surrounded by exclusive houses...the perfect place to live until green flames shoot across the sky and somefall falls into the icy depths of the water. Scaly finned monsters have taken up residence in the lake and start to pick off the unwary who venture too close to the water's edge. However, these monsters are not content with the odd meal being delivered so they start to pay house calls on the local residents.

I love the cover of this book and it sounded really good in the blurb. The actual plot was a typical creature feature story with an alien twist to it but it was fun and the monster parts are well written and enjoyable. Lots of people start to go missing-an injured jogger, an investigating police officer, a man doing one of those chilly dips in the lake that people seem to do to torture themselves etc. I liked reading about the attacks and the action really ramps up when the monsters start coming out of the lake to attack people on the land and in their houses. The big problem with this book actually came from some of the characters.

Our MC is Tess, who has always wanted to live in this environment, and is thrilled to be moving in. Naturally she is somewhat pleased with herself to be finally achieving her dream and buying her perfect house in a beautiful location. It's a pity that Tess is a self obsessed bitch as well as proud houseowner. The house is the one thing she really loves and that becomes clear through the book. She is moving in with her boyfriend Randall but it isn't really clear why. She keeps refusing to marry him and doesn't even seem to like him that much, as she is forever annoyed by everything he says and does. When she becomes aware of the monsters, she seems more interested in the dropping value of the house and the fact that her dream home is being spoiled for her, than the safety of her new neighbours. There is even a point where she hesitates over helping someone being attacked as it means damage to her bloody house! I really could not stand this character and her obsession with being the proud home owner.

Then we have the usual asshole cops to deal with. Tess passes the police officer while out jogging, just before he goes missing at the edge of the lake. She sees the vscaly hand grab him and calls 911, only to be accused of letting the officer die, leading to one of the cops deciding to assault her for no reason. When her neighbours begin to go missing, these cops are back accusing her of letting these people die as well, to the annoyance of this irritated reader. The next attack is witnessed by a few of the residents who try to save the victim by attacking the monster but Tess is now being blamed again and arrested despite the witnesses saying what really happened. I was getting really mad at the book by this point. One of my pet hates is the small town cop with the moronic attitude who always seems to be racist or bigoted or violent bullies. I might not like Tess but I wanted these idiots eaten. There were some good characters. I certainly liked Randall more than Tess ever seemed to and I really liked her neighbours Gus and Naomi, but the horrible characters overshadowed them.

Overall I'd say that it was a decent creature feature. I liked the alien side to the monster story and having them able to leave the lake to find victims made them much scarier than the usual lake monster. There were certainly things to enjoy in the plot and there was the usual satisfying death toll that you expect in these books. It would certainly make you think twice about buying a house beside a lake! However it was let down a bit by the steriotype cops and an MC that I couldn't really care less about. It wouldn't stop me reading more by the author as long as the characters are not the same next time!

Read July 2018.
3 stars.