Lake Charles

by Ed Lynskey

[Kim Deister]

Lake Charles is the soon to be released standalone novel from Ed Lynskey. I had not read anything by this author prior to this book and I very much enjoyed it. Set in 1979 in the midst of the gas crisis and the Iran situation, the story brought me back to the time, just a few years younger than Brendan, Edna and Cobb were in the time of the story. I was immediately drawn into the story and I really did not want to put it down. The action was non-stop, with twists and turns throughout the book that left me always guessing, always wondering.

I really enjoyed the voice of the story, told in the first person by Brendan. Sometimes tales told in the first person tend to be overly polished, the language not really fitting the character telling it. This was definately not the case with this novel. The tone of the words used were directly in keeping with the character of Brendan, making the entire story much more realistic. The characters were very different from one another, and that made the story very rich in texture and very interesting. There were many times throughout the story when I was sure I had a read on a particular character, only to be proven wrong further in the story line!

The entire story was very engaging, and even towards the end of the book, when you already knew "whodunit", there were still surprises and unexpected twists that kept you guessing until the very end. I highly recommend this read!