Lake Silence by Anne Bishop

Lake Silence (The Others, #6) (World of the Others, #1)

by Anne Bishop

In this thrilling and suspenseful fantasy set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Others series, an inn owner and her shape-shifting lodger find themselves enmeshed in danger and dark secrets.

Human laws do not apply in the territory controlled by the Others--vampires, shape-shifters, and even deadlier paranormal beings. And this is a fact that humans should never, ever forget....

After her divorce, Vicki DeVine took over a rustic resort near Lake Silence, in a human town that is not human controlled. Towns such as Vicki's don't have any distance from the Others, the dominant predators who rule most of the land and all of the water throughout the world. And when a place has no boundaries, you never really know what is out there watching you.

Vicki was hoping to find a new career and a new life. But when her lodger, Aggie Crowe--one of the shape-shifting Others--discovers a murdered man, Vicki finds trouble instead. The detectives want to pin the death on her, despite the evidence that nothing human could have killed the victim. As Vicki and her friends search for answers, ancient forces are roused by the disturbance in their domain. They have rules that must not be broken--and all the destructive powers of nature at their command.

Reviewed by EBookObsessed on

5 of 5 stars

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I was drawn in from the opening scene. While this book is set in the same world building as the Others series, this is the book one in a spinoff.

This review may contain spoilers for the prior books.

I have read many shifter books, but this is the first time I stepped into a world where the shifters are not humans that can take on an animal form, but animals that take on human form. This switch is very important since we never think about what a wolf thinks about when he sees a shifter in wolf form, but it is quite obvious when you see the “odd” behaviors in the terra indigene.

They all smiled at me. Conan and Cougar hadn’t seen enough smiling humans to get all the teeth sorted out. The result was unsettling. It also made me wonder how they enunciated as well as they did.

This spinoff novel focuses on The Jumble which is a rustic vacation lodge located on Lake Silence in an alternate United States Northeastern Finger Lake District. Vicki DeVine has recently divorce her verbally abusive husband and as a settlement, he dumped his abandoned family property on her that was in severe disrepair. Vicki’s ex-husband is a real winner. He’s an “entrepeneur” or schemer who is upgrading from his “dumpy” first wife who supported him until he could come into his trust fund. Vicki has some issues with men after the number her ex did on her so we didn’t quite get a romance with either the local bookstore owner or the local police officer. Vicki was not ready for a romantic relationship.

The Jumble consists of some rustic cabins and a main house located with a private lakefront beach area which is the big draw. The only other access to the lake is either by a public beach which is very crowded and not as nice or the big lodge across the lake which is owned by the Sanguinati (vampires) which is not open to the public. The Jumble could do a booming business with the city dwellers looking to rough it for a nice lakeside vacation.

The Jumble’s buildings have been tranferred to Vicki but the land is owned by The Others and there are many rules that she needs to follow in order to be allowed to continue to run the lodge. She has worked hard over the last few months in order to have a few of the cabins restored to habitable conditions before the summer. What Vicki also never realized when she moved into The Jumble is that it was originally created as a safe way for the terra indigene to integrate with humans and learn to adapt to the human world. One of her first lodgers is a Crowgard (or crow shifter) who was sent in to see how Vicki behaves and reacts to the terra indigene.

Vicki was not aware of it, but she has been under a great deal of scrutiny. The terra indigene (or The Others) including the feared Elders and Elementals have been making sure that Vicki sticks to the rules, and so far, they have been very happy with Vicki.

Just as Vicki is ready to open her doors, her ex-husband and his new partners have plans to take back the property, rip down The Jumble and build a luxury resort for humans. When they attack Vicki, the terra indigene rally to protect The Jumble and Vicki who they have come to trust. The humans have learned that when the terra indigene rally, it means blood and death for the humans.

This is my first book Anne Bishop novel and it will not be my last. I have picked up an audiobook version of Written in Red which is Book 1 of The Others series. Lake Silence is the first book in a spinoff The World of the Others series which will include stand-alone novels which take place in the same world created in her The Others series. I am sorry to find out that Vicki DeVine and The Jumble won’t be the center of a new series since The Jumble is a very interesting place and we met a great many exciting characters.

Lake Silence was great storytelling and really unique world building and I am looking forward to more by Anne Bishop.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 19 July, 2018: Finished reading
  • 19 July, 2018: Reviewed