Bitterroot Lake: A Novel

by Alicia Beckman

Overview

When four women separated by tragedy reunite at a lakeside Montana lodge, murder forces them to confront everything they thought they knew about the terrifying accident that tore them apart, in Agatha Award-winning author Alicia Beckman's suspense debut

Twenty-five years ago, during a celebratory weekend at historic Whitetail Lodge, Sarah McCaskill had a vision. A dream. A nightmare. When a young man was killed, Sarah's guilt over having ignored the warning in her dreams devastated her. Her friendships with her closest friends, and her sister, fell apart as she worked to build a new life in a new city. But she never stopped loving Whitetail Lodge on the shores of Bitterroot Lake.

Now that she's a young widow, her mother urges her to return to the lodge for healing. But when she arrives, she's greeted by an old friend—and by news of a murder that's clearly tied to that tragic day she'll never forget.

And the dreams are back, too. What dangers are they warning of this time? As Sarah and her friends dig into the history of the lodge and the McCaskill family, they uncover a legacy of secrets and make a discovery that gives a chilling new meaning to the dreams. Now, they can no longer ignore the ominous portents from the past that point to a danger more present than any of them could know.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643855806
Publisher:	CROOKED LANE BOOKS
Publication date:	04/13/2021
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,104,475
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Alicia Beckman adored living in Seattle as a college student and young lawyer, but is happiest back home in her native Montana, where she lives with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their full-figured gray tuxedo cat. As Leslie Budewitz, she's the bestselling author of the Seattle Spice Shop and Food Lovers' Village mysteries. A three-time Agatha Award winner, for Best Short Story (2018), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Nonfiction (2011), she is a past president of Sisters in Crime and a current board member of Mystery Writers of America.

Editorial Reviews

02/15/2021

Sarah McCaskill Carter, the protagonist of this amorphous paranormal mystery from Beckman (the pen name of Leslie Budewitz; the Spice Shop mysteries), returns to her family’s home in Deer Park, Mont., at the urging of her mother, Peggy, who believes Sarah needs a project to take her mind off the recent death of her husband. Peggy suggests that sorting out the contents of the long-abandoned McCaskills’ summer house on Bitterroot Lake would be therapeutic, but revisiting the lake brings back troubling memories for Sarah of an unfortunate incident that occurred there 25 years earlier involving her friend Janine Chapman and rich, entitled Lucas Erickson. Soon after Sarah’s arrival, Lucas, now a successful but much despised lawyer, is found dead on his office floor by Janine, who fears everyone will believe she killed him. The meandering plot includes ghostly presences and prophetic nightmares, well-kept family secrets, and a maid’s suspicious death in 1922. The resolution of Lucas’s murder is almost an afterthought. The author’s fans will enjoy this, but others may find it a bit muddled. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Bitterroot Lake:
"Beckman paints a gorgeous picture of an idyllic small town...This suspense debut is sure to attract readers."
—Library Journal

"Ghosts, dreams, family secrets and a death that occurred in 1922 are deftly woven into a solid plot that hinges on believable twists."
—South Florida Sun Sentinel, Oline Cogdill

“[Alicia Beckman] knows how to tell a Montana story.”
—The Missoulian

“Interesting blend of supernatural, mystery and suspense.”
—Suspense Magazine

"[A] well-written and complex tale."
—Dru’s Book Musings

“A complex, richly imagined, atmospheric mystery, Bitterroot Lake kept me guessing whodunit until the very end.” —A. J. Banner, #1 bestselling author of The Good Neighbor

“Compellingly comfy and eerie in all the right places, Bitterroot Lake features the recently widowed Sarah McCaskill, who has returned to her childhood home at Whitetail Lodge in idyllic Northwest Montana to cope with grief. When she arrives she discovers that one of her old friends has also returned. So begins a journey into the past where they are forced to face an old tragedy that is tied to the recent murder of another friend. Bitterroot Lake is a gracefully written exploration of the secrets that destroy friendships and the courage it takes to face the truth. Atmospheric, character-driven, and truly absorbing, Bitterroot Lake is crime fiction at its finest.”
—Christine Carbo, award-winning, best-selling author of the Glacier Mystery Series

“Old secrets and old ghosts live on in Alicia Beckman’s stunning new suspense novel, Bitterroot Lake. With gorgeous writing, an atmospheric Montana lake-house setting, and a plot that weaves together layers of history, Beckman’s deep dive into the psychology of guilt, friendship, fear, and courage will pull you in and keep you reading until the final reveal. This one is a winner.”
—Connie Berry, Agatha Award-nominated author of the Kate Hamilton Mysteries

“Bitterroot Lake is a twisty, haunting thriller propelled by a delicious hint of otherworldliness. It's a book that's both an expert mystery and an affirmation of love and family. I was absolutely enthralled.”
—Emily Carpenter, bestselling author of Burying the Honeysuckle Girls

“With a rich sense of place and a deft handling of fractured relationships, the pull of the past, and the pain of new grief, Alicia Beckman weaves a satisfying tale of secrets and lies eating away under the surface of happy families and close-knit small towns. And a touch of magic too!”
—Catriona McPherson, Edgar-nominated author of Strangers at the Gate

From the Publisher

03/26/2021

Three-time Agatha Award winner Leslie Budewitz ("Spice Shop" and "Food Lovers' Village" series) writes under the pen name Beckman for her suspense debut set in Montana. Young widow Sarah McCaskill recently lost her husband and childhood sweetheart to cancer. Her mother, Peggy, urges her to come back to the family-owned Whitetail Lodge on Bitterroot Lake to begin healing. Although the lodge has always been special to Sarah, it was also the site of a crime 25 years ago. That night involved a sexual assault and a devastating car accident that killed one of Sarah's friends. Lucas, the driver in the accident, should have been convicted but went scot-free and even became a lawyer in their hometown. When Sarah returns to Whitetail Lodge, she encounters friends from her past and learns of a mysterious murder that may be tied to the tragedy 25 years ago. As she and her friends dig into the murder mystery, they uncover the secrets of Whitetail Lodge and the McCaskill family from a century ago. VERDICT Beckman paints a gorgeous picture of an idyllic small town. With some paranormal aspects, secrets past and present, and a multitude of murder suspects, this suspense debut is sure to attract readers.—Joni Gheen, LadyJ's Bookish Nook, McConnelsville, OH

Library Journal

2020-12-26
Cooking cozy specialist Leslie Budewitz tries on a new pseudonym and subgenre but retains her favorite setting—Missoula County, Montana—and several other telltale habits.

Seventeen days after cancer killed her husband, Sarah McCaskill Carter returns from Seattle to Whitetail Lodge, her childhood home, with a sense of relief that’s entirely misplaced. No sooner has she arrived than she finds baker and old friend Janine Chapman cowering in fear because she’s discovered the body of Lucas Erickson and is terrified that she’ll be accused of shooting him. Janine’s had a great motive ever since the night 25 years ago when Lucas and his friends crashed her graduation party and Lucas attacked and nearly raped Janine. His flight and pursuit by his buddies led to a car crash that left Michael Brown dead and Jeremy Carter badly injured, though he recovered sufficiently to marry Sarah and father two children before he died. The creaky history and neglected condition of Whitetail Lodge would seem to make it the perfect setting for a suspenseful thriller. All too soon, however, the lodge is transformed from a mere supporting player to a star, the repository of all manner of documents that motivate Sarah to escape her own grief by reconstructing a fraught family history that reaches back a century. Although Beckman struggles mightily to infuse the disbursements of the Lakeside Ladies’ Aid Society, the dubious charity founded by Sarah’s great-grandmother Caroline McCaskill, with a sense of urgency, her emphasis on crimes both past and present attenuates rather than reinforces the suspense.

Despite the arresting hook, it’s all about the backstory.

Kirkus Reviews