I got this as one of the Daily Deal specials from Audible.com and the summary was intriguing and the narrator sounded okay on the sample.  So,  in spite of several reviewers who were disappointed,  especially by the narrator,   I went ahead.

Ah…  I guessed right and enjoyed the book quite a lot – perhaps because I was not expecting a whole lot and the book delivered somewhat more.

*******
Stillhouse Lake
by Rachel Caine
2017/ 300 pages
read by Emily Sutton-Smith –  10h 4m 
Rating:   A /  crime – suspense
#1 in Stillhouse Lake series – of 2)
*******

The narrator is fine – I’ve heard a whole lot worse but then,  maybe I prefer the narration when it doesn’t go over the top with added emotion or suspense.  The suspense here is fine on its own and the narrator adds only a bit – enough to make it real.

The plot is better, even more tension-filled,  than expected.   Gina Royal,  now Gwen Proctor,  and her children  now Atlanta and Connor,  have been on the run and in serious hiding  from self-proclaimed avengers of the deaths of a  number of women killed by Gina’s husband Mel,  who is now in jail.   Gwen was also arrested as an accomplice and locked up in jail,  but after several months was completely acquitted.   Nevertheless,  there are those who do not believe she didn’t know what was going on in that garage – and they’re after her in all ways imaginable  –  As her daughter says,  “You have a right to be paranoid,  Mom.”

So Gwen has trained in the use of guns (she’s good)  and computers (to an extent but she has a helper known as A) and even then she has to hide with new names and  in new towns – a kind of self-imposed witness protection program without the help of police.

Then a body shows up in the lake next to where she’s living and rather than running (again) Gwen makes the choice to stay.

There are a couple of other reasons for her staying –  first is the welfare of her children – she can’t keep moving them if it’s just her own paranoia.   Second is the attraction of a new man in town named Sam Cade  –  a good-lookig writer who is apparently a very nice guy.

I suppose the plot is fairly predictable and the writing mediocre but Caine certainly can develop the suspense.

Okay – I suspect there are realism issues here –  how did she manage to get away with hiding the stuff from her house is numero uno –  was no one watching her then?   And she is so stupid in some things.    Hmmmmm…..  Okay – but maybe these are details,  maybe even picky details,   but I can stretch my imagination letting the author have her way.