Customer Reviews

Beneath Bone Lake

5 star:		(5)
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3 star:		(3)
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Is there anything more chilling, more horror-filled, than a mother's fear when her child disappears?

After a year in Iraq, widow Ruby Monroe comes home to Dogwood, Texas, eager to reunite with her four-year old daughter, Zoe. The excellent salary she has earned overseas as a contract bus driver for DeserTek, a non-military sub-contractor, will allow her to complete her training as an RN and give Zoe a better life. Ruby's sister, Misty, took care of home, hearth and Zoe, allowing Ruby take the job.

Ruby gets to the Dallas airport eager for the "the heaven of Spaghetti-Os and storybooks, and Zoe's endless schemes to drag out tuck-ins." But rather than experiencing the joy of her daughter's sticky hugs and kisses, Ruby's backpack is stolen and Misty and Zoe are no-shows. Things go downhill from there.

Sam McCoy has lived the quiet life the last two years, acting as a fishing guide on Bone Lake with his only true companion a young chocolate lab named Java. His five-year probation for the felony charge of stepping over the line as a computer hacker doesn't call for an invisibility cloak, but Sam is lying low anyway. He figures he got lucky not having to serve time, and he's not taking any chances.

At least not until his neighbors go missing and his foster brother's widow, Ruby Monroe, has no one else to turn to for help.

What follows is a complex mystery, so suspenseful and action-filled, that the reader can do nothing but grab onto the pages and hang on for the ride.

Colleen Thompson's Texas adventures have a reputation for being so descriptive, so powerfully written that the setting itself becomes a living character. From the West Texas desert to the city streets of Houston, Ms. Thompson immerses the reader so completely that one is on the lookout for rattlesnakes or drug dealers. Her latest will not disappoint. The dark bayou, with its stinging insects, its monster gators, and its thick vegetation that can trap like quicksand, will have you gasping for breath and fighting against the feeling of being dragged down, down, down - Beneath Bone Lake.

After a stint in Iraq working for DeserTek as a contract bus driver, Ruby Monroe's airplane finally touches down in Dallas. Thrilled to finally be able to be with her sister and daughter, Ruby's life suddenly changes when an item is stolen from her backpack at the airport. Ruby knows first hand the high stakes consequences involved from her co-worker Carrie Ann, a woman silenced for speaking out against DeserTek, but Ruby never expected this turn of events. She returns home to find her daughter Zoe missing. Her neighbors paint a shocking picture of her sister in the days before Ruby's return home. Everyone warns her of Sam McCoy, a neighbor whose sexy physical presence could take away a woman's breath. Sam's criminal past is no secret. Desperate to find her missing daughter, Ruby must turn to Sam, especially when her own life is threatened. No one else seems to feel the urgency to rescue Zoe in quite the same way that Ruby does. Sam can't help but be attracted to Ruby, not only for her beauty but her determination and dauntless spirit in the face of danger. Helping her might endanger the very life he has worked so hard to rebuild. As Ruby and Sam race to uncover Zoe's whereabouts, the danger escalates, especially when a body is uncovered in Bone Lake, a lake which seems to call out from its depth. An unexpected turn of events will test them to their ultimate limit. Can Ruby and Sam work together or will their joining of forces expose them to even more danger? In a race against time, can they uncover all the clues before it is too late? Will Sam and Ruby's closeness forge the bonds of a deeper love or will it forever drive them apart?

Colleen Thompson's BENEATH BONE LAKE is an edgy, fast-paced work of romantic suspense that will send shivers through a reader. Just when you think the danger can't get any more thrilling, Colleen raises the intensity level several notches. Alongside the quick-paced race to identify the location of Zoe and the parties responsible for her kidnapping, a mysterious perhaps unearthly view of Bone Lake haunts the reader's imagination. As the path of clues narrows, an eerie confluence of forces expands outwards, creating mind-bending chills as the past actions of several individuals now come full circle. As corruption and dirty secrets of the past come to light during the desperate search for Zoe, the hunt forces both Sam and Ruby to look within. Forced to trust each other with their deepest secrets, they also discover their deepest desires, desires too long hidden inside. In BENEATH BONE LAKE, the romance is truly dynamic. Colleen Thompson integrates the threads of romance and suspense so seamlessly that each magnifies the effects of the other while also creating depth within her characters. Edgy romance combines with a chilling tale that ripples outwards, affecting several levels of individuals. The romance is not just a one-sided edginess in the bad boy hero himself, but rather Colleen Thompson takes it a step further. Sam's desire for Ruby leads him into an ever increasingly dangerous territory in an encounter that will shake the very foundations within him as well as put him at physical risk.

BENEATH BONE LAKE once again marks Colleen Thompson as a master of romantic suspense. Fans will discover all the elements that make her romantic suspense so exquisite, and yet also be thrilled at how she expands into new directions in her latest work. Colleen Thompson is an author who does not rest on the laurels of her past successes but rather one who delights readers anew with each new book. Quite simply, BENEATH BONE LAKE is intense, leaving a reader glued to the pages as each new clue reveals a whole new layer of suspense. Each page ramps up the level of suspense and desire until the last page. BENEATH BONE LAKE left me speechless for days. The intricate concentric and interconnecting levels of connections make this book impossible to put down and leave a suspense lover incredibly satisfied as well. Even connections seemingly unconnected on the surface come together, painting a picture of a whole network of actions and thoughts intertwined to create a portrait of the human soul. Even after the unraveling of the culprit, Colleen Thompson leaves the reader with a delightful unexpected twist. From start to finish, BENEATH BONE LAKE is a must read for romantic suspense lovers with its edge-of-the-seat suspense and its daring romance, a romance that reaches down to the very depths of the human heart.

COURTESY OF BOOK ILLUMINATIONS

Colleen Thompson excells at creating atmosphere, of finding places in Texas that become characters in the story and interact eerily with the characters--and scare the reader. Beneath Bone Lake is no exception. Ms. Thompson is an incredibly talented writer who plots a stunning thriller and creates fascinating characters. As she did in THE SALT MAIDEN, my favorite of her novels, she caught me from the begining and drew me into the story and the nightmare the heroine faced.

When Ruby Monroe returns to Texas from her tour of duty in Iraq, where she worked as a contract driver for a non-military contractor, no one is happier that she is back home than Ruby. Eager to be reunited with her four year old daughter, Zoë, who has been staying with Misty, Ruby's younger sister, as Ruby is a widow, she is looking forward to picking up her life where she left off. The money she earned overseas will give her and Zoë a chance at having a comfortable life together.

No sooner does she arrive in Texas, her back pack is stolen at the airport. Even worse, for some inexplicable reason, her sister and her daughter do not go to the airport to meet and greet her. When she manages to get home, Ruby discovers that Misty and Zoë are missing and her home destroyed. She then turns to her neighbor Sam McCoy, who happens to be her deceased husband's foster bother. Sam, however, has a checkered past and is currently on felony probation with the feds. So, he has to tread very carefully. Sam, however, is not the only one with secrets, as Ruby has brought one home with her, as well.

This is an action packed, intricately plotted mystery that is a bit on the dark and gloomy side. This is not a book for someone that is looking for light romantic suspense. I actually bought this book thinking that I was buying a book by Carlene Thompson, who writes light romantic suspense, only to discover while I was reading it that the author was actually Colleen Thompson. Still, I got a modicum of enjoyment from it, though it was not my cup of tea.

Beneath Bone Lake by Colleen Thompson starts out with a mystery as Ruby Monroe returns to her Texas hometown after a year spent in Iraq, working as a bus driver. She impatiently waits at the airport for the arrival of her sister, Misty, and four-year-old daughter, Zoe, holding with her a secret she's itching to get rid of. Only someone else seems to have gotten a hold of not only her secret, but her family, as well.

Arriving at her house with dangerous and drugged strangers in residence, Ruby calls the local law enforcement for help. Before anyone arrives, Sam McCoy, her neighbor and late husband's foster brother, is on the scene and as trouble escalates, Sam tries to help Ruby as much as he can without getting too involved. After all, it wouldn't do well for someone with a criminal past to be tangled up in drugs, shootings, missing people, and an unidentified body that turns up in Misty's car in Bone Lake, would it?

Ruby Monroe is a woman who simply wants her family back. What should have been a happy reunion with her sister and daughter, turns into a nightmare as she fights against gunmen, corrupt cops, and even those she thought she knew best, with secrets that are starting to unravel.

Sam McCoy is a hero who always seems to be getting caught doing the wrong things for all the right reasons. While trying to stay away from the trouble surrounding Ruby's return, he is nonetheless drawn to her and to helping her cause. Before he realizes it, he's willing to go to any lengths to help secure Ruby and her family's safety, even if that means breaking the terms of his parole.

Beneath Bone Lake is different from other books in the Romantic Suspense genre that I've recently read. This is a complex story with more mystery, action, and suspense in the plot than romance. I do applaud the way Colleen Thompson concocted the mystery, never letting you know what is really going on or who is behind it all. While this story may have moved slowly for me during the first two-thirds, I was glued to the pages towards the end in... well, in suspense.

Beneath Bone Lake would not be a book I'd recommend for those looking for more romance in their novels, but for those who enjoy a good mystery and suspense with just a dash of romance, this should be one to check out.

I know BENEATH BONE LAKE has been out since June, but I was only able to catch up with Colleen at an August book signing. Better late than never, right? And Ms. Thompson's stories get better all the time. In this tale of drugs, lies, loss, corporate corruption, and simple madness, she keeps her reader turning pages until well after midnight.

The fast paced action hardly gives one a chance to draw breath, and then she cranks up the tension. A single mother, a kidnapped child. The ransom no longer in her possession to give. A book not to be missed!

It's always fun discovering new authors. Thompson seems to have written at least eight romantic thrillers, and I only now just discovered her. Too bad. Too bad, for me, as she seems to be quite a find, and I have so many novels to catch up on. I first discovered this novel as an advertisement in the back of another Leisure thriller. I thought that the summation sounded interesting, so I ordered it as soon as I could, and I read it within a few weeks of receiving it. Sometimes ads do work. I have since gotten more of her work. I haven't been so happy to discover a new thriller writer since I discovered the thrillers of Amanda Stevens or Caralyn Haines ("Penumbra" rules!). Hmmm, all women, could it be the best new thriller writers are now women?

There may be spoilers below. Beware! Beware!

Anyway, Ruby Monroe has just come home to Texas after her stint of driving trucks for DesertTek in Iraq, and she's very nervous, as before she left another employee has given her a flash drive with some very compromising information. The main trouble is that DesertTek has a reputation for "taking care of" informants, and the employee that has given Ruby the information is now dead.

You wouldn't think that things could get much worse, but they do. The flash drive is stolen, Misty, Ruby's sister, and Zoë, Ruby's daughter have disappeared, meth addicts have taken over her house, then it burns down, and her and her sister's bank accounts have been emptied.

Things get worse (!). Ruby gets a phone call telling her that unless she coughs up the flash drive her sister and daughter are dead meat; she's being watched; a friend is murdered; and the only person she can turn to is a man who holds a grudge against her, now dead, husband. Then there is the office politics of the sheriff who has her own personal problems, sometime in the future, she even may be worth a novel of her own. Another good thing is the location, it could almost be in any of the swamp states like Florida or Louisiana, but it's Texas, and there's not a cliched cow, cowboy, or dumb redneck in sight.

I don't know how good her other books are, but Thompson wields her plot elements like a master. All the main characters are well delineated, even most of the secondary characters are more than cardboard cut-outs; even the story's cold-blooded villain and his pathologically single-mindedness is well thought out.
Thompson keeps the twists coming, and about the half-way mark there is one hell of a macguffin revealed, and still the red-herrings are laid before us, only to have them constantly debunked, as the plot moves quicker and quicker, as the whole story takes place within a mere few days.

Thompson keeps the whole story real, as there are no superheroes, and she doesn't overstay her visit with a five hundred page, or more, novel. Barely over three hundred pages, Thompson tells her story, packs her bags, and goes home before anybody gets bored. The romantic tension between Ruby and her neighbor is more realistic here than most romantic thrillers. Nobody is jumping into the sack within the first fifty pages, it happens much more naturally. In fact, that seems to be the trademark of the people that populate this novel, they all act naturally, and they don't ever seem to be acting out of character, and when they do, they get slapped down pretty quickly.

Another thing that I liked is that, through DesertTek, the corruption of the Desert Wars and the corps behind it, is used for the reason that things happen. This is the first thriller that I've read where such corps are not painted in a positive, or neutral fashion. The only real problem, and the reason why it loses a star, is that the novel ends with a too neat ending, the evil corps get taken to the woodshed, where in real life these corps get away with even worse war crimes. Still . . . that's all part of the formula, and Thompson seems to be at the top of her form. I look forward to reading more of her work.

After a year in Iraq as a contract bus driver, single mom Ruby Monroe looks forward to coming home to her beloved four year old daughter Zoe and her sister "Aunty" Misty who has been watching her niece. However, instead of the loving kisses and hugs at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, she finds both have vanished and her home was converted into a meth lab; she fears her past has caught up to her family.

Desperate especially since the tattoo assassin tries to kill her; she turns to her neighbor Sam McCoy, who allegedly has a criminal past, to help her find her family. He wants nothing to do with her because she denotes the law and his history with enforcement types is not quiet friendly. Still her vulnerability touches him and he knows she is in over her head drowning with nasty enemies on all sides especially when a corpse is found BENEATH BONE LAKE.

This is an exhilarating romantic suspense that focuses on the thriller elements with the romance segues deftly handled as hugs to help the heroine keep hope alive. The story line is fast-paced from the moment Ruby comes home to a horror rather than a hug. As Sam conceals what he knows, he falls in love with the feisty heartbroken Ruby while she reciprocates, but her child and then her sister come before her happiness. Colleen Thompson provides a strong chilling thriller that is well crafted and enjoyable.

Harriet Klausner

Its a good read, her book made me want to get other books that she has written and have not been disappointed.