The House Across the Lake

“Not the first time those adjectives have been used to describe my mother and me. They’ve been employed so often they might as well be our first names. Beloved Lolly Fletcher and Troubled Casey Fletcher.”

The nicknames that the media gives to the Fletchers speak to the idea of reputation and the way in which society can elevate certain individuals to a near-mythical status. However, this reputation can also be a burden, as it creates an expectation for the individual to always live up to their perceived image. Furthermore, the use of the word “troubled” to repeatedly describe Casey implies that there is something inherently wrong with her. This label may be based on her experiences with alcohol and repressed memories, but it also serves to further isolate her from society.

“I prefer the palpable spark between performer and audience that exists only in theater. I feel it every time I step onstage. We share the same space, breathe the same air, share the same emotional journey. And then it’s gone.”

Although Casey tried to avoid following in her mother’s footsteps, she found a natural talent and passion for acting, which this quote expresses. Through her struggles with addiction, this connection she feels with the audience is something she has lost in her life. Through her love for theater, Casey demonstrates a longing for connection and a desire to be part of something greater than herself, making the loss of this connection poignant in the aftermath of her trauma and alcohol misuse.

“Our marriage was a combination of gestures both big—like when he rented an entire movie theater on my birthday so the two of us could have a private screening of Rear Window—and small.”

The fact that Len’s big gesture involved a private screening of Rear Window is significant. Rear Window is a classic thriller film about a man who becomes obsessed with spying on his neighbors and becomes embroiled in a murder case. This reference to Read Window foreshadows the danger and mystery that will soon come to play a major role in Casey’s life. The quote also highlights the thin line between fiction and reality, and the way that fiction can inspire real behaviors, such as the murderer inspired by Casey’s play.

“Soon the wood is emitting that satisfying campfire crackle as sparks swirl into the night sky. It all brings a rush of memory. Me and Len the night before he died. Drinking wine by the fire and talking about the future, not realizing there was no future.”

The power of memory to transport someone to a specific moment in time, even against their conscious will, is explored throughout The House Across the Lake. The imagery of the wood emitting a satisfying crackle and the sparks swirling into the night sky create a vivid atmosphere of warmth and comfort. However, the memory is bittersweet because it reminds Casey of a future that will never be, as Len is no longer alive, and the person she believed him to be was a lie.

“Once again, I realize I’m currently watching the Royce house with a pair of binoculars powerful enough to view craters on the moon. It’s extreme. And obsessive.”

Casey’s use of the binoculars is a form of surveillance that has been used by characters in mystery and thrillers before, such as in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window or D. J. Caruso’s Disturbia. The act of watching, particularly in a secretive and surreptitious manner, heightens the tension and suspense of the narrative. Additionally, it highlights the idea of the private versus public self. While Katherine Royce appears to have a glamorous public persona, Casey’s use of the binoculars allows her to see beyond this façade and into the more intimate and private aspects of the Royce family’s life.

“Boone shrugs, and in that sad little lift of his broad shoulders, I sense a weary acceptance common among people haunted by something.”

Boone is carrying a weight or burden that is affecting his behavior and personality, which is something that Casey recognizes from her own traumatic past. Boone and Casey both recently lost their spouses and struggled with alcohol misuse, creating a parallel between them that will later give Casey hope.

“‘This is like a thousand privacy invasions in one.’”

Detective Wilma Anson continually reminds Casey that what she’s doing is illegal and cautions her to stop before she negatively impacts the due process of the law. However, Casey continues her rogue sleuthing and ultimately does solve the mystery before the police.

“‘The lake is darker than a coffin with the lid shut,’ she’d say. ‘And as deep as the ocean. If you sink under, you’ll never come back up again. You’ll be trapped forever.’”

The lake is not simply a body of water, but rather, it is imbued with a deeper significance that symbolizes the unknown and the uncontrollable. Marnie’s metaphorical comparison of the lake to a coffin emphasizes the danger that the lake poses, and her comment that it is “as deep as the ocean” underscores its vastness and inscrutability. Moreover, the final statement hints at the peril that the characters will encounter as the story progresses.

“In the water below, Old Stubborn pokes from the surface. Because of the way it’s situated, the ancient tree can’t be seen from any of the houses on Lake Greene, which is probably why it’s attained such mythical status.”

Throughout the novel, Casey references Old Stubborn—an old tree half-buried in the lake. Later, this tree turns out to be the marker where Len dumps the people he murders. It is both inside and outside of the lake, trapped. In this way it symbolizes how the lake traps souls inside it, locked in limbo, not in this world nor in the next.

“Harvey Brewer had been in the audience of my play. He’d seen me onstage, playing a woman who comes to realize her husband is slowly poisoning her. He’d sat in that darkened theater, wondering if such a thing could be done in real life.”

This quote highlights the theme of art imitating life, and vice versa. The play Casey was performing in foreshadows the real-life danger Katherine is facing, and it also serves to illustrate the power of storytelling to evoke empathy and understanding in an audience. The fact that Harvey Brewer was impacted by the play shows that art can influence and shape our thoughts and actions.

“If you hadn’t been watching no one might have noticed any of this. Which means we can’t let up now. We need to keep watching him.”

When Casey begins to wonder if she should heed Wilma’s advice and disentangle herself from the Royces, Boone urges her to continue watching by pointing out that her voyeurism was what made them aware that something was wrong in the first place. By acknowledging that their watching of Katherine’s husband is a privacy invasion, Boone and Casey are aware of the ethical dilemma they face, yet they continue with their actions. This adds complexity to their characters and reinforces the idea that people are often willing to do questionable things in the pursuit of justice or truth.

“I need a break from Lake Greene itself. I’ve spent too much time gazing at the water and the home on the opposite shore.”

Lake Greene is a reoccurring motif throughout the novel, which serves as a haunting reminder to Casey of how she murdered her husband. Lake Greene has dark water, hiding what lies below its surface, which symbolically comes to stand for the dark secrets that can lurk within an individual.

“I look at Megan’s sister and wonder if she has a similar problem. Unable to remember so many last moments because she was blithely unaware of their finality. Last sisterly chat. Last sibling spat. Last ice cream cone and family dinner and wave goodbye.”

Throughout the novel, Casey is haunted by the deaths of the women Len killed. She feels partially responsible for the fact that their bodies have not been found and the families have not found closure because she didn’t turn Len in to the police after uncovering his secret, out of a selfish fear her association with him would destroy her career and public image.

“I just needed to be away from all of that. Otherwise, I would have had one of those cartoon devils always sitting on my shoulder, whispering in my ear that it’s fine, it’s just one drink, nothing bad will happen.”

The use of the word “need” in the quote also emphasizes the severity of Casey’s struggle with alcoholism. She feels that she must physically remove herself from the situation to avoid giving in to her addiction. The word “just” also implies that she has struggled with this before, and that avoiding alcohol is not as easy as it might seem. The quote demonstrates how addiction can control a person’s thoughts and behaviors, making it difficult for them to resist the temptation to use.

“But it also could have been Boone. Angry, jealous, rejected Boone, mixing a large dose into Katherine’s lemonade.”

When Casey discovers that Boone has been lying to her about his relationship to Katherine, she becomes suspicious of him and wonders if he might be the real villain. In this way, Boone functions as a red herring for the plot, a misleading new piece of information that briefly distracts Casey from uncovering the truth.

“The more shit you say and do means the less I’ll be able to legally present to a judge and prosecutor. The laptop you looked at is evidence. Those rooms you walked through might be a crime scene. And you just tainted all of it.”

Detective Wilma Anson continually emphasizes the importance of following the proper procedures when dealing with a crime scene, and the severity of the consequences if those procedures are not followed. This highlights the tension between Casey’s desire to speed up the process and find Katherine through any means necessary and the need to respect the legal process.

“I’ve got a possible wife-killer on one side of me and another possible wife-killer directly across the lake. Not a comforting thought.”

The quote illustrates the high stakes that Casey is facing as she navigates the web of secrets and lies surrounding both cases. It also reflects the overall mood of the novel, which is characterized by a sense of unease and danger. The fact that both possible murderers are in such proximity to Casey creates a feeling of claustrophobia and intensifies the suspense, as the reader wonders what will happen next.

“Her clothes are the same ones I saw her wearing the night she vanished. Jeans and a white sweater, snow stained in spots. Her shoes are gone, revealing bare feet made dirty by the trek from her house to this one. A line of soup, still wet, drops from a corner of her mouth onto her neck.”

When Casey finally finds Katherine, she is in a sad state, tied to a bed against her will. While initially Casey thinks this is simply Tom’s villainy at play, later she comes to understand that the danger is more complicated than just Tom. Katherine has been possessed by Len, whose soul was trapped in the lake after his death.

“Something overcame me as I watched my husband cry for mercy after showing none for others. An internal realignment that left me feeling as fallow and ablaze as a jack-o’-lantern.”

This quote creates a striking image of Casey’s emotional state, contrasting the emptiness of a carved pumpkin with its fiery interior. This juxtaposition could represent the duality of Casey’s feelings in this moment—on the surface, she may appear calm and detached like the fallow pumpkin, but inside she is burning with rage and hurt.

“Now I know that something stays behind. Our souls, I guess. When people die on land, I suspect it rides out with their final breath and eventually dissipates into the atmosphere.”

Casey struggles to understand the mysterious properties of the lake that allow Len to return to life, trying several probable explanations such as mental delusions before accepting that Len really has possessed Katherine. Here she realizes that she has discovered that there is a kind of life after death, at least through the water, highlighting the mysterious powers of Lake Greene.

“I move closer to the door until I’m only an inch from the glass, staring at my reflection, which in turn stares back at me. We look into each other’s eyes, both of us knowing what needs to be done next.”

The use of the first-person point of view places the reader directly into Casey’s mind, allowing them to feel the weight of the decision she must make. The use of the reflective surface to show Casey’s reflection creates a metaphor for her inner conflict, as she must face herself and her own inner depths and decide what she is willing to do.

“Now we’re here, the lake’s surface split into two distinct halves. To the left, heavenly pink. To the right, shimmering black. I steer the boat down the middle, the wake from the motor stirring the light and the dark together.”

The quote highlights the contrast between the colors of the lake, with one half being described as “heavenly pink” and the other as “shimmering black.” This contrast may represent the duality of the characters and the events that take place in the story, as well as the contrast between light and dark, good and evil, and life and death. The act of steering the boat down the middle, causing the wake to stir the light and the dark together, may symbolize Casey’s attempt to reconcile the opposing forces at play in the story, using her connection to Len to find a way to bring closure and justice to the victims’ families.

“My mood swings like a pendulum as I rid the house of alcohol. There’s the same fury one feels when clearing out a no-good lover’s belongings. There’s I-can’t-believe-I’m-doing-this laughter. There’s excitement, wild and chaotic, along with the catharsis and desperation and pride. And there’s sadness—a surprise.”

As Casey rids the lake house of the alcohol she has stored away, she experiences wild fluctuations of emotion. She compares alcohol to a no-good lover, creating a parallel between her relationship with the alcohol and her relationship with Len. In the end, both ended up having a negative impact on her health and well-being and she must consciously leave them behind.