New Release Review | Lake Silence by Anne Bishop

Lake Silence by Anne Bishop
The Others #6
Urban Fantasy
Ace | March 6, 2018

About the Book: In this thrilling and suspenseful fantasy, set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Others series, Vicki DeVine and her lodger, the shapeshifter Aggie Crowe, stumble onto a dead body . . . and find themselves enmeshed in danger and dark secrets.

Human laws do not apply in the territory controlled by the Others–vampires, shapeshifters, and paranormal beings even more deadly. 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 like Vicki’s have no distance from the Others, the dominant predators that 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’s 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 shapeshifting Others–discovers a dead body, Vicki finds trouble instead. The detectives want to pin the man’s death on her, despite the evidence that nothing human could have killed the victim. As Vicki and her friends search for answers, things get dangerous–and it’ll take everything they have to stay alive.

When it comes to my favorite series, I’m usually head over heels in love with the idea of a spin-off. I never want a good story to end. However, usually a spin-off involves a character we already know, so there’s already a level of excitement. With The Others, Anne Bishop decided to continue writing this fascinating world with a whole new cast… which made this worry wart very nervous! I could maybe get over losing Meg and Simon, if it was another character I was already invested in. I’m never good with the unknown!

Luckily, I think the transition between the first five books and Lake Silence felt mostly pretty seamless. I think it helped me that Anne Bishop didn’t give us a character who was Meg’s opposite in every way. Personally, the innocence and gentleness of Anne Bishop’s female leads has always been what sets this world apart from other Urban Fantasy books. I’m not sure how I would have felt if Lake Silence had completely changed that basic outline.

That’s not to say I thought Meg and Vicky are too similar. I didn’t think they were overly alike at all. For example, Meg never felt like a victim to me. I know to the world, as a Blood Prophet, she was victimized but I always think about how she tried to fight back in the little ways. She ran. She escaped on her own, got help, and changed the dynamic of the world. She was sweet and gentle, and yet in her own way she was very strong. On the other hand, Vicky is definitely a victim and Vicky’s story is one more true to an abuse victims life. She did get away, but sort of because she was let go. She’s far more damaged inside than Meg was, timid. I’m not putting her down. She just has a different personality type than Meg does. Despite her abuse, she does still find a way to make a new home. I liked both of these woman, and I loved seeing them as the two heroines of this series.

Another thing I enjoyed about Lake Silence was, if there’s a romance, it’s very slow. So slow there’s not much talk about a relationship at all. I can see where one might, and probably will, develop but it wasn’t as blatant as Simon and Meg. (And they weren’t blatant either, so that’s saying something!) I liked the characters for their individuality, not as any potential couple. And actually, the development of the humans in Lake Silence felt stronger to me than in the first five books. The Terre Indigene have always been larger than life, which caused the humans to feel like footnotes in the Meg/Simon books. They were boring for me to read. That’s not true of the characters in Lake Silence. I enjoyed Grimshaw and Julian just as much as I enjoyed Ilya and Aggie.

So, if you can’t tell, this read was very successful. Maybe I’m not over the moon the way I was when I read Written in Red, but I thought it was a very solid start to what I think will be another excellent series in the world of The Others.