In this thrilling and suspenseful fantasy set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Others series, an inn owner and her shape-shifting lodger find themselves enmeshed in danger and dark secrets.Human laws do not apply in the territory controlled by the Others–vampires, shape-shifters, and even deadlier paranormal beings. And this is a fact that humans should never, ever forget….After … 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 such as Vicki’s don’t have any distance from the Others, the dominant predators who 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 is 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 shape-shifting Others–discovers a murdered man, Vicki finds trouble instead. The detectives want to pin the death on her, despite the evidence that nothing human could have killed the victim. As Vicki and her friends search for answers, ancient forces are roused by the disturbance in their domain. They have rules that must not be broken–and all the destructive powers of nature at their command.
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It’s never easy to continue a popular series with a new setting and different characters, but Lake Silence pulls it off well. The world is familiar, and the characters are relatable, so it’s easy to enter the story. The plot is fairly simple, and shouldn’t have taken quite this long to solve, but like with all the books in the series, it’s more about the characters, and the humans learning to interact with the others than thwarting the bad guys. There is a hint of romance, but that doesn’t take off, mostly because Vicki, the heroine, is too damaged from her marriage. It’s quite refreshing that she doesn’t heal instantly just because of a possible new love, like in so many romance books. My only complaint is that not enough was made of sproingers, those happy little critters that I presume look like quokkas. They were constantly there, but the interaction remained superficial, and the hints about their true nature never porperly actualised within the story. And since the next book is set in a different place again, I fear I’ll never learn what they truly are.
This entire series is wonderful! Start at the beginning for the best understanding- really great world building and characters
Lake Silence is the first book in The World of the Others series and the sixth book in the Others series and this book is featured in the same world as the Others series but it’s a completely new place and completely new characters. A few familiar characters are mentioned one way or another but you they aren’t featured in this book. I wish that some of the previous characters that I have come to love and look forward to seeing had been featured to some extent in this new book. I really enjoyed this new book in this world that I just love and I really enjoyed meeting some pretty great new characters. I just couldn’t get enough of this story and I hope the author will revisit this town and its characters. I can’t wait to see what’s next from this author.
This is the first book I’ve read by this author. It took about 30% in before I felt I knew enough about who’s who, but I wanted to know. After that, I couldn’t absorb it fast enough, but I was also sorry to come to the end. I’ll definitely check out this series. I liked the ‘good’ characters, as well as the story.
Fantastic! The world of The Others is fascinating. I couldn’t put it down. I am going to read all the books in the series.
Every thing that Anne Bishop has written is GOLD.
Love the whole series. The human characters are believable and others add a new twist.
Love everything written by this author,
I love it when a writing combines genres and in this one, Bishop combines fantasy with a murder mystery that will have you guessing to the end.
Love the whole series
This whole series is great!
An amazing alternate reality imagining of the real world where magical creatures are real – and they’re in charge. Humans must tread carefully to keep from making them angry or reap the deadly consequences. A wonderful mystery story with plenty of action, mysterious and awe-inspiring creatures, characters who feel like real people, and even a hint of romance (sort of). I love the world the author has created and look forward to reading the next one!
I really enjoyed the new dnd different twist on thr supernatural. I haven’t read anything quite like this: paranormal mystery and I loved it.
Great series!
really good
Liked it. All of this series have been good
I loved getting back in the world of The Others, but for me this book didn’t have the charm of the previous series.
I did enjoy the interaction between The Others and the humans and the whole small town vibe. But I didn’t care that much for Vicky, I think was a bit to much clueless.
The main character is great. Some times I just had to laugh out loud because of the antics and misunderstanding between the humans and the others.
Lake Silence is the first novel in the spin-off series The World of Others. In other words, the events take place in the same world as the Others series, just not at the Lakeside Courtyard and with fresh characters. There is one reference to the Lakeside Courtyard residents, but that’s it. And honestly, I think I love this spin-off more if that’s even possible.
The main character in this story is Vicki, a human woman who got a rustic resort near Lake Silence as part of her divorce settlement and used all her money to improve and maintain it.
This paragraph introduces Vicki perfectly:
“A bit of useful information. My name is Victoria “call me Vicki” DeVine. I used to be Mrs. Yorick Dane, but giving up my married name was one of the conditions of my receiving valuable property—aka The Jumble—as part of the divorce settlement. Apparently, the second official Mrs. Dane didn’t like the idea that someone else had had the name first. Fortunately, she didn’t seem as possessive about Yorick’s Vigorous Appendage. I could have told her that a couple dozen other women had had it before she took possession. But it wasn’t likely that she would keep solo possession of the appendage for long, so let her figure things out the hard way like I did. Of course, if she had been one of those indulgences, then she already knew the signs and might be able to nip them in the bud.”
Vicki finds out there’s a dead body on her property when walks in on one of her tenants, Aggie Crowe (a teenage crow shifter) as she was about to warm up an eyeball in the microwave.
“Why can’t I eat it?” She looked at the eyeball rolling around in the small bowl that was now sitting on the counter.
“Nobody else wants it. It’s starting to get squooshy. And the dead man doesn’t need it.”
“The words got me past the physical evidence. “What dead man?”
“The one who doesn’t need the eyeball.” Little black feathers suddenly sprouted at her hairline, confirming the nature of my lodger.
Trouble starts soon after when cops with no jurisdiction there try to pin the murder on Vicki. Fortunately for her, due to her kindness towards Aggie members of the Other community step up and protect Vicki. The terra indigene are not the only ones who stand by her. Officer Grimshaw (human, good cop) and Julian Farrow (Intuit, ex-cop) are also determined to keep her safe.
Read more here: https://www.summonfantasy.com/book-reviews/book-review-lake-silence-by-anne-bishop
I won a copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. I am writing this honest review by my choice.
Anne Bishop has been one of my go-to authors for intensely emotional, relationship-based, cathartic reading since she published the Black Jewels trilogy. It’s not so much the romantic relationships that I adore in her books as it is the wider webs of family, friend, and community relationships. She’s willing to let the growth of trust take time and is extremely deft at describing the small incidents that can build or break trust. I could wish for a little less gender essentialism, but I consider it part of the world building.
Written in Red, the first book of The Others, troubled me because of the portrayal of cutting, of self harm. Within it, the Cassandra Sangue are women who are compelled to cut themselves or be cut in order to see visions of the future — one of the protagonists is compelled to cut and saves a child’s life thereby. The craving is written descriptively enough that I worry it might trigger readers who self-harm, as is the euphoria afterwards. And the glorification of self-harm… It made me uncomfortable. Too uncomfortable to purchase more books in the series.
It’s fine if you didn’t feel that way. It’s just how I felt. But I was very glad to see a book about the World of the Others that didn’t center on the Cassandra Sangue! They are only briefly mentioned & seem to be moving towards using tarot-like cards rather than cutting for prophecy.
For the most part, I found Lake Silence fun. The getting-to-know-you scenes between the human protagonists and the shifters and elemental beings who are The Others are sweet and amusing. There’s a grim satisfaction in seeing the cruelty, greed, and indifference to rules and norms of the human antagonists work to their destruction. There’s never any doubt that the human antagonists will lose — they are far overmatched — the question is, how much else will be destroyed along with the bad guys.
I could wish that Vicki, the main female protagonist, didn’t sometimes come off as a teenager squeeing on Tumblr when she’s supposed to be an adult divorcee, but she’s under the influence of vampire, I suppose. And it was very nice to see vampires interacting and to get a sense for what their concerns and goals were. All in all, this is probably a good starting intro to the Others and a fun, if not hugely deep, read.