Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
Lake Country: A Novel
“Sean Doolittle is a young writer with serious chops,” says George Pelecanos, and Laura Lippman calls him “hip, smart, and mordantly funny.” Now the acclaimed author of Safer returns with a mesmerizing story of tragedy, revenge, and redemption.
Five years ago, successful architect Wade Benson killed a young woman when he fell asleep at the wheel. His punishment: two days in...more
Five years ago, successful architect Wade Benson killed a young woman when he fell asleep at the wheel. His punishment: two days in...more
Paperback, 336 pages
Published
July 31st 2012
by Bantam
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
311)
“As long as there are writers like Sean Doolittle out there, American crime fiction has got a sterling future ahead of it.” —Dennis Lehane
“With Lake Country, Sean Doolittle has out-Fargoed Fargo. Already a master of Midwestern noir, he takes a huge, novelistic leap with his newest work, a complex, quirky, and tremendously satisfying story of revenge and redemption. If you haven’t yet read a Doolittle novel, you’ve missed the cutting edge of crime fiction today. Trust me, this guy is the future.”...more
“With Lake Country, Sean Doolittle has out-Fargoed Fargo. Already a master of Midwestern noir, he takes a huge, novelistic leap with his newest work, a complex, quirky, and tremendously satisfying story of revenge and redemption. If you haven’t yet read a Doolittle novel, you’ve missed the cutting edge of crime fiction today. Trust me, this guy is the future.”...more
Feb 18, 2013
Suspense Magazine
added it
Lake Country
By Sean Doolittle
Minnesota, the land of a thousand lakes, is the setting for Sean Doolittle’s new crime novel “Lake Country.” Five years ago, Wade Benson made the poor choice to drive drowsy. It led to a crash that took the life of a teenaged woman, Becky Moore, after she lingered for two days. The tragedy is deepened when Becky’s brother, a Marine deployed in Iraq, is killed before he can return home on compassionate leave. The deaths are too much for their father, who commits suici...more
By Sean Doolittle
Minnesota, the land of a thousand lakes, is the setting for Sean Doolittle’s new crime novel “Lake Country.” Five years ago, Wade Benson made the poor choice to drive drowsy. It led to a crash that took the life of a teenaged woman, Becky Moore, after she lingered for two days. The tragedy is deepened when Becky’s brother, a Marine deployed in Iraq, is killed before he can return home on compassionate leave. The deaths are too much for their father, who commits suici...more
In this, his sixth novel, the author takes the reader to the Twin Cities area of the US, and focuses attention in particular, for crucial parts of the tale, on the eponymous region known for its excellent fishing. As one character, who owns a cabin there, puts it, “no matter how tired he is, no matter how low he goes, no matter how shitty or screwed up life ever seems to get, for him it’s nothing a couple weeks in the lake country can’t fix.” But nothing as innocuous as that in this telling.
The...more
The...more
Combat veterans Mike Barlowe and Darryl Potter are living from day-to-day in northern Minnesota and no doubt spending too much time in the Elbow Room, their favorite bar. Then one night a news story appears on the Elbow Room's antique television set about an architect who feel asleep at the wheel five years earlier and killed a girl named Becky Morse. The guilty driver was convicted and sentenced to probation, with the requirement that he must serve two days in jail for every year of his probati...more
view all 3 comments
This is a story for anyone who has ever railed against the sentences pronounced on people convicted of a crime. It begins as a successful architect with a lovely daughter, wife, and a beautiful home goes to prison for a weekend. He had been sentenced to two days in jail for every year of his five-year probation. This is his last weekend in jail for falling asleep at the wheel and killing a young woman driving the car he hit head on. No alcohol, no drugs, just fell asleep.
Now you can understand h...more
Now you can understand h...more
Mike Barlowe and Darryl Potter are ex-Marines trying to survive after the military. Darryl had saved Mike’s life in combat and now Mike feels he owes him. But Darryl tends to take advantage of Mike, showing up on his doorstep for a place to stay, drinking too much, and getting in deep with the wrong people. Mike and Darryl knew a young man in combat whose sister was killed five years prior by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel. Wade Benson has it pretty good, a well-paying job, beautiful wife...more
Dec 05, 2012
Arlena
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
4-stars,
a-good-book,
action-packed,
adult-read,
ebooks,
fiction,
fiction-reviews,
military-read,
my-reviews
Author: Sean Doolittle
Published By: Batam
Age Recommended: Adult
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Blog For: GMTA
Rating: 4
Review:
Sean Doolittle's novel "Lake Country" was quite a thriller read that would keep you turning the pages until the end. If you are a 'Doolittle' fan you will not be disappointed with this read. This story line will present a good dose of tension and many twist and turns along the way. The setting of this story takes place in Minnesota with beautiful lakes and down to earth good peop...more
Published By: Batam
Age Recommended: Adult
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Blog For: GMTA
Rating: 4
Review:
Sean Doolittle's novel "Lake Country" was quite a thriller read that would keep you turning the pages until the end. If you are a 'Doolittle' fan you will not be disappointed with this read. This story line will present a good dose of tension and many twist and turns along the way. The setting of this story takes place in Minnesota with beautiful lakes and down to earth good peop...more
I know better. But I believed an author recommendation of LAKE COUNTRY by Sean Doolittle. That’s because the author I believed is Dennis Lehane, an excellent author, one of my favorites, and a master thriller writer, which is what LAKE COUNTRY is supposed to be. But I know because I’ve seen and been told by the writers themselves that good writers often recommend books not on the basis of the books but on the basis of either their friendship with or empathy for the authors of those books. Lehane...more
The waitress at the restaurant where I had my dinner wanted to know what I was reading. She said that she could tell I was enjoying it by the fact that my eyes never left the book the entire time I ate. I love when I find a story that grabs my attention and does not let go. Lake Country is one of those stories.
Plot in a nutshell: a damaged ex-Marine decides that the sentence of the man responsible for the death of the sister of a lance corporal in his battalion is too lenient. The girl is dead...more
Plot in a nutshell: a damaged ex-Marine decides that the sentence of the man responsible for the death of the sister of a lance corporal in his battalion is too lenient. The girl is dead...more
http://charlotteswebofbooks.blogspot....
Just look at the cover of Lake Country - that cover had me hooked from the very beginning. It just looks spooky. Like you should look over your shoulder this very moment. The story is very fast paced and Mike Barlowe is a very likable character. I really enjoyed watching his interactions with Juliet. He showed a tenderness and kindness that almost surprised me, given what I knew about him up to that point. The story is very fast paced, and when everybody i...more
Just look at the cover of Lake Country - that cover had me hooked from the very beginning. It just looks spooky. Like you should look over your shoulder this very moment. The story is very fast paced and Mike Barlowe is a very likable character. I really enjoyed watching his interactions with Juliet. He showed a tenderness and kindness that almost surprised me, given what I knew about him up to that point. The story is very fast paced, and when everybody i...more
I won this book through the wonderful first-reads program.
When I first began reading this book, it was with a great mixture of emotions. I typically don't read crime thrillers, but here was Dennis Lehane praising Sean Doolittle on the cover. Dennis Lehane of Shutter Island fame, and well known for just about everything else he'd ever written. Fears of reading outside my general genre somewhat abated, I opened it up.
It took me a while to get used to the writing.
The general premise of the book is...more
When I first began reading this book, it was with a great mixture of emotions. I typically don't read crime thrillers, but here was Dennis Lehane praising Sean Doolittle on the cover. Dennis Lehane of Shutter Island fame, and well known for just about everything else he'd ever written. Fears of reading outside my general genre somewhat abated, I opened it up.
It took me a while to get used to the writing.
The general premise of the book is...more
Won this Advanced Readers Edition of Lake Country through GR Giveaways, and thought it was a delightful piece of crime fiction by award winner Sean Doolittle – this was my first by this author. Characterizations were wonderful – you could all but feel the military background of some characters, the fear or remorse in others, and the indomitable spirit in still others. Even the minor characters are richly drawn. While the crime is set up from the get-go, following the individuals through the Land...more
I won "Lake Country" through the Good Reads Giveaway program. Having never previously read this author's work, I came into this book with only the knowledge that it was billed as crime fiction. I appreciated the fast pace but felt that the ending was a quick wrap and left me with many a raised eyebrow of "really?". "Lake Country" is a great beach read and fulfilled my need of a less weighty title between heavier works. I have given this book 2 stars because it was fun and a book that I have alre...more
Hard to write a better review than this blurb! “With Lake Country, Sean Doolittle has out-Fargoed Fargo. Already a master of Midwestern noir, he takes a huge, novelistic leap with his newest work, a complex, quirky, and tremendously satisfying story of revenge and redemption. If you haven’t yet read a Doolittle novel, you’ve missed the cutting edge of crime fiction today. Trust me, this guy is the future.”—William Kent Krueger, New York Times bestselling author of Northwest Angle
A good-time suspense novel. Interesting in that there is no mystery about who committed the crime that the story is based around, but there is still enough complexity about how things unfold to keep you turning pages. The fact that it takes place in the Twin Cities and surrounding area was a bonus to this reader. While some characters fall into cliched stereotypes, the main characters are compelling and multi-faceted. This is a book for when you've just finished something dense and want to have...more
I found Lake Country to be entertaining and very realistic. Sean Doolittle makes you feel like you are right there while things are happening. Excellect characters and perfect execution of his plot. I am ready to read all his books. I have always enjoyed a good crime mystery and cannot think of one I have enjoyed more.
Thanks to Goodreads for making it possible for me to find another great author to read.
Thanks to Goodreads for making it possible for me to find another great author to read.
I won this book from Goodreads. I wanted to read the book because it takes place in Minnesota and because of the high praise from Dennis Lehane.
It was a quick read, some interesting characters -likeable and not. It is the type of book that some authors would have made into a 500 page novel and I appreciated the brevity of the author's style. I am not sure it was all plausible but I think this is the type of book that I will be thinking about long after having read it. In fact - I changed my rati...more
It was a quick read, some interesting characters -likeable and not. It is the type of book that some authors would have made into a 500 page novel and I appreciated the brevity of the author's style. I am not sure it was all plausible but I think this is the type of book that I will be thinking about long after having read it. In fact - I changed my rati...more
I’ve never heard of Sean Doolittle before but that’s okay, he’s never heard of me either. This should be the novel that puts the author on the map. Two ex-Marines return home from serving overseas. After finding out what has happened to another fellow Marine’s sister, one of them decides to take the law into his own hands. More characters get involved in the story including a bookie and a woman news reporter.
The characters are realistic with depth and personality. It was quite easy to sympathiz...more
The characters are realistic with depth and personality. It was quite easy to sympathiz...more
This book has had some good press and was recommended by a reviewer, so I expected good things from this author. The book started out well, had some interesting quirky characters, but soon turned into a run-of-the mill mystery story. The ending was no surprise. A forgettable read.
I was a first read winner of this book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It had me hooked from page 1 and it has everything you would want in a great novel. Colorful and likable characters, plenty of action and you never quite sure which way the story will go. Suspenseful until the end, I highly recommend it. I also think this would make a great movie a la Fargo.
I became a fan of Sean Doolittle's after reading his book, Safer. Even though I enjoyed Safer more than Lake Country, I have to give it the same rating because Doolittle is just a really good writer. This was a fun thriller.
Novel received courtesy of Goodreads.com giveaway
Sean Doolittle's new novel "Lake Country" was a great read. The premise of the novel was something new and that's an accomplishment! The story begins as a man heads to jail as he does every year on the anniversary of the death of the young woman he killed when he fell asleep at the wheel. The main character doesn't believe that this punishment is enough. Darryl and Mike are veterans with some deep mental and physical wounds. The reporter tasked wi...more
Sean Doolittle's new novel "Lake Country" was a great read. The premise of the novel was something new and that's an accomplishment! The story begins as a man heads to jail as he does every year on the anniversary of the death of the young woman he killed when he fell asleep at the wheel. The main character doesn't believe that this punishment is enough. Darryl and Mike are veterans with some deep mental and physical wounds. The reporter tasked wi...more
4.5/5-Doolittle consistently writes fast paced stories with imaginative plots and well developed characters; he doesn't disappoint here. I thought the book ended in just the right spot, it left some room for readers to form some of their own conclusions.
I won this book as a GoodReads first read.
It was supposed to be a suspenseful thriller, unfortunately it was neither suspenseful nor thrilling just predictable.
It was supposed to be a suspenseful thriller, unfortunately it was neither suspenseful nor thrilling just predictable.
Thriller set in Minnesota which for some reason I could not get into. Iraqi vets, TV reporters, bail bondsmen. Not sure why. These are my people.
Started a little slow but grabs you and doesn't let go by about page 70. A couple weak transitions but overall story and characters really good.
Wow, what a read. You become a part of this well written, true to life story. I'm so very glad I won this outstanding, suspenseful crime novel through Goodreads, first-reads and look forward to reading other books by this author. **Highly Recommend**
This was great crime fiction but yet it didn't feel like crime fiction. I was really vested in the characters and wished there was a little bit more at the end about Barlowe. Slight novel but packed with a lot of great narrative. I'll read more by this author.
This is an effective crime story, a modern version of 1950's noir. (Full review submitted to Suspense Magazine.)
Jul 13, 2012
Van
marked it as to-read
I can't wait to read this one. Sean Doolittle is one of the best, most imaginative writers out there.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
