Review of THE LAKE OF DEAD LANGUAGES by Carol Goodman

Ballantine, January 2003

Review by Cathy Richard Dodson (see her website)

Jane Hudson believes it's only a passionless marriage that leads both her and her small daughter back to the Heart Lake School for Girls in the Adirondacks. Little does she realize when she returns to the only place where a never-employed Latin major has a chance of finding work, that the reason she's really drawn back has more to do with a dark and unresolved tragedy from her past.

As Jane settles into life at the school, pages from her long missing journal suddenly reappear, about the time three of her students begin to re-enact scenes from the long ago tragedy. Little by little it becomes apparent that someone is guiding the girls' actions, but it's only after the deaths of two girls that Jane finally realizes she must go back into the past to search for answers about the death of her own two school roommates and the brother of one girl, whom Jane loved. Carrying the secrets of these deaths since then has taken its toll on Jane, but with the lives of her students at stake, as well as her own future, she risks everything to uncover the truth.

Although I read Goodman's second book, The Seduction of Water (see review), before this one, I wasn't disappointed in this first book. I love the way Goodman mingles Latin and mythology in with her mystery, and the setting, with its icy lake and conservative girls school, is fabulous. The mystery holds up to the end, and the resolution satisfies. Another good one for Goodman!

See more BooksForABuck.com reviews of novels by Carol Goodman.

Four Stars

Reviewed 7/24/05

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