Book ~ "Stranger in the Lake" (2020) Kimberly Belle

From Goodreads ~ When Charlotte married the wealthy widower Paul, it caused a ripple of gossip in their small lakeside town. They have a charmed life together, despite the cruel whispers about her humble past and his first marriage. But everything starts to unravel when she discovers a young woman’s body floating in the exact same spot where Paul’s first wife tragically drowned. 

At first, it seems like a horrific coincidence but the stranger in the lake is no stranger. Charlotte saw Paul talking to her the day before, even though Paul tells the police he’s never met the woman. His lie exposes cracks in their fragile new marriage, cracks Charlotte is determined to keep from breaking them in two. 

As Charlotte uncovers dark mysteries about the man she married, she doesn’t know what to trust - her heart, which knows Paul to be a good man, or her growing suspicion that there’s something he’s hiding in the water.

Charlotte and Paul married about year ago.  Charlotte grew up in a crappy trailer park with a drug addicted mother and and Paul is rich and ten years older than her.  When Charlotte married Paul, the small town gossips assumed she was marrying Paul for his money and comfort.  Paul had been married before and his wife had passed away four years earlier, found drowned next to their dock, and there is still speculation that he'd murdered his wife for her money.

One morning Charlotte finds a woman drowned next to the dock ... a woman Paul had been speaking with just the day before, though he denies to the police that he knows her.  He assumes his former best friend from high school, now known at "Batty Jax" who lives in woods, was involved so takes off immediately to find him.  Micah, Paul's other best friend from high school, lives next door and is a great source of support for Charlotte.

I've read other books by this author but I wasn't crazy about this one ... I didn't like the story and didn't think it could really happen the way it did.  It is written in first person perspective in Charlotte's voice.  It jumps back to 1999 to when Paul, Jax and Micah were in high school (those chapters are labeled) and then it is in third person perspective in Jax's voice.  I didn't really like the characters and I found the "whodunnits" and why convoluted and unbelievable.  As a head's up, there is swearing.