Smithson is a small town in New South Wales. It's one of those small towns where everyone knows everyone else, and gossip travels faster than the common cold virus. Homicide investigator Gemma Woodstock has an edge there, since she grew up in Smithson. But when one of her high school classmates ends up dead in the lake, surrounded by long-stemmed roses, Gemma is thrown for a loop. 

Rosalind Ryan was a young teacher at the local secondary school, the same school where Gemma sat in English class and stared at the smart, beautiful, mysterious Rosalind. Rosalind had gone away for several years, teaching in Sydney, but she had moved back home and started teaching locally the year before. And in addition to teaching, she wrote and directed a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story that premiered the night that she ended up in the lake. 

As Gemma and her partner Felix start to investigate, memories come flooding back to Gemma, of the school, of her friends, of the heartbreaking loss of her first boyfriend. As the investigation takes her back to all her old stomping grounds, she moves deeper and deeper into the mystery. Meanwhile, her boyfriend wants to marry her, her lover wants as much of her time as possible, and the surprise bouquet of long-stemmed roses on her doorstep means that someone wants her as their next victim. 

Sarah Bailey's fiction debut The Dark Lake is a twisty psychological thriller of the highest caliber. Dark and luscious, this story is smart and compelling and it sucks you in. The characters are genuine, three-dimensional and honest. Although it's set in Australia, it's available here in the States, where winter is coming, and this is the perfect novel for snuggling in and reading all weekend long as the cold and snow comes our way. To me, this is a five-star book, and Sarah Bailey is a name you should keep in mind. I mean, if her first novel is this good, what's her second going to be like? 

Galleys for The Dark Lake provided by Grand Central Publishing through NetGalley.com, with many thanks.