It’s September and time to get back to reading! We picked “Into the Water,” by Paula Hawkins. Most of us love a good mystery. This book took some getting into, so don’t expect the simplicity of her previous novel, “The Girl on the Train.” But we love a challenge. Hell, I’ve read all the Game of Thrones novels, so a few extra characters and voices doesn’t scare me.

Hoping for the same kind of intrigue and plot twisting, we greedily picked this story for our book club. The novel is set in Beckford, England. There are cliffs, a river and a bend in the river the locals call the “drowning pool,” where women seem to die. Some are murdered, some commit suicide.

The story opens with a bang – a young woman is convicted of witchcraft and drowned in the pool for her crimes. Fast forward a few centuries or so and Nel Abbott is found dead in the pool. The drowning pool has claimed another victim.

The tale can be a bit confusing in the beginning, but stay with it. It will all make sense.

Nel’s estranged sister, Jules, returns to their childhood home. Nel and her daughter, Lena, had lived there for the last few years while Nel wrote a story about the drowning pool. Lena wants nothing to do with her aunt and the feeling seems to mutual in the beginning.

We then meet Patrick and Sean Townsend, father and son. Patrick is a retired policeman and Sean followed in his father’s footsteps. Sean is separated from his wife, Helen, who spends an inordinate amount of time with his father.

One of the characters, Louise Whitaker, angrily accuses everyone of having some part in the death of her daughter, Katie, from an apparent suicide in the drowning pool. Louise can’t understand why her perfect and beautiful daughter would even think of suicide, much less act on it.

Other characters, Mark Henderson, Erin Morgan and Nickie Sage, round out the stage. The story unwinds intricately through the different characters’ voices. By the end, we know most of the answers. However, don’t skip the last paragraph of the story!

There was a lot of negative criticism about the book, but I can’t imagine trying to follow up “Girl on a Train.” Our book club enjoyed it. Is it the best thriller ever written? No. But this thriller has some things that book clubs can discuss. We talked a lot about Louise Whitaker’s character and how as parents we really don’t know everything about our children. We also talked about how your upbringing influences you throughout your life.

Rating: 7.5