Venom Lake

If you're in the mood for a compulsive suspenseful read set in beautiful Ontario cottage country featuring a quartet of messy friendships, then this impressive debut from a new voice in domestic thrillers is for you. 

Marta, Imogen, Bernie and Celeste are in a thriller book club and while they consider themselves friends, with all their underlying tension and rivalry, they're more like 'frenemies'. They head to a remote part of cottage country for some downtime, book chat and copious amounts of wine, but when one of them ends up dead, these armchair detectives start to eye each other as suspects.

This well-thought out thriller provides readers with multiple POVs of the four toxic book club members whose unlikability makes them oh-so-interesting. Add in the revelations of their secrets and alliances, not to mention the threat of another murder, and tensions are kept high. The addition of a True Crime podcast further adds to the story which was great in audio and well-narrated by a trio of narrators!).

This is one book club I'll take a hard pass on joining, but it sure is fun to watch this group of frenemies implode as their secrets, backstabbing, lies and true feelings for each other come to the surface. 

This is a story of unravelling friendships, messy and dysfunctional relationships with simmering drama and resentments that overflow for one helluva good read. 

Armchair detectives, get cozy, pour yourself a glass of rose, prep a cheeseboard and settle in for a twisty, dysfunctional treat!

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to HarperCollins Audio for the digital audiobook copy of this book that was gifted to me in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 4 stars

Author: Emma White

Genre: Suspense

Type and Source: eAudio from publisher, trade paperback (personal copy)

Audiobook Narrators: Kate Handford, Kathryn Kohut, Joseph May

Audiobook Run Time: 

Publisher: HarperCollings

First Published: June 9, 2026

Read: June 22-23, 2026

Book Description from GoodReads: For fans of Lucy Foley and Ashley Audrain, this is a smart, biting, set-in-Canada debut thriller about a toxic upscale true-crime book club

On a weekend getaway for their true-crime book club, four women retreat to the sole cottage on isolated Snakebite Island. But what was supposed to be a fun weekend of getting trashed on rosé and talking serial killers takes a dark turn when a member of the group is found dead on the shore. Murdered. By one of her supposed friends.

Under the surface, there’s turbulence in the group. Blackmail, affairs and addiction. Financial misconduct. A missing husband. All of the women are hiding dangerous secrets, but how far are they willing to go to keep them?

The murder creates a dilemma for the three surviving book club members: report the death and have their own lives shredded by an investigation or use their true-crime knowledge to stage their friend’s disappearance on the lake.

The consequences of their decision will ripple outwards, creating new risks and threatening to unravel their entire net of lies.