The Lakewood Legacy

The Lakewood Legacy by E. Denise Billups is a small-town mystery that blends family secrets, past trauma, and modern technology in an ambitious attempt to unravel a decades-old tragedy.

The novel opens with a striking hook, particularly a line that immediately establishes emotional stakes and moral tension, and the premise itself is intriguing. The story explores how the past continues to ripple through the present, and there are moments where the atmosphere of a tight-knit town with long memories is effectively conveyed (the line “small towns have big ears” stands out).

That said, I found the execution uneven. The writing often feels overly melodramatic and over-explained, with dialogue that frequently spells out emotions or themes rather than allowing them to emerge naturally. There is also noticeable repetition in phrasing and some awkward sentence constructions that pulled me out of the story. While these are not fatal flaws, they accumulate over time and affect the overall pacing.

Character clarity is another challenge. Several characters have very similar names, which caused confusion early on and made it difficult to stay grounded in certain scenes. More broadly, there are moments where character motivations and reactions feel implausible or overly convenient, particularly when it comes to the revelation of long-held secrets. Tension often resolves too easily, undercutting the suspense the story is trying to build.

From a realism standpoint, aspects of the investigation, institutional responses, and technological or procedural details strained credibility, especially given the historical timeframe in which much of the backstory is set. These issues may not bother all readers, but for me they were distracting and made it harder to fully suspend disbelief.

While the novel has an interesting concept and flashes of strong atmosphere, I ultimately struggled to stay engaged and found myself skimming much of the final act.