Lake of the Dead, by Susan Clayton-Goldner

In this next installment of the Winston Radhauser Series we will find our favorite detective plunging headlong again into a brutal murder that incorporates several social themes that will cause Detective Radhauser some major frustration and pain as he struggles to bring to justice the person who committed this crime.

The murder is of an aspiring author, Parker Collins. He is a college student who has a bright future ahead of him. His Creative Writing Professor thinks he is the most brilliant writer to come around, ever. He is almost done with his first full length novel and already has people waiting in line to read it. They are all sure it will be a blockbuster. But he is murdered before it can be published and much of his work disappears. Why? That is what Detective Radhauser has to discover.

One of the main characters of the novel is Rishima Reynolds who first appeared in the last book of the series. Rishima is a young woman who actually was born male. She was targeted in the last novel by a “hate” group who wanted to rid the community of all homosexual or transgender people. Detective Radhauser caught those people and put their group out of business, but not before they had terrorized Rishima.

Now she is back in Detective Radhauser’s life because, well, Parker Collins is the young man whom she has fallen in love with.

The story is very compelling. The details are amazing. The research is phenomenal. Susan Clayton-Goldner is again at her very best in bringing us a story that makes us stop and contemplate how we would respond to the people in the story. How would be relate to Rishima? Would we be prejudiced against her, or would we be supportive of her?

I must say that as I read I was wondering whether the book was a murder mystery or was a story about hate crimes? Was this an indictment of our culture for the lack of tolerance for people who are sexually confused, or was it a police detective novel of a hard to solve murder case.

While I am not a fan of the concept of, “we must all be tolerant of everyone’s cultural viewpoints,” and do our best to not offend anyone, I am still compassionate and empathetic enough to not want to be prejudice for a “lifestyle” choice that some folks make.

Let me be clear, as a Protestant Pastor I do have my moral convictions regarding sexual issues. I do hold a strong Biblical view of what’s right and what’s wrong. But my Biblical view also drives me to be accepting and loving of people who are different than I am. I embrace compassion and caring. I love a good dialogue. I despise those though who are willing to dismiss someone because of their lifestyle. 

This is not the forum for a debate. But I want my Blog readers to know what they are getting with this book. Frankly I loved the character development. I loved Sully “Sullivan” and his ability to see through social awkwardness and love someone regardless of that. 

This book will provide you with many themes to dialogue about with a book club. It will cause you to stop and ask yourself, “How would I act towards Rishima?” “Would I have compassion and a loving attitude, or would I just be quick to condemn?”