title: The Story of the Lake
author:  Laura Chester 
description: Spanning the decades from the early 1900s through the 1960s, Chester's (Bitches Ride Alone, Black Sparrow, 1991) new fiction is a meandering saga about wealthy Midwestern families who summer at Lake Nogowogotoc, Wisconsin. Walter and Lucy Schraeger's marriage is floundering because of Walter's long-term affair with Alicia Ulrich, the glittering femme fatale of the lake. Veiled in mystery and deceit and possessing a murderous heart, Alicia finds that she is haunted by her early relationship with her father and his unusual death. Other lake stories include the young scion's taking advantage of the innocent maid, the hired help's rising above his station in life, soured marriages, unrequited love, a spinster-turned-suffragette, and sudden, untimely deaths. Unfortunately, Alicia is the only spicy character in this plodding novel, which is burdened by an excess of bland characters and underdeveloped plots that do not segue smoothly from chapter to chapter. Not recommended.?Mary Ellen Elsbernd, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights<BR>Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  # The Stolen Lake
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  Houghton Mifflin Company  
  
  
  Boston
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 1981 by Joan Aiken Enterprises Ltd.  
  
  
  All rights reserved. For information about permission to  
  
  
  reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions,  
  
  
  Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South,  
  
  
  New York, New York 10003.  
  
  
  First published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape Ltd.  
  
  
  First American edition published by Delacorte Press, New York
  
  
  [www.hmco.com/trade](http://www.hmco.com/trade)
  
  
  The text of this book is set in 12-point Apollo MT.
  
  
  _Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data_
  
  
  Aiken, Joan.  
  
  
  The stolen lake.  
  
  
  Summary: On her way to England from Nantucket  
  
  
  aboard a British man-o'-war, Dido has many adventures  
  
  
  when the ship is diverted to the land of New Cumbria in the  
  
  
  southern hemisphere.  
  
  
  RNF ISBN 0-618-07020-6 PAP ISBN 0-618-07021-4  
  
  
  [I. Adventure stories] I. Title.  
  
  
  PZ7.A2695St [Fic] 81-5015
  
  
  Pr