Loretta and Patrick Partlow are not typical neighbors. Loretta is an award-winning novelist, and Patrick, her husband, is her loyal protector. Question is, Andrea Geller, thinks to herself, what is he protecting her from?

Andrea herself teaches art at Hartwood as a junior faculty member. She lives in a one-bedroom apartment over the Vitales’ home with her dogs, Chief and Pablo, and watches on tiptoe through her window to see what Loretta and Patrick are up to doing. Andrea’s paintings have had installments in galleries, but she is stuck on a single theme: the house on Shallow Lake.

She paints it at various times of day, in different seasons, and with disturbing features: figures on the porch, doll heads on the lawn. Loretta soon begins to take an interest, although Charlie, Andrea’s ex-boyfriend, warns her to be wary of the questions of a perfect stranger.

Andrea is fixated on her father’s death, how his car plummeted off a bridge after he took too much medication. How could he not know better, being a doctor by trade, and why would her stepmother not have stopped him? Can Loretta help Andrea unlock the secret of her father’s death, and the questions that haunt her daily?

This is a lovely book, well-written and finely crafted. The characters are fully formed and believable with quirks, charm, and vices.