51 pages • 1 hour read
Stillhouse Lake
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Chapters 6-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary
Gwen arrives home and Sam says the police stopped by to say they want to interview her further about the dead body in the lake. The children are fine. Gwen is extremely anxious and wondering whether she should run away or stand her ground. She tells Sam the truth about her past, apparently needing to confide in someone and bounce ideas off another person. However, this news upsets Sam; he asks Gwen if she knew about Mel at the time and if she killed the woman from the lake. Sam does not like that Gwen visited Mel in prison, and he thinks she should be more afraid of victims’ families than internet trolls. Sam leaves.
Officer Graham knocks on the door and wants Gwen to come with him to the police station because someone supposedly saw her in a boat on the lake the evening before the body was found. Gwen refuses to go with him or leave her children alone unless he has a warrant, which he doesn’t. He leaves, promising to be back later. The children assume the family will be moving again.
Chapter 7 Summary
Gwen calls Javi, who still has the van, asking him to bring it over to trade so she can leave soon. She starts packing. Detective Prester arrives with Javi, who is a reserve deputy for the local police. Javi had contacted Prester because it was suspicious that Gwen tried to leave town immediately after Officer Graham’s visit. Prester presents a fake warrant to get Gwen to come with him while Javi watches her children. Prester has discovered Gwen’s former identity and also noticed similarities between the recent murder at Stillhouse Lake and the murders Mel committed in Kansas.
At the station, Prester shows Gwen photos of Mel’s murder victims, which she has already seen in the past. Prester points out the similarities such as removed skin and disposal of bodies in water. He questions if Gwen did this “for” Mel or if he somehow forced her to do it. She says she didn’t do it. They let her go home. The children are fine. Javi no longer trusts Gwen and is less friendly toward her.
Chapter 8 Summary
Gwen wakes up to someone screaming outside; it’s a couple in a boat who have found another dead and mutilated body. Gwen goes outside and calls the police because the body (and the couple who found it) are right outside her house. While waiting for the police to arrive, Gwen gets a text from Absalom with a link to a message board where someone claims to have found Gwen’s location. They know she’s in Tennessee, but they’re not divulging more details to others, as if leading them along. Gwen replies to Absalom that she’s likely to be arrested. He asks if she did it, and she says she did not. Sam Cade is watching from his porch, then comes over. Gwen asks if he is the one who revealed her location online, and he says he never would.
The police arrive; Prester questions Gwen in his car while Sam goes inside with Lanny and Connor. Prester says he was not the one to reveal Gwen’s location online. He also wants to know everything Gwen has done for the past week. She tells him everything, including her visit to Mel. He then arrests her on suspicion of murder and questions her for several hours at the station. Another officer knocks on the door because he needs Prester’s attention. Through the door, Gwen sees Sam Cade in handcuffs, being led down the hallway. She wonders why he has been arrested and who is watching her children now.
Chapters 6-8 Analysis
As the novel progresses, the chapters become gradually shorter, and the plot becomes more fast-paced. Whereas the beginning chapters are longer and contain more exposition of past events, the later chapters are more concise but are packed with more events, always in the present tense, which are relayed at a quicker pace. This builds suspense and momentum, while shifting the focus of the narrative from exposition and description to action.
These chapters explore how technology can be used to enhance the abilities of villains or criminals, amplifying the terror and danger. Whereas technology is meant to make peoples’ lives easier and even safer, it can be used for the opposite effect, to impair peoples’ progress, spread misinformation, or even put people in danger. Gwen realizes this from the beginning, which is why she doesn’t allow her children the same access to technology that most children have, not letting them use social media, smart phones, and the like. However, abstaining from using certain technologies themselves doesn’t keep them safe either, because other people still have technology that allows them to spy on Gwen and also to share what they learn about her with others instantaneously.
The limits of the justice system are elaborated upon because the police’s main suspect is Gwen, who the reader knows is not the culprit. The police are shown spending most of their time interviewing her while the actual villain remains at large and uninvestigated. Furthermore, the mystery of who is helping Mel get letters out is still unsolved, suggesting there are weak links in different levels of the justice system that are preventing it from working properly. This makes Gwen feel even more alone in her mission to protect her children; she worries when she has to leave them with other people, even those in whom she places relative trust. The constant switches in peoples’ attitudes toward her also cause her to second-guess herself often. She doesn’t know if she can trust Javi, Sam, or Detective Prester, especially since her location was leaked online shortly after people in town discovered her identity. The actions of law enforcement also complicate The Nature of Safety and Protection because, rather than privileging the safety of Gwen’s children, they actually privilege following protocol. For example, they leave them with various people who may or may not be trustworthy.
It does not really occur to Gwen to suspect Absalom of revealing her location online, even though it would make sense for him to do so given his past harassment of her. It would also make sense from a financial standpoint as a scheme where he keeps leading her places, then revealing her location, then getting her to pay him again to find a new “safe” place. Absalom earned her trust by first betraying it, then pretending he drew the moral line at endangering children. Gwen believes this because, as a mother, she really thinks a lot of people would refuse to hurt children even if they’re willing to hurt adult women. Gwen’s trust of Absalom appears to be a blind spot, but she also needs him and his skills; she does not have a choice.
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