When Matthew Stanyer's parents go missing, he fears for their safety. His father has been struggling to cope with Matthew's mother, who suffers from dementia. The nightmare worsens when Joseph and Evie's bodies are found at Blackwater Lake, a local beauty spot. An inquest rules the deaths as a murder-suicide, based on the note Joseph left for his son.

Grief-stricken, Matthew begins to clear his parents' house of decades of compulsive hoarding, only to discover the dark enigmas hidden within its walls. Ones that lead Matthew to ask: why did his father choose Blackwater Lake to end his life? And what other secrets do its waters conceal?

A short (26,000 words) novella, Blackwater Lake examines one man's determination to uncover his family's troubled past.