Referat UNDER THE LAKE - Characters, The plot

UNDER THE LAKE

Stuart Woods was born in a small Georgia town. After universi:ty, he started his writing career in advertising. He worked in New York and London. Then he moved to Ireland and started to write his first novell 'Chiefs'. This book won the Edgar Allan Poe award from the Mystery Writers of America. Now he lives in America and whenever he has time, he is on a holiday on the Isle of Wight. ''

Characters:

John Orwell: He is a very good known reporter and works for the newspaper 'Atlanta Constitution'.At this time he tries himself in writing books.

Heather Miller McDonald: She is known as Scotty and she also  works at 'Atlanta Constitution'.She is sent to Sutherland, because she should uncover Bo Scully's dirty deals.

The plot: Lurton Pitts asks John Orwell if he wants to write his biographie and he invites him to write the book in a cabin in Sutherland. John agrees and drives to this place. He sometimes goes to Bubba's. a little restaurant and once he meets there McAuliffe, a lawyer. When he comes back to his car, a parking ticket is waiting for him. So John drives to the office of Bo, a policeman. There he meets Scotty. Her assumed name is Heather McDonald.

Some nights later, there is a great storm and John wakes up.Then he sees a girl standing at the window and looking out of the lake. John speaks to her, but she doesn't answere and walks out of the cabin.

John and Scotty become very good friends. At a party they meet Helen. Jack and Joyce. They have a seance. The ghost says that he wants to speak with Scotty, but nothing more happens. In this night Scotty sleeps at John.s cabin and the girl comes again. They wake up, walk to her and also look out of the window. The lake is gone and there is a street, a farm and a car is driving to the house. Then the girl disappears and the lake is there again.

The next day, John meets McAuljffe and teils him what has happend last night and at the seance. McAuliffe overpowers himself and teils John a secret story:

Once there has been a big valley and only some people have lived at this place. Then Eric Sutherland has wanted to built a lake there. He has had many banks behind him and so a lot of money. He has bought the land of the families, who have lived there, but the O'Coineen family hasn'.t wanted to seIl their land. One night the farm has burned down and the family has been disappeared, but Eric Sutherland's money has still been on the bank. Nobody knows where they have gone.

John is very interested in this story. He wants to get a map about the valley. but he doesn.t find one. Then he sees some maps in Sutherland's office. In the following night, John and Scotty brake into the office with a creditcard of Scotty, but then Sutherland's dog comes. John takes a map and they run away. but Scotty loses her creditcard. So Bo finds out what her right name is (Heather Miller

McDonald), but Scotty is also not lazy. She finds out that Bo has many money in Switzerland and that he has a meeting at the airport in a week.

A day before the meeting, John wants to visit Eric, but he has died last night. Everybody means that he has made suicide, but John thinks that he has been killed.

In the evening John and Scotty go to the airport. At three o'clock the plane arrives. There are many men, who are waiting for the plane.But then Scotty and John are caught and some men start to shoot Scotty flees and John, who is hit, also runs away. They meet them in the cabin, but there is Bo. He is very drunken and then he teIls the story, which John has searched for:

Kathleen has phoned to Bo and has said that her father, Donald O'Coineen, has wanted to seil the land. Bo has driven to the farm. It has beer, very quiet there and so Bo has gone upstairs. There he has found the others. Everybody has been dead. Kathleen has killed them. Then she has taken her bags, after that they have blasted the farm and they have driven away. Kathleen and Bo have lived in Atlanta and she has become pregnan. tBo has brought the baby to the Georgia Boptist Children's Home in Hopeville.

Scotty says that she has been there and they find out that Bo is her father. Then Kathleen appears and Bo shoots on her, but she isn.t hurt. She walks out, Bo sees that the lake is gone and he follows her. When he is walking to the farm, the lake comes back.

On ihe next day, the police find Bo. He is dead. Scotty inherits a lot of land in Sutherland. She makes it over to McAuliffe and goes back to Atlanta to write her story. John finishes Lurton Pitts'biographie and after that, he goes to Africa and works for the 'Times'.

MyOpinion:

The story is in confusion and so it is a little bit hard to read it, but it is a good and very exciting story.

Vocabularies:

cabin Hütte

assumed name Deckname

seance Geisterbeschwörung to overpower überwinden to blaste sprengen

to make something over etwas überschreiben in confusion durcheinarlder