Kathy has disappeared before, during a party or after a movie, but not for this long. Kathy’s disappearance stunned everyone around her; especially John who was both emotionally and physically attached to her. From a young age, John has been very interested in magic and it has carried through into his adult-hood, it also earned him the name “Sorcerer” by his Vietnam buddies. John would put on a show for friends around him, but Kathy was not amused at all. She warned John “Be careful with the tricks. One of these days you’ll make me disappear.” Was there a hidden message that Kathy was giving to John? It was probably so, since Kathy has disappeared once again, but only this time she’s not coming back.Throughout the novel the narrator is going into Johns different thoughts. We are given bits of information that could lead us to believe John possibly murdered Kathy. We are given different hypotheses that point us in the direction of her murder. “Kath, Kath,” he must’ve said, and maybe other things, and then dispatched her to the bottom.” When the Sheriff asked John questions such as what time did she leave, and when did you last see her? A statement is passed; “Wade tried to keep his eyes level. He felt like an actor.” Why should he be feeling like an actor if he is not guilty of anything? John has many secrets one being the whereabouts of Kathy. He probably knew information on Kathy, but he kept it a secret.All in all, In the Lake of the Woods takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster ride. The three hypotheses listed above are all possible explanations to Kathy’s disappearance. Did John at Kathy? Did she take the boat and vanish, or did John murder her and hide her in the Lake of the Woods? A very poignant statement is made by the narrator and he is very accurate when he says “One way or another, it seems, we all perform vanishing tricks, eff...
