The Secret Lake has been described by readers as a modern Tom's Midnight Garden and compared in atmosphere with The Secret Garden and the Enid Blyton and Nancy Drew mystery adventure stories. Its page-turning plot, with its many twists and turns, makes it a firm favourite with both boys and girls. Karen Inglis describes it as, a time travel mystery adventure with modern twists - the kind of story that I loved to read as a child, but brought right up to date.