Still Waters

Still Waters was a very good book. There are a lot of details about the murder, and she describes scenes very well. It takes a very creative person to describe in detail what a person is wearing so you can see them as if they were really here. The story is written so you don't want to put it down. Along with the "who-done-it" storyline, it has an ever thickening plot. The “on the side” romance though, could use a tone down. I’m not a prude but this was “too much information.”

Still Waters is one of Tami Hoag’s earlier novels, but doesn’t suffer a bit for it. We meet Dane Jantzen, ex-pro ball player and now sheriff of a small county in Minnesota. We also meet Elizabeth Stuart, ex-rodeo queen and single mom, who has recently been smeared in the press by her philandering ex-husband. Add in a gossiping town, a murdered real estate developer and sometimes loan shark, and a group of Amish folks who are not as separate from society as they would prefer to be, and the plot becomes thicker than some of the Southern analogies out of Elizabeth’s mouth.

At times, the plot seemed a little clunky but misled me into thinking I had it all figured out. The Truth is that nothing is as it seems – something Elizabeth, show more the new publisher of the town’s newspaper, keeps pointing out. I realized the error of my ways, though, in the last ten pages when none of my assumptions were true and everything unraveled into “the Truth.” While this is not an overly heavy read, it is a thoroughly enjoyable one. If you want something entertaining and not dumbed down, this is one of the good ones. show less

Another fast page turner from Tami Hoag and I enjoyed it so much more the second time. Sharply defined characters, especially Elizabeth with her sharp wisecracking dialogue.. Story was good and the slow burning friendship between Elizabeth and Dane blended nicely along with the murder investigation.

Eh, probably more like 2.5 stars...the mystery aspect was pretty good, enough to keep me interested at least. I just wish the rest didn’t read like a dime store romance novel. Not so impressed by what I’ve read of Ms. Hoag so far.

Well this wasn't my favorite Tami Hoag. Probably because I hated the male lead (Dane) in this one. Going through a bad divorce years earlier and deciding the female lead (Elizabeth) must be a gold digger and only want one thing from men was gross. The murder mystery seemed to be getting overlooked a lot I thought in order for them to spar and then of course they end up in bed. Also the character development of both Dane and Elizabeth was poor. And Hoag for some bizarre reason kept having Elizabeth run around talking like a cliche since she was from Texas. When we get the reveal of who murdered the town's bully and overall scumbag I went really? Not a very good showing of Hoag's writing skills I thought.

"Still Waters" follows divorcee show more Elizabeth who has moved from Texas to Minnesota to start over again. Her teenage son and her are looking for a fresh start after the tabloid press hounded Elizabeth out of town. Elizabeth now runs the local paper and is hoping that she can eventually get her house together and grow closer to her son. After dealing with a car mishap, Elizabeth goes for help at a nearby construction site. Once there she finds Jarrold Jarvis who had his throat slashed and was left in his car. The town sheriff, Dane, is a local boy who made it to the NFL but then had to return home again. He finds himself angry and distrustful of women and reporters so as far as he is concerned Elizabeth isn't someone that can be trusted and he decides that she must know more than she is telling. When attacks ramp up and the guilty party that everyone thinks did it turns up dead, the town of Still Creek is left wondering if the person who murdered Jarrold is one of them.

I can't say much besides Elizabeth being a reporter made zero sense with her background. She got a divorce settlement, but deciding to move to Minnesota to buy a paper made zero sense to me. It didn't help that we didn't really see her off there reporting or anything.

Dane was terrible. He pretty much decides after a while that he and Elizabeth are going to have sex with each other and this is after he's pretty awful to her for the first half of the book.

Both leads have teens who have more sense than their parents.

The other characters in this one are not given much to do. The book just flips flops between people and you keep forgetting that there's a murder to solve. There's even an Amish carpenter in this one and I have to say that there's no way any Amish person would work for the "English" so that whole thing kept taking me out of the book.

The writing was okay but the flow was pretty bad. I think after a while the book was just spinning it's wheels.

The ending was a letdown. We find out who did it, but it didn't make much sense to me and I have to say that the book left some plot holes open that I don't even want to know they would get addressed. show less

Pure escapism. Very professionally written, very - dare I say it? - American thriller, a bit too much "written by the book" to my liking, but a perfect passtime when you're a bit under the weather.

I really enjoyed this book, the mystery on who killed the rich sleezeball. Kept you guessing on who was the killer.