Mystery

Eons ago, my Mom went into Coles in our local mall and wanted to pick up books similar to V.C. Andrews. My Mom is OBSESSED with V.C. Andrews and for many decades she wouldn't read any other author (as if reading another author was cheating... I'd be screwed!). She was recommended two books, and Still Water by Amy Stuart was one of them. She was none too pleased with this book since it was not even close to V.C. Andrews, so she passed this book along to me so I could enjoy the thriller.

Well, I sure did enjoy it!

Clare, a young lady with a dark past, is hired to track down a woman named Sally Proulx and her son, who have disappeared in the town of High River. She ran away from her problems and took up housing in a local safe haven, but it appears it wasn't all that safe for her. Clare pretends to be her best friend, which brings up many questions among the locals, but lucky for her... the truth is just around the corner.

Clare's sequel story is interesting, that's for sure, but I found it oddly slow. I expected a fast paced thrill ride, and I got a moderate level of thrills. You need to extend your disbelief quite a bit to follow along with some of the plot lines of this novel, but regardless it's a good read that will make you think. Give me a story with a woman trying to seek other missing women when she's essentially lost herself, and you've got me hooked!

Dark trauma/drama, mysterious characters and back stories, and tough topics without the brutal narrative are pinnacles of this story. And, I'll be honest, you don't even need the first book to understand this sequel. I still haven't read the first book and I found this book to do quite well on it's own. I'm sure it would have made a lot more sense knowing everything that happened in book one, but as a standalone, Still Water works.

I do wonder though.... How did people fall for Clare being Sally's best friend when she knew basically nothing about her? She did change her story to just being a friend and not a best friend at one point, but still...

Enjoy a book where Helen's home is opened to women seeking refuge. Where her daughter and siblings are near by, causing trouble, acting suspicious, and potentially making trouble for the neighbours. This psychological thriller will have you guessing who done it... And do we even have a reliable narrator?

Four out of five stars. ( )

This is the second installment in the Still series. I wasn't as engaged in this novel as I was with the first novel. The ending hints of a 3rd novel, which is being released later this year (2020).
I listened to this on CD, and I didn’t care for the narrator, which may have led to my 3 of 5 stars rating. I also didn’t think there was enough action in the book.
Claire is on her second assignment for Malcolm. She is searching for Sally and Sally’s son, William. They have disappeared. Claire poses as a friend, and Helen takes Claire in at her home, which is a refuge for women. There, Claire meets Ginny, Helen’s daughter, and Raylene, another woman trying to hide. Helen’s brother and his wife live across the river with their daughter and another brother lives in town.
Claire gets a bad feeling from one of the cops assigned to Sally’s case. As Claire works to solve the case she has to confront her past and uncover ugly secrets of this town.
#StillWater AmyStuart ( )

This was a really interesting continuation of Clare’s story as well as a brand new mystery. Video review coming soon. ( )

Still Water by Amy Stuart is a recommended psychological thriller that continues the story found in her first book, Still Mine (2016).

Clare O’Dey is helping PI Malcolm Boon track down missing women. (There is a backstory from the first novel that is mostly explained, or at least enough to follow this second novel.) She travels to the town of High River to discover the truth behind the disappearance of Sally Proulx and her young son from the home of Helen Haines, a used-to-be secret refuge for abused women to hide. Now that Sally is missing, assumed to have jumped into the river, the police are there combing the area and the secret is out.

Clare shows up claiming to be an old friend of Sally's and begins to look into the investigation and disappearance. But Clare is highly suspicious of police detective Colin Rourke, who seems oddly obsessed with focusing on her personally. To complicate matters further, all the people Clare is running into at High River have secrets of their own and seem to be disconnected and hiding something.

There are some great qualities to the novel. Stuart captures the natural setting and the tense atmosphere quite well. The novel is well paced and will keep you reading. However, I think this second novel in the series might be better appreciated by those who enjoyed the first novel.

Clare is not particularly a likeable character, which means you may be struggling to like/trust her, especially because her relationship with Malcolm is weird and feels weird and weird is not always a good trait in your main protagonist. I really had a hard time believing that she would be a great choice to go undercover to find women who are trying to hide from exes. Perhaps the first book in the series would change my perception of her, but this second novel and the explanations it contains are all I have to go on. And her cover story to explain why she was there - laughable and wouldn't be believed for a second under the circumstances in the novel.

I can set aside misgivings if a plot is strong and compelling. Still Water starts out strong and Stuart had my attention (and a higher rating for the beginning). The writing is technically good, but, alas, the plot went downhill after the strong start and some eye-rolling began to happen as the novel progressed. Some of the things Clare said and did seemed peculiar or just plain wrong under the circumstances (which points back to questioning why she would be a good choice to do what she is doing). Rather than exciting unexpected twists, there were odd disclosures and new little developments that actually took away from the main narrative. 3 stars for the strong beginning and the potential

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Simon & Schuster
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2018/06/still-water.html ( )