Still Waters: A Mystery (Hardcover)

by Nigel McCrery (Author)
Key Phrases: violet chambers, nigel mccrery, apricot kernels, Emma Bradbury, Madeline Poel, Daisy Wilson (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
Warning: this serial-killer story contains extremely creepy scenes of violence, but for those with a high creep-out threshold, or those who can skim past the icky parts, McCrery’s new series debut may prove entertaining, if a bit gimmicky. McCrery (who created the mystery series Silent Witness) introduces a police detective hero (British Deputy Chief Inspector Mark Lapslie of the Essex Police) with a condition that both limits his life and, supposedly, enhances his detective powers. The condition is synesthesia, in which sensory impressions are translated into overwhelming odors and tastes. Lapslie’s investigation of a buried murder victim, unearthed by a car accident, leads to the hunt for someone with a knowledge of toxic garden substances and with a deft hand with garden shears. McCrery juxtaposes police procedure with the story of an old woman who preys on other old women. An uncomfortable but compelling read. --Connie Fletcher

Review
“First-rate entertainment. . . . Creepy and occasionally comical. . . . Still Waters is no garden-variety mystery. From its breathtakingly brutal prologue to its horrifying revelation of responsibility, it will leave you marveling at McCrery's storytelling skills. And how many mysteries can you name that quote Browning, Yeats and Eliot?”-- Richmond Times-Dispatch

"Creepy, menacing, and downright frightening. . . . A page turner teeming with tension."--The Baltimore Sun

"McCrery's stellar thriller starts with a gruesome bang."--Entertainment Weekly

"Chilling. . . . Violet Chambers is the dark side of Miss Marple."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Highly original. . . . Arsenic and Old Lace meets the Galloping Gourmet in Still Waters, the first in a series of tasty mysteries."--Madison County Herald

“Every writer needs a hook, and Nigel McCrery provides just that in the prologue of Still Waters. He throws out the line and snags the reader right away. This shocking opening is one tantalizing lead-in.”–The Post and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina

"This exquisitely macabre mystery will keep you firmly planted until the last page is turned."--Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Touted as the beginning of a series, Still Waters will rush by at a stunning pace. Nigel McCrery, author of the Dr. Samantha Ryan mysteries, brings readers a brand new slant on the detective novel and a fresh face in the police department.”--Bookreporter

"A must read." --Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Hook[s] a reader positively and absolutely. [McCrery is] expert at the fast-paced thriller." --Library Journal (starred)

"Extremely creepy . . . Compelling." --Booklist

"McCrery introduces an excellent new detective . . . Highly original." --Daily Mail

"Arresting . . . Few readers will put the book down." --Daily Express

"A fast-moving, original and often genuinely frightening novel." --Euro Crime

"Arsenic and Old Lace run wonderfully amok." --Time Out, London

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (July 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307377032
• ISBN-13: 978-0307377036
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #367,431 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A world where you can taste sound..., November 1, 2008

By	Laurie Fletcher "Laurie Fletcher" (Casper, Wyoming, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It takes a lot for a new writer to break into the crowded genre of British police procedurals. Even a good story may not be enough. But a good story with a badly damaged-but-redeemable Detective Chief Inspector might just do the trick. In this case, the damage is a doozie! DCI Mark Lapslie has just been called back from "indefinite sick leave" because he has a form of synaesthesia that causes him to taste sounds, e.g., his sergeant's voice tastes to him like lemon with a hint of grapefruit, but the voices of his children made him sick. And the voices of his colleagues at the busy station house taste like uncooked meat. Thus, he lives alone in as much silence as he can manage. He is called back to work in a last-ditch attempt to see if there is any way to create a useful place for him on the force before putting him on permanent leave. And he lands in the middle of a strange series of deaths of lonely old women.

Coincidence? Murder? Serial killer? One leads to another and Lapslie and his sergeant always seem to be just a step behind. And the question nags: "Could a woman really visit so many horrors on these sweet, abandoned souls?" It makes you want to call up your elderly aunts and grandmothers to make sure they're OK and haven't been befriended by any overly solicitous do-gooders! I really like Lapslie and Co. and the writing is crisp, with a fine pace. Make no mistakes, though. This is also a tough murder mystery and not-so-nice things happen to presumably undeserving people. This is a good first mystery in what looks like a promising series.

4.0 out of 5 stars Unusual detective and more unusual serial killer, October 6, 2008

By	Jacyr Pasternak - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a good mistery using a new type of detective: he has syncinesia, the capacity of seeing sounds and tasting images, and because of this he has a rough tyme in his profession and is sidelined when a series of unusual crimes, suggesting a serial killer, happens. The investigation and the very unusual serial killer suceed each other in different chapters until the dramatic final, and is this the weakest part of this nice mistery: there was no need of the final confrontation except if the author wants to sell movie rights. I enjoyed the book, and was amazed and chilled by this serial killer - anyone that reads the book will be tense afterwards...

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Oh...Sylvia said gratefully, you're just killing me with kindness.", September 7, 2008

By	Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Lapslie of the Essex PD is a solitary man, but not by choice. Living with a rare condition known as synaesthesia, he can literally taste sound: "Part of him had expected a call. He'd been tasting strawberries very faintly all day." Married and the father of twins, Mark has seen his marriage disintegrate, the birth of twins accelerating the already disturbing confluence of tastes/sounds, the children exacerbating a strained relationship. Called to investigate an unusual case after six months on leave, Lapslie is once more assaulted by the overwhelming flavors of a busy department. Add to his dilemma an interesting pathologist, a young, attractive detective Sergeant, Emma Bradbury and a putative serial killer preying on lonely elderly women and the plot yields an unusual thriller defined as much by its characters as the facts.

The author's penchant for unusual description adds to the flavor of the novel, "hidden behind the impressive new façade the same way the ladies of Baudelaire's time used to hide their pox-ridden faces behind caked layers of makeup". Granted, the prologue is off-putting, an extremely grisly passage that is deeply disturbing, but the tale settles thereafter into a more sedate, albeit deceptive, "Arsenic and Old Lace" ambiance that belies the shocking motive at the heart of the crime. Tapping into the vulnerability of very lonely elderly women, London villages are sprinkled with those time has forgotten, living out their final days in obscurity, vague ailments intruding on the quietude of late-afternoon tea, carefully-tended gardens and early bedtimes. Such women fall easy prey to a particular predator, a kindly helper who offers assistance but delivers death.

Eerily seductive, the novel mixes the extraordinary- a vicious, patient killer- with the minutiae of days lived past the prime of life, old photographs and memories the closest friends of those with no family to care for them. One could almost be lulled into a false sense of security. But that would be foolish. Embedded in this story of a detective in search of an elusive murderer is a mysterious agency's hidden agenda, one that eventually threatens Lapslie's career should he not cooperate. In layer upon layer of provocative prose, the author lends a philosophical bent to nature's aberrations, whether the mind of a murderer or the tormented senses of the detective in "a bizarre mélange of flavors... matched in real life by a child mixing their dinner and dessert up on the same plate". McCrery constructs a compelling house of cards built on murder, treachery and the random acts of fate. Luan Gaines/ 2008.