Customer Reviews

Still Waters

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(29)

 

 

I'm truly surprised by all the negative comments, as this book, which I read years ago, remains my all-time favorite Tami Hoag book. I'm a very picky reader, and don't give praise easily, so I'm puzzled as to why so many readers absolutely hated this book. Was it rewritten prior to its re-release? Or are most readers looking for straight suspense (which is what Hoag writes now) and disappointed to discover that this book is a romantic suspense?

I'll admit that I wasn't crazy about the hero. He was a little flat. But I have to disagree with some people's estimation of the heroine. Anybody who believes that Elizabeth Stuart is a typical romance heroine hasn't read much romance. As a matter of fact, I think the heroine is why I liked the book so much. She was flawed, in-your-face bold, and not afraid to call a spade a spade. She might have been beautiful, but she was far from pristine. Elizabeth was all raw edges and false bravado that covered an inner vulnerability, and she was what kept me reading.

My two cents worth. Just wanted to point out that not everybody hated this book...some of us loved it.

Remember that this book was written before Tami Hoag reinvented herself as a premiere thriller writer. If you love her new books (ASHES TO ASHES, A THIN DARK LINE), this may not be your cup of tea. It's clearly from her "past life", with more romance than suspense and none of her trademark chills-n-thrills. It's totally fun--and funny--and sexy--and smart. If you read it looking for a hard-hitting, world-class thriller (like ASHES), you'll be confused; but enjoy it for what it IS, and then buy her next new book for bigger thrills and chills.

People should really keep in mind that this is a re-print of an earlier title by Ms. Hoag and as the saying goes practice makes perfect. Although it does not measure up to her later titles (Ashes to Ashes for example) it is still not a waste of time to pick this book up and read it.

Yes, there is romance involved and personally I feel that it was an added benefit to the story. It by no means overshadowed the storyline of murder in a small town where the Amish live together with the English.

This is really a multi-layer story about the main characters Dane and Elizabeth, the secondary characters, and changes that happen when the worst is seen in a town where everyone knows everyons business.

Murder is unheard of in the last thirty-three years in Still Water. Now one of the leaders of this small community is found dead in his car. The reasons behind this murder are many and the finger points at several people and at no one. Elizabeth who just moved from Atlanta with her good looks, southern accent,troubled son, and has purchases the local news paper finds the body of the local money man and finds herself in the center of the investigatation.

Dane the local sheriff is a ex-football player turned law officer. He is carrying around some old hurts from his past that color the way he looks at women like Elizabeth but he still can't avoid the attraction that he feels for her. To make matters worse she is a suspect to the murder or at the very least a unsuspected witness. Dane needs to solve the murder and at the same time protect his heart and the woman that threatnes his peacful existance.

Don't pick up this book thinking that it is only a suspense, but at the same time don't avoid it because of the romance involved. At times it is slow going but it is still a well written story by an author that I feel has proven herself in later works.

There seems to be a large number of best-selling romance authors jumping to the mystery genre and Tami Hoag is among them. Still Waters is the first book by Hoag that I've read, so I can't compare her work to other novels by her. It was good enough that I'll try another of her mystery books.

Elizabeth Stuart is a twice divorced, gorgeous, sexy, mother of one who moves to Still Waters, Minnesota in the hopes of starting her life over. Dane Jantzen is the local small town hero, ex-pro football player who's moved home after going through his own nasty divorce. Dane is now the local sheriff with a tainted view of the townsfolk - he doesn't want to believe any of them could be bad. When Elizabeth has the murdered body of a local land developer literally fall at her feet, she and Dane are thrown together. Dane wants to believe the killer is an out-of-town drifter but Elizabeth isn't so sure. The two very dynamic personalities clash often during the solving of this crime, which also brings forth a few romantic sparks.

The overall story is well thought out and accomplishes covering the basic elements in a good mystery. What it doesn't do is fool anyone. The villain is very predictable and the plot leaves nothing for the reader's imagination except when the villain will strike again.

Another problem is a few minor errors/conflicts written towards the end of the book. One example would be Dane getting into a verbal confrontation with Boyd (one of his deputies) and fires him. A few pages later, Boyd is worried about doing something wrong and losing his job.

Tami Hoag does a fairly good job tying up all of the loose ends, but in doing so, seems to skim over issues that should have more detail. I can't really give any examples without giving the ending away, but suffice it to say that instead of alluding to characters and instead making them a focus on the book, the ending is a sure thing.

With the fame associated with the name "Tami Hoag" I was expecting more with Still Waters and was left a little disappointed with the book. It is still better than a lot that's out there, and was a decent way to spend a few days. It doesn't stand up to works by Patricia Cornwell or Iris Johansen (no matter what the back of the book says!). I'd recommend buying this book, but only at a discounted price.

This book had great potential, but the author seemed to lose the mystery during the development of the relationship between Elizabeth and the police character. It felt like the book couldn't decide if it was a mystery or a romance novel. While I really enjoyed some of Hoag's other books, this one was really lacking a sense of direction. The minor characters were totally unbelievable and the clues screamed out who the killer was early on in the book. Definitely not a book I would recommend to a serious mystery reader.

Elizabeth Stuart and her teenage son arrive in Still Waters, Minnesota to start a new life after a bruising and very public divorce from an Atlanta media mogul. Elizabeth, along with her old college friend Tess, buys the town newspaper, determined to live up to its motto and print the truth. Because she's sexy and beautiful - not to mention the fact that she discovers the body of an unpopular developer, the first murder victim in Still Waters in 33 years -Elizabeth causes quite a commotion. She meets Sheriff Dane Jantzen for the first time at the murder scene. Jantzen is an embittered ex-football player forced to retire due to a knee injury. He's also bitter because his ex-wife walked out on him when the going got tough.

And that's where the problems start. Jantzen is so bitter and one-dimensional it verges on the ridiculous. After insulting each other (Jantzen initially considers Elizabeth a murder suspect) they fall into bed in a matter of days - an all-too-common theme in Hoag's novels.

On the plus side, Hoag portrays small-town life beautifully, especially the issues and problems facing a community where the Amish and English live side by side and the reluctance of both to change their way of life. The heroine comes across as feisty and likable and you find yourself rooting for her to have the happy ending she desperately wants. Hoag's written better novels so buy this one used if you possibly can.

I thought this book was a very easy and fast read. As a person who reads a wide variety of books, I felt like this was a fair romance. It used the very dry, old romance theme of man and woman thrown together, hate each other, fall in love at the end, etc. But, I had checked it out thinking it was a good suspense/mystery novel. It would have been an excellent book if the romance had been played down just a bit and the suspense had been the main focus.

In the book Still Waters by Tami Hoag, there are mainly two characters that have the most internal conflicts and they are Elizabeth Stuart and Sheriff Dane Jantzen. The internal conflicts of both characters involve their childhoods and past marriages.
Stuart is a woman in her mid- 30's who is also the single mother of her sixteen-year-old son, Trace Stuart. Elizabeth Stuart's internal conflicts started when she was growing up, her father became an alcoholic because of the loss of his wife and her mother. Stuart grew up not knowing her mother and wondering why her father didn't love her as much as he did the picture on his nightstand. In her late teens, Stuart became pregnant by her boyfriend and future husband, Bobby Lee Breland, who was a rodeo star in their small town in Texas. By the time Stuart was nineteen years old she had discovered that Breland was cheating on her, so she decided to pack up her son and their things and leave Breland. After having left her cheating husband, she married a multi-millionaire (Brock Stuart), who ended up also cheating on her, but he was rich enough to pay the writers who were putting the story in the newspaper to say that it was Stuart herself who had been cheating. Brock divorced her and left her with nothing or very little if that.
Sheriff Dane Jantzen is the sheriff of Still Creek and his internal conflict started when he was playing profession football for the Oakland Raiders and had to retire from playing after blowing out his knee. After retiring, his wife made it very clear that she had married the uniform not the man, she later divorced him and took their daughter with her to California, while Jantzen went back to his hometown of Still Creek. He is greatly conflicted because he is only a part of his daughters life a couple times a year, he misses out on all the important things and important memories about raising a child.
Each of their conflicts led them to hate each other in the beginning, but soon after accidentally letting the other one see their vulnerable side they fall in love and figure out that they need one another and with the other ones help they can overcome any obstacles that come their way. I liked the book Still Waters and I encourage anyone who likes to read murder mysteries and suspense novels with a surprise and climatic ending to read this book and for those who have already read this book, I hope you enjoyed it. It makes you think and leaves you feeling bad for the characters at first and happy for them in the end. Tami Hoag is an excellent writer and did a stupendous job in detailing the internal conflicts of the characters in her book.

I thought this book was too slow and had too much inner thought to the characters. Everytime suspense seems to be looming around the corner we have to get another life story from Elizabeth Stuart. I was disappointed mostly because I had heard the book was really good. Apparently the friend who told me this has not really read any really good books yet.

I've read several of Tami Hoag's novels and found this one to have the same potential harrowing effect "Guilty as Sin" and "A Thin Dark Line" built up, but it was drawn out and weighted down by the rather violent nature of the relationship between the primary characters (Elizabeth and Dane). The secondary relationships were well drawn, the characters evolving with Ms. Hoag's usual style; the plight of teenagers and the generation gap were well illustrated; and as a whole it was enjoyable. However, the disgust and malice often displayed between the two key protagonists truly began to disturb me. Domestic abuse and disrespect between people (especially lovers) was as chilling to me here as the murder theme central to "Still Waters." Ms. Hoag still remains on my short list of must-read authors, however; her latest works especially are well worth exploring.