FROM AMAZON: When the body of a murdered man literally falls at Elizabeth Stuart's feet, she's able to wash away the blood - but not the terror. Unwelcome newcomers to Still Creek, Minnesota, she and her troubled teenage son are treated with suspicion by the locals, including the sheriff. Yet nothing will stop her from digging beneath the town's placid surface for the truth - except the killer.

Running from a messy divorce, Elizabeth believed buying a small-town newspaper offered a fresh start for herself and her son. But idyllic Still Creek, nestled in the heart of lush Amish farmlands, hides secrets dangerous enough to push someone to commit murder.

Now Elizabeth must risk everything to save herself and her son and to unmask the killer - before the current of evil flowing through Still Creek drags her under.

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. ( )

Overall, was not impressed by the plot, style of writing, or the characters. ( )

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 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. ( )

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.” ( )