Still Water

by Stuart Harrison

A small New England fishing community is the setting for this compelling blend of suspense, adventure and romance, from the author of the highly successful THE SNOW FALCON.
On a dark night on an island off the coast of Maine, a shot is heard and a fisherman disappears. Despite the absence of a body, Ella Young is accused of murder and it falls to Matt Jones, the town's lawyer, to uncover the truth that will clear the woman he's in love with However it soon becomes apparent that Ella isn't tellng him everything she knows, and as the evidence mounts against her, Matt is forced to question his belief in her innocence. A beautiful summer visitor adds further confusion when Matt finds she knew the missing man better than she admits, and that she and Ella share an impenetrable secret. What begins as a straightforward investigation is soon caught up in the rivalries of local politics and a bitter conflict between one faction that wants to change the island's traditional way of life and another, led by Ella, that values the delicate balance between man and the sea. Against this seething background comes the reappearance of valuable bluefin tuna in the gulf, along with their natural predators, a pod of orcas. As the struggling community attempts to exploit this piece of seeming good fortune, everything is set for an explosive drama

Genres: Fiction, Roman, Mystery, Thriller, Crime

452 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

I was born in 1958 in Northamptonshire, England. Left school at 16 with no particular distinction and moved to New Zealand in 1980 where I subsequently worked in a variety of occupations until I began writing novels at the age of thirty seven. Three were universally rejected until The Snow Falcon was bought by publishers in sixteen countries in 1999 and went on to become a bestseller. At the time I was living in England again and during the next few years lived in Ireland and Australia before returning to New Zealand where I now live with my family in the Bay Of Islands.

Reviews

[Lotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Twee sterren voor epic orca times

[booklady]

By GRs friend Stephen Hayes. Thank you for thinking of me, Stephen. It does look good. I will see what I can do! Blessings, bl+

[Astrid · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just a little too boring for my taste…

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book very much. Two stories intertwined, but not mixed up.

[Werehare · Rating 1 out of 5]

3/10

Patetico, sia in senso letterale che in senso figurato. La trama è per metà il giallo che vorrebbe essere e per metà un Harmony di quarta categoria, americano fino al midollo, dove Merisù bellissima perfettissima tostissima brillantissima e via discorrendo deve affermare (come se ce ne fosse bisogno) la sua manifesta superiorità morale intellettuale et cetera rispetto a tutti gli altri personaggi. Merisù è amata da tutte le persone oneste, Merisù si batte per i Veri Valori, Merisù si fa il bonazzo della situazione, Merisù è l'unica donna in un mondo di uomini, Merisù infine fuga tutti i dubbi su una sua condotta meno che irreprensibile e se anche ha fatto qualcosa di male non è stata colpa sua, lei non può essere meno che Retta e Giusta. Avrei dato un punteggio inferiore, non fosse per l'esile mistero che tiene in piedi la trama fino a poco prima che un finale stupidissimo, che infrange totalmente il patto col lettore, rovini anche questo piccolo aspetto positivo.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story with a satisfying and believable ending. This is so key for me in the mystery genre - that the ending stacks up. Too often we are led by the nose through a story and by a character who is hiding something -- something shocking, something that will turn his/her world upside down, expose other people, or whatever it is - and by the time it's revealed at the end, it's either a letdown or so insanely improbable that you gasp out loud with the ludicrousness of it.

Not so here. The ending does stack up. We do believe our main lady, Ella, would keep such a secret, and it's one worth all the trials and tribulations she goes through to keep that secret safe. Sigh of relief!

Our other characters are also believable, flawed (some more so than others), and they take us on a merry ride through a few weeks in a US coastal shipping town. A man goes missing, a woman is blamed, a lawyer gets involved, and orca's come to the deep waters. I mean honestly, what else does a good story need?

[Luca · Rating 4 out of 5]

All'interno della piccola isola di St. George, le storie di numerose persone si intrecciano tra loro: la dura vita dei pescatori, l'industrializzazione, le meraviglie del mare, tutto ciò contribuisce a costruire un quadro di totale evasione per il lettore.
La trama del libro è essenzialmente un giallo, basata su un sospetto omicidio: tuttavia, questo non impedisce che sia permeato da altri problemi, del tutto contestuabili alla società odierna, quali le lotte tra vicini, la corsa all'oro, famiglie spezzate... In ciò si inserisce il grande disegno naturale, di cui è perfetta rappresentazione la vita delle orche: la Natura semplicemente non si ferma davanti alle opere umane, e non sottostà alle regole della società.
Un difetto del libro è forse lo stile, a tratti davvero troppo lento e con troppi dubbi lasciati senza risposta; peccato anche per la rivelazione finale di Ella, che pare quasi scollegata dal resto ma inserita dallo scrittore solamente per aggiungere un po' di carne al fuoco.

[Viviana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un amore ed una sparizione misteriosa in una piccola cittadina del Maine, alla vigilia delle elezioni che decideranno le sorti della comunità, divisa tra il desiderio di mantenere le proprie radici di pescatori e la tentazione di puntare sul turismo di massa.
La narrazione delle vicende umane si intreccia con quella di un gruppo di orche, parte integrante dell'ambiente e le cui esistenze entrano in contatto - talvolta in conflitto - con gli esseri umani che vivono sulle coste.
L'amore per il mare e le creature che lo abitano traspare con chiarezza dalle pagine di questo romanzo che miscela giallo e rosa senza addentrarsi appieno in nessuno dei due generi letterari.
[...]
La recensione completa qui.

[Stephen Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matt Jones, a lawyer who has gone to live in a fishing on an island off the coast of Maine, falls in love with Ella, who catches lobsters, and is standing for election as mayor against a would-be property developer who wants to turn the little fishing visit unto a playground for the rich. But then Ella is accused of murdering another fisherman who has disappeared, and one of the primary witnesses disappears as well. Matt takes her as a client, but gets the feeling she hasn't told him all she knows.

The story is not told only from the viewpoint of the human characters, but also from the viewpoint of those under the sea, a pod of orcas who compete with the human fishermen for the same fishes.

It's a mystery whodunit, in the sense that one wants to know what happened to the people who have disappeared, but the initial mystery gives rise to several other crimes, which the reader knows about, so that Ella is in danger not only from the law, but from the lawless.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I actually struggled to finish this and thought about abandoning, but I needed to know the solution to the 'mystery'. When a disliked, brutish fisherman goes missing in a small island village, suspicion falls on a young woman who is campaigning for mayor against a businessman who is angling for a big marina development. Local lawyer takes the 'case' due to his feelings for her, although he isn't convinced of her innocence. In the end it is revealed that the man dies while out hunting orca whales, but it is also revealed that he had a violent affair with a woman married to a paraplegic, and that the local woman was involved in disposing of the body of her father, who was killed in a domestic dispute with her mother months ago. Weird passages about the orcas attempted some symbolism, but I just found them annoying.

[Sanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een lastig boek om te beoordelen. Het boek heeft mij niet zo aangegrepen zoals ik had gehoopt, ik had geen probleem om het lezen te onderbreken en andere dingen te doen. Ik vond de spanning wat ontbreken. Deze kwam voor mij pas tegen het eind. Ondanks dat was het wel een verhaal wat blijft hangen. De personages zijn op een leuke manier neergezet en je wilt je verder in ze verdiepen. De ontknoping is voor mij ook een beetje dubbel. Aan de ene kant was de ontknoping te verwachten maar toch zat er een onverwachts element in voor mijn gevoel. Het einde is mooi maar blijft ook wel erg open. Ik zou wel willen weten hoe het verder gaat met bijvoorbeeld Ella, haar moeder en Gordon. Kort samengevat vond ik het dus niet geweldig maar wel interessant genoeg om door te lezen.

[Joy M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I definitely enjoyed this book. Another reviewer mentioned they probably read this book at the wrong time (because they didn't care much for it), but I feel I read it at the perfect time. I wanted intriguing and interesting. I loved that the main character was a strong, likeable woman in a male-dominated profession. The male MC was thoughtful and had integrity. The story unfolded at a gentle pace - with believable events and characters - and didn't keep me wondering or guessing or rolling my eyes. The fishing lingo wasn't overly onerous, and I actually liked the storyline with the orcas. Well-researched and well-written. I would definitely read another book by this author.

[Hans Brienesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was paced enough to hold the interest yet didn't give too much away. The hero/heroine of the tale won, as they tend to do in American novels, but there is a twist at the end explaining just what the characters and reader tried to divine. The main quirk that prevented the book from getting five stars was the anthropomorphic treatment of the animals, but future readers will have to work out for themselves whether this detracts from the tale for them.

[Silvia Civano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Libro che ho nel cuore perché è stato il primo romanzo di questo genere per me. Avevo quattordici anni quando ho letto la trama e ho voluto leggerlo. L’ho adorato. Un po’ di suspense, un mistero da risolvere. Un’atmosfera magica che ti porta nell’isola e ti coinvolge nella storia.

[Sergio · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una lotta per salvaguardare la natura e gli animali da chi pensa solo al business: una bella storia intrigante e piacevole da leggere

[Therese Bergwall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Läst på svenska: I de lugnaste vatten

[Nicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit of a miss to get through but OK, liked the Orca whale bits. Easy read.

[Karschtl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe I've picked the book up at the wrong time, but I just didn't feel like reading about this crime / drama right now.
Reading some other reviews here on Goodreads finally convinced me that I should not drag myself through until the end if I don't want to. There are still soo many other books on my shelves waiting to be read. So I stopped reading about about 30-40 pages.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay but didn’t really engage me well. Ended up skim reading a bit of this.

[Ema · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een ideaal (ont)spannend boek om mee te nemen op vakantie.

[Sreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, interesting setting and people and orcas.

[CarWag · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read

[Bart · Rating 3 out of 5]

8/10

[inenaez · Rating 5 out of 5]

BELLO, BELLO, BELLISSIMO.
Non dico nulla se non che ho le lacrime agli occhi per colpa di un orca...

[Susan Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before passing this book on I decided to re-read it and enjoyed it as much second time around. A good blend of bringing in the intelligence of the orca into the human events going on around them.

[Philip Weyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably my favourite Stuart Harrison book, thoroughly enjoyed the story, very well crafted, and the additional Orca perspective added a nice dimension.

[Zainab · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book started off really slow but it turns out to be amazing and it is so twisted! especially at the end, i never expected it. if you are an animal lover - especially water creatures then you will love this book. it has described orcas beautifully. if you love solving mysteries then hurry up and read this and see if you can figure it out before you finish reading it.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The most interesting parts of this book were about the whales living off the coast of the town. Reading about small town American life with British punctuation, spelling and syntax was very off putting.

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. Usually I'm not for drama romans but Stuart Harrison has a way of writing that I find lovely and hunger for more.The book had a nice balance between the nature around the whales, intrigues in the characters lives and how they interact with each other. And a very nice, surprising ending.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first novel I have read from this author, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved hearing the animals viewpoint as well as the human's. It kept me reading right up until the end. A thoroughly enjoyable rainy day occupation.