Down by the Water

Stevie Diaz #2

by Sam Evans

Stevie Diaz has a husband who won’t speak to her and no clue how to fix the mess she’s made of her life. When a jury duty summons arrives, it’s just one more thing she doesn’t want to deal with.

In the midst of trying to repair her marriage, Stevie is selected for a high-profile case where the details don’t quite add up—a case that dredges up memories of her dad’s death. Stevie can never leave well enough alone, despite knowing better, and her need to uncover the truth before condemning a woman to life in prison drives her to break every rule and shatters her understanding of the past.

Down by the Water is a neo-noir story about the lengths women go to for personal safety—and what happens when buried secrets rise to the surface.

Genres: Mystery, Romance

417 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 30, 2025

About the author

Sam Evans has lived all over the US but currently resides in the upper midwest. She’s a software engineer by day, but letting her imagination run wild is her full-time occupation. She lives with her partner, a high-strung border collie, and an insane kelpie. She routinely drinks too much coffee and gets too little sleep.

Reviews

[Rhiannon Cheyenne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Down by the Water - Sam Evans

I very much missed reading this universe and these characters. I am obsessed with Stevie and I find her so fun and entertaining to read. I love reading about her relationship dynamics with Troy and Brad. And of course, I love the mystery in this novel. I adore this author’s writing and I can read thousands of their books, especially if some of them are in the Stevie Diaz universe because I just can’t get enough of her. I honestly can’t wait to see what else Stevie gets up to.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Out of 5 Stars ⭐️

🌶️ / Spice Rating ☀️

# of Pages 🌙 417 pages

Release Date 🌟 9/30/2025

Format 💫 Gifted Digital Copy

Series 🌙 Stevie Diaz Mystery, #2

Genre/Tropes ✨ morally grey FMC, crime and punishment, justice served, good for her, romantic tension, suspense, mystery, love triangles

Favorite Character ☀️ Stevie

Favorite Line 🌟 “Marie, question for you. Do you think it’s kind of creepy how alike we look Yeah. Me too. I think you can do better, Marie.”

“I know you love me, Stevie. Sure, I’d like to have you all to myself, but only if you decide that’s what you want. It’s like you said. I don’t want there to be questions. I knew what I was getting into, and if you end up with just me, I want it to be because you’re sure.”

‘I’ve just started a group chat with Brad and Troy, and I kind of hate myself for it.’

“Me. Being an idiot, I decided now was the appropriate time to ask Frank if he killed my dad.”

“Say one thing for me. Say I make good decisions.”

“You were attacked less than twenty-four hours ago, and you’re telling me you don’t want to talk about it because you have more pressing concerns?”

“Whatever. If you want me to show up here some other time and ‘process my feelings’ with you, or whatever it is you think I should do, I will. But right now, I have an agenda.”

“Everyone is so damn interested in my love life, Troy is my husband and Brad is my… OSO. Other significant other. Anyway. How are you?”

[NIKKI · Rating 5 out of 5]

Down by the water is book ✌🏼 in the 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝘇 𝗠𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 so if you haven’t read the first one, In the woods somewhere.. I highly recommend it, and check out my review on that one too!

I 𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 🔥 through this book pretty fast because it was addicting. I needed 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 constantly. From book one to book two you really get wrapped up in these characters and their stories and lives and build such an attachment to them. Stevie’s character development was great to see but 𝗧𝗥𝗢𝗬. He came SO FAR. He is such a well loved character of mine! Stevie and Brad are so lucky to have him 🖤

This book gave intense and fast paced, edge of your seat, page turn after page turn type of energy. My heart was beating so fast 🫀 and I had to stay up way past my bedtime to finish this! (Im more of a go to bed at a decent time and wake up early) 𝗕𝗨𝗧 I literally could not put it down and had to know how it ended.. which was *𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚏𝚜 𝚔𝚒𝚜𝚜* 🤌🏼 and 𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗹.

𝗜 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲.. 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗮 𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 🔪 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 🎶 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝘂𝗻 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀! 𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗶𝗱𝗸. 🤷🏼‍♀️

𝗜𝗙 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗟𝗢𝗩𝗘 :


* Suspense
* Spicy love triangles 🥵
* Crime and punishment
* Justice served

& 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘆… 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂 😉

Pub Date: 09/30/2025

Make sure you read In the woods somewhere and then also check out Down by the water when it comes out!

Thanks so much Sam for the arc! And as always it was a fun ride! 🤭

[AmyBeth T · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so excited to read the latest book in this series and I'm so grateful to have been chosen as an ARC reader yet again. Sam's first book introduced me to the niche genre of mystery/thriller with romance and spice and it's now a favorite. This follow-up to In the Woods Somewhere is PERFECTION. It is just as good as book one, and continues with Stevie's story - both personally and professionally. Sam really knows how to blend the romance with the mystery and thriller aspects, and does so like a seasoned pro despite this only being her second published book. The twists and turns keep you guessing, and I'm looking forward to her next installment (as well as her next book, Meet the Puckers!).

[Allyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I forgive Stevie

In the first book I didn't like Stevie. But in this book as things progressed I could better understand how/where things were going with her. I feel better about her now. The story was entertaining and kept me engaged. My biggest question now is if Stevie might quit at 911 and start a PI firm. She is pretty good at solving crimes. Guess I'll have to wait for the next book.

[Rid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sam Evans has done it again!! Another page turning mystery that follows the misadventures of our favorite, misguided (say one thing about her, say she makes good decisions) FMC, Stevie Diaz.

This book picks up shortly after Into the Woods Somewhere and follows Stevie as she navigates her relationships with her estranged husband and her childhood best friend (and longest love). Stevie finds herself in a whole new pickle when she’s selected for the jury on a huge local murder case that dredges up her own memories of her dad’s accidental death.

Curiosity killed the cat, but it’s not Beetlejuice whose life is at risk in this one! Will Stevie’s inability to let the past stay in the past and never ending quest for answers put her and her loved ones at risk?

With a compelling mystery, lovable characters, and a healthy dose of justice you just can’t find in the real world - Down by the Water is a MUST READ.

[Jordan Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again, love the drama, love the suspense. However, Stevie was harder to enjoy in this book. I almost found it to drag on. And her not being able to choose between Troy or Brad I think has lingered a little too long. Personally, when Brad told her he would take her last name if they got married really sealed the deal for me with him. I’m rooting for Brad!

The court case felt like it was dragging on, and was drawn out for a little too long. It seemed repetitive. Which I know can happen in an actual case.

Still, there were plot twists and suspense that kept me reading. I didn’t anticipate the ending at all. I thought that it was a little too nonchalant when she got out of being kidnapped, and also when Brad and Troy were just on board with her wanting to kill Calvin.

Overall, I enjoyed the book! I just wish Stevie would stop being so self destructive and also make her mind up between Troy and Brad.

[Krystal MacNeil · Rating 5 out of 5]

⚠️ Disclaimer
This is not your mother’s book review. This is not gentle, professional, or safe for polite dinner conversations. This is where I scream into the literary void, emotionally dry heave over fictional trauma, and make zero apologies. If you want metaphors about books being "beautiful journeys" or "heartfelt meditations on grief," please take your lace doily ass to NPR. Here, we throw bricks. Here, we spiral.

🏃💨 The Quick and Dirty
Reading Down by the Water is like getting emotionally mugged in an alley by your own bad decisions, and then thanking the assailant afterward for the character development. This book showed up in a leather trench coat, handed me a mixtape called “emotional devastation,” and made me fall in love with a protagonist I wanted to slap and hug in equal measure.

Sam Evans doesn’t write books. She writes trauma ballet. She stitches grief into every paragraph and hands you the needle like it’s a goddamn gift. Stevie Diaz is a walking car crash of unresolved guilt, generational pain, and mascara-stained hot girl rage. And somehow? I couldn’t look away. I didn’t want to.

🕵️‍♀️ The Non-Spoilery Situation Report
Stevie Diaz has a husband who won’t talk to her, a marriage on life support, and a nervous system made of red flags and unresolved trauma. She’s out here trying (and failing) to get her life together, and then boom—jury duty shows up like a fuck you from the universe wrapped in a government envelope.

And of course, it’s not some chill shoplifting case. Nope. It’s a high-profile murder trial with vibes so off even Stevie’s inner chaos gremlin is like, “Hey maybe don’t poke this with a stick?” But she pokes it. Oh, she stabs it. Because of course she does. Because Stevie Diaz has never met a self-destructive impulse she didn’t want to French kiss.

As the trial dredges up ghosts of her dad’s death and cracks her grip on reality, Stevie spirals into a DIY investigation fueled by grief, guilt, and the pathological need to know why everything always hurts so much. In trying to uncover the truth, she breaks basically every rule of law, ethics, and self-preservation—and what she finds doesn’t just threaten the case. It shatters everything she thought she understood about her past.

Down by the Water is a neo-noir emotional gut punch about what women do to survive, how secrets rot under the surface, and what happens when your trauma decides to testify. It’s dark. It’s sharp. It’s unhinged. And it doesn’t flinch.

🤔💭 The Review
Stevie Diaz Is Back—and So Are My Emotional Problems

This is the second book from Sam Evans, and once again, she walked up to the publishing industry, spit in its drink, and hit it out of the goddamn park. If In the Woods Somewhere was the punch to the gut you didn’t know you needed, Down by the Water is the follow-up haymaker that leaves you clutching your chest and whispering, “But what if I deserve this pain?”

Evans came into the game swinging with Book One, and if you ask me, Book Two was the knockout. It’s sharp. It’s brutal. It’s psychologically loaded. And it confirms what I already suspected: if I ever planned a murder, Sam Evans is the first person I’d call. Not to help hide the body—no, no—she’s too clever for that. I’d call her because she’d already know 12 ways to make it look like a tragic accident with a feminist undercurrent and a Spotify playlist.

I originally thought Down by the Water was going to be the end of Stevie Diaz’s story, and let me tell you—I was prepared to grieve. I had the black veil picked out. But I’m happy to report: it doesn’t look like this is the end for our emotionally unhinged protagonist. And thank chaos for that.

Let’s Talk About Stevie Diaz (aka: The Girlboss I’d Throw a Brick At)

Listen. Stevie Diaz is a lot. She’s reckless. She’s inconsistent. She’s emotionally flammable. And she makes objectively terrible life choices that had me yelling “WHY?!” at my Kindle like I was watching a horror movie.

There are parts of her that make me want to throw a brick at her head. But every time I wind up to launch it, I realize—I’m not throwing it at her. I’m throwing it at me. Because there’s too much of her in me. That unrelenting, self-destructive need to fix everything, even when you’re bleeding from every emotional orifice? Yeah. That hits.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Stevie is Joffrey Baratheon with a tragic backstory and trauma bangs. I cannot stand her. I would slap her if she were real. I’d bail her out of jail, then yell at her the whole drive home—but I’d still be there. She makes me violently conflicted, and honestly? That’s what makes her so fucking good.

BEWARE: GOT Side Rant and Spoiler of GOT: And listen. Since we’re talking about Joffrey: when I watched Game of Thrones, I replayed that little tyrant’s death scene no less than ten times. No regrets. If you don’t believe me, ask my husband—he was begging me to stop rewinding it. I hate Joffrey. And yet, somehow, Stevie gives him a run for his money in the "makes me want to throw my Kindle" department… but unlike Joffrey, I still want her to win. I don’t understand myself anymore. But I digress...

There are moments she comes off like a spoiled brat. And then, just when I’m ready to wash my hands of her, she hits me with this raw, terrifying honesty and I find myself whispering, “Goddammit, Stevie.” She's the kind of character that drags you into her spiral and dares you to judge her while recognizing you’d probably do the same shit in her shoes.

I don’t even like love triangles. I hate love triangles.
Except this one.
Because let’s be real—Who among us wouldn’t want two hot men emotionally bleeding for our affection while we unravel like a cursed mixtape from 2009? One of them is gentle, patient, and maybe too good for this timeline. The other? Brad—an old flame from Stevie’s teen years, now swaggering back into her life like a bad decision in designer cologne. And Stevie? She’s somehow too wrecked for both, caught in the crossfire of what she wants and what she survived.

Plot-wise, Down by the Water goes hard. Stevie gets called for jury duty at exactly the wrong time—her marriage is imploding, her mental health is circling the drain, and she’s clinging to normalcy like it won’t just ghost her in the middle of the night.

And because she is the undisputed queen of not leaving well enough alone, she takes a simple civic duty and turns it into an emotional grenade. The trial dredges up her father's death, exposes cracks in her already-fractured worldview, and puts her on a crash course with the kind of truth you can’t come back from.

Evans pulls clear inspiration from the Susan Smith case, but she doesn’t just rehash it—she dissects it. The way this book handles mental illness? Brutally honest. Compassionate but not sanitized. It’s not performative. It’s not some sad aesthetic moment in soft lighting. It’s ugly and real and terrifying and so, so accurate. You feel the weight of it in every chapter.

This story made me sit with uncomfortable truths. It made me wonder how quick we are to judge the women at the center of tragedy—and how often we punish them for being messy, loud, angry, broken. This is a book about guilt, survival, and the deeply gendered cost of safety. And Evans doesn’t pull a single punch.

Oh, and we need to talk about the playlist. Because Sam Evans, destroyer of souls and breaker of readers, has done it again. There’s a full soundtrack for Down by the Water on Spotify and Apple Music, and it is exactly the kind of auditory experience you want while sobbing into your coffee and Googling “how to get jury duty disqualified for emotional damage.” Add it to your Sad Girl rotation immediately. No skips. No regrets.

As for what’s next in the Evans extended universe? Strap in. Because she’s not done with us yet.

Kill the Puckers is on the way—a book inspired by the Canadian hockey SA trial.

And then there’s the co-written dark romance with Travis_Walter_Writer (yet to be name announced), which I will be reading with the emotional poise of a raccoon in a dumpster fire—because nothing says "support your friends!" like live-blogging their sexual fantasies while trying not to die of secondhand thirst and psychic cringe. I love them. I fear them. I’m already pre-traumatized.

Both are standalones (for now), but something tells me we haven’t seen the last of Stevie Diaz. And thank God for that. I’m not ready to let go. I don’t think I ever will be.

Down by the Water isn’t just a follow-up—it’s a literary escalation. It’s smarter. Sharper. Darker. It picks the scabs Book One left behind and then pours whiskey and regret into the wound.

Evans writes like someone with something to prove—and she proves it. Every sentence. Every twist. Every scene that made me sit there like, “Oh. Oh no. She went there.”

I don’t know how this woman sleeps at night, but I respect the hell out of her for it.

This isn’t a comfort read. This is a confrontation. It’s a psychological thriller wrapped in grief and grit with just enough romance to make you question your moral compass and your kinks. If you’re not ready to feel seen, attacked, and maybe morally compromised, don’t read it.

But if you’re ready to be ruined on purpose…

Welcome. Stevie’s waiting.

[Jo ThreadsAndFiction · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book one, Somewhere in the Woods, completely took me by surprise with its depth, complexity, and relationship drama and left me unsure on how I felt about any of it. Coming in to book two, I already felt connected to Stevie and her world, and an understanding of both made it so much easier to dive straight in and really enjoy the ride.
I ended up accidentally reading the entire thing in one sitting because I was completely gripped - it's a fair bit longer than book one, but I genuinely couldn't tell during the read as I was so enrapt. A genuine page turner of a book, goddamn!

In Down By The Water we re-join Stevie as she's trying to put her life back together, gets called into jury duty at the worst time, and compulsively dives into another mystery she can't help herself but pick at and unravel - while also balancing her complex tangle of a love life. I adore her, she's the ultimate "we support women's rights and wrongs" morally grey, relentlessly badass character.

The pacing is spot-on, the story never lulls. Honestly, if you offered me a novel about jury duty and unravelling family secrets, I probably would have passed - but I’m so glad this series came my way! Sam made jury duty an interesting read, while also giving me the impression that she puts a lot of time into research and effort into being accurate towards the proceedings (I've never taken part so can't say for sure, but it definitely didn't seem half-assed!) without it dragging or being dull along the way. The balance between Stevie's own life drama vs the case is also perfect and I loved the complex blend of morally grey actions for the sake of truth and justice.

Sam Evans has a true talent for pulling you in and a master in mystery and suspense, I can’t wait to see where Stevie’s story goes next!

Thank you Sam Evans & Super Gravity Press for this ARC read <3

[Simon Langley-Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

I find it hard to review this book. It’s not that it’s a bad one - far from it. The writing is clean and fluent, and the author clearly knows how to build a scene. But as a British reader I found the very American tone - names, settings, and expressions- a little jarring, and more importantly, I just wasn’t engaged.

Not a great deal happens in the first half of the book. The opening promises something pacy and dramatic, but it soon settles into a steady rhythm of domestic detail: Stevie’s divorce, her new relationship, her irritation at being called for jury duty. It’s all perfectly readable, but it felt like well-written mundanity. I started skimming sections simply because nothing seemed to move forward. If this were an audiobook, I’d probably have it on to fall asleep to.

I realise this is Stevie Diaz’s second outing, and that I’ve missed her backstory, but it didn’t feel essential. The love triangle that anchors the plot - between Stevie, Brad and Troy- was ever-present but oddly static. A chapter in which Stevie and Troy go bowling, for instance, seemed to add little to the mystery. Again, as a British reader, that wasn’t a natural social setting for me and did not resonate.

There’s a good thriller buried somewhere in here, but it’s weighed down by too much domestic padding. I like series that build character over time, but here that impulse is overdone. With about a hundred pages trimmed away, this could be a taut, engaging story.

This one simply wasn’t for me and I did not finish it.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. The opinions above are entirely my own.

[Skye Daniels · Rating 5 out of 5]

We meet Stevie in the first book In the Woods Somewhere. I have to say I wasn't her biggest fan because of the way she treated her husband.

This book, you get to understand her more. She is definitely a morally grey character. The things she does to solve the mysteries are against the law, but you will have to decide for yourselves how you feel about it. In this book, she is summoned for Jury Duty, and the case is heartbreaking.

She's also investigating her dad's death and trying to find out more on the type of man he was because her memories are scarce. She's still with her husband Troy and her childhood friend Brad. They seemed to have figured out their dynamic, but I would love to read more.
These books are mysteries with romance and they are addictive.

I highly recommend this book if you are looking for a good mystery with a morally grey main character. Both books surprised me with the outcomes.
Just a reminder that you need to read the first book, In the Wood Somewhere before this. Really well written book.

[Sahar Afshari · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is book two in the Stevie Diaz Mystery series by
Sam Evans. I absolutely loved book two and had a very
hard time putting it down. There are three situations
pulling you through this book. One, the love triangle
between Stevie, Brad, and Troy continues to simmer,
reaching a delightful temperature by the end of the
book. Two, unexpected buried family secrets come to
surface. The twist I was not expecting! Three,
Stevie is a juror on a high profile murder case.
Listening to the case day after day leaves Stevie
formulating her own questions and suspicions. Of
course, our favourite vigilante takes things into her
own hands.

[Hochi B · Rating 2 out of 5]

ChatGPT said:

I had high hopes for Down by the Water by Sam Evans, but it didn’t quite land for me. The beginning was promising, but the story lost momentum, and I struggled with the heroine—she came across as manipulative and annoying at times. I wanted to enjoy it, but it just wasn’t for me.

⭐️⭐️/5

[Skwurl · Rating 5 out of 5]

🌊 Down by the Water: A Stevie Diaz Mystery, Book 2

🚨ARC REVIEW🚨

This book had me HOOKED! Down by the Water is messy, dramatic, and impossible to put down. Stevie Diaz is such a hot mess, and I adore her. Half the time, I wanted to shake her and scream, the other half I wanted to cheer her on.

But listen… Troy. I LOVE him. Every time he was on the page, I was grinning like an idiot. He brings this spark that just melts my soul, and you can feel how much he absolutely loves Stevie. Their situationship hurts him so much, and it hurts me right along with him. Brad? GET OUT OF THERE LIFE!

The whole jury duty plot? In real life, it’s boring, but here it turns into secrets, danger, and twists I did not see coming. Every chapter dragged me deeper, and by the end I was just sitting there like… oh my god, what did I just read?

Sam Evans writes in a way that feels so real but also so cinematic, like a gritty movie unfolding in your hands. Dark, emotional, and addictive, this is absolutely one of my favorite reads of the year.

#DownByTheWater #SamEvans #StevieDiazMystery #ILoveTroy #spinofffortroy #bookreviews #bookcommunity #bookrecomendations