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Amanda Hazard Mystery #1

Dead in the Water

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After finding farmer Bill Farley face down in his cattle trough, CPA and amateur sleuth Amanda Hazard searches for a country-bred killer among a growing list of suspects. Original.

279 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

63 people want to read

About the author

Connie Feddersen

10 books15 followers
aka Connie Drake, Debra Falcon, Carol Finch, Gina Robins

Connie Feddersen is one of romance and mystery's most prolific and versatile authors. With over 8 million copies of her brooks in print, she has received 8 awards and 19 nominations for outstanding achievement from Romantic Times Magazine. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Romance Writers of America and Oklahoma Professional Writers Hall of Fame.

Connie is well known for her fast-paced adventures, sparkling humor and lively dialogue. She is the best-selling author of historical and contemporary romance, as well as mystery and suspense. Writing under 5 pen names-Carol Finch, Gina Robins, Connie Drake, Debra Falcon and Connie Feddersen-she has penned 57 books for Zebra and Pinnacle Publishers.

Connie and her husband have 3 children and raise cattle and wheat on their ranch near Union City, Oklahoma.


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5 stars
16 (25%)
4 stars
19 (30%)
3 stars
16 (25%)
2 stars
8 (12%)
1 star
4 (6%)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Profile Image for Missy.
2,172 reviews33 followers
February 12, 2012
Book #2 read in 2005

This book was terrible. I only read the whole thing because I wanted to give the author a chance. It was more focused on childish dialogue ("He was murdered." "No, he wasn't." Yes, he was." "No, he wasn't." etc.) then on actually solving the crime. There was no clues at all to help the reader. And when the crime was wrapped up, it was done in such a way that I rolled my eyes and said - Give me a break. I usually give a series at least two books before I give up on it, but there is no way I am reading another of these.
Profile Image for Mary Cokenour.
476 reviews6 followers
June 23, 2017
This series was written in the 1990s, before the term "cozy mystery", was given to the genre; and the author, Connie Feddersen, was trying to balance mystery with romance. This is the first book of the series, but the reader is immediately thrown into a story that has developed way before. The main character, Amanda Hazard, is a well established accountant in Vamoose, OK; the sheriff, Nick Thorn, is Amanda's fantasy of Tom Selleck's Magnum PI. There is already tension between the two as she is seeing him as a small town, hick sheriff, while he is seeing her as a snotty, big city...yet beautiful and desirable...woman.

The entire story keeps flip flopping between the murder mystery and the sexual tension building between the two main characters; until both are finally solved at the end of the book. I have began the next book in the series, Death in the Cellar, and I'm seeing problems already from book one drifting into book two.
Profile Image for Erin *Proud Book Hoarder*.
2,963 reviews1,197 followers
October 22, 2021
I'm having the worst luck with books this week. 3 in a row I didn't enjoy.

First, this cover is adorable, but...

Major glaring issue is painfully incorrect shifting of point of view. Within the same paragraph, the same page, without warning, without pause, we keep hopping into either Amanda or Luke's head. It's jarring, annoying, and makes the writing detach from the story. Second, the first quarter is back and forth banter and romance is a little rushed and overshadows the story, which is quite frankly slightly boring. For a cozy the storyline isn't too bad and some of the town is amusing, but the writing and it mainly being a love interest head-hopping between two characters squashes it and makes it feel more like a chore than anything else.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews

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