Amy Stuart

From The Globe and Mail bestselling author of Still Mine comes a new thriller featuring Clare and Malcolm, this time on the hunt for a missing mother and son in a town that is drowning in deception—Clare may be in her gravest danger yet. HOW DO YOU FIND THE TRUTH IN A TOWN FULL OF SECRETS? Clare has to find them. Sally Proulx and her young boy have mysteriously disappeared in the stormy town of High River. Clare is hired to track them down, hoping against all odds to find them alive. But High River isn’t your typical town. It’s a place where women run to—women who want to escape their past. They run to Helen Haines, a matriarch who offers them safe haven and anonymity. Pretending to be Sally’s long-lost friend, Clare turns up and starts asking questions, but nothing prepares her for the swirl of deception and the depth of the lies. Did Sally drown? Did her son? Was it an accident, or is their disappearance part of something bigger? In a town where secrets are crucial to survival, everyone is hiding something. Detectives Somers and Rourke clearly have an ulterior motive beyond solving the case. Malcolm Boon, who hired Clare, knows more about her than he reveals. And Helen is concealing a tragic family history of her own. As the truth surges through High River, Clare must face the very thing she has so desperately been running from, even if it comes at a devastating cost. Compulsively gripping and twisty, Still Water is a deep dive of a thriller that will leave you breathless.

Still Water

Briar's Reviews

Eons ago, my Mom went into Coles in our local mall and wanted to pick up books similar to V.C. Andrews. My Mom is OBSESSED with V.C. Andrews and for many decades she wouldn't read any other author (as if reading another author was cheating... I'd be screwed!). She was recommended two books, and Still Water by Amy Stuart was one of them. She was none too pleased with this book since it was not even close to V.C. Andrews, so she passed this book along to me so I could enjoy the thriller.

Well, I sure did enjoy it!

Clare, a young lady with a dark past, is hired to track down a woman named Sally Proulx and her son, who have disappeared in the town of High River. She ran away from her problems and took up housing in a local safe haven, but it appears it wasn't all that safe for her. Clare pretends to be her best friend, which brings up many questions among the locals, but lucky for her... the truth is just around the corner.

Clare's sequel story is interesting, that's for sure, but I found it oddly slow. I expected a fast paced thrill ride, and I got a moderate level of thrills. You need to extend your disbelief quite a bit to follow along with some of the plot lines of this novel, but regardless it's a good read that will make you think. Give me a story with a woman trying to seek other missing women when she's essentially lost herself, and you've got me hooked! 

Dark trauma/drama, mysterious characters and back stories, and tough topics without the brutal narrative are pinnacles of this story. And, I'll be honest, you don't even need the first book to understand this sequel. I still haven't read the first book and I found this book to do quite well on it's own. I'm sure it would have made a lot more sense knowing everything that happened in book one, but as a standalone, Still Water works.

I do wonder though.... How did people fall for Clare being Sally's best friend when she knew basically nothing about her? She did change her story to just being a friend and not a best friend at one point, but still...

Enjoy a book where Helen's home is opened to women seeking refuge. Where her daughter and siblings are near by, causing trouble, acting suspicious, and potentially making trouble for the neighbours. This psychological thriller will have you guessing who done it... And do we even have a reliable narrator?

Four out of five stars.

Ana Paula

Loved it, it was great.

This was the first book I read from Amy Stuart and it was a magnificent first impression. Although right at the end I felt like I had won a Clue game it was an amazing journey to get there, the secrets that you 'uncover' throughout the book not only about the main character, Clare, but about all others... Even those who didn't seem important.

The fact that this book touches two quite strong themes: domestic violence, physical and verbal, and drug abuse. The writer reminds us that there are shelters and lawyers that help women in the first scenario and the second one is not spoken about too directly, but you really get to understand some effects of it when reading the book (at least I did).

Would 10/10 recommend Still Water 😊

Susan Forsythe

Taylor

How do you find the truth in a town full of secrets? Clare has to find them. Sally Proulx and her young boy have mysteriously disappeared in the stormy town of High River. Clare is hired to track them down, hoping against all odds to find them alive. But High River isn’t your typical town. It’s a place where women run to—women who want to escape their past. They run to Helen Haines, a matriarch who offers them safe haven and anonymity. Pretending to be Sally’s long-lost friend, Clare turns up and starts asking questions, but nothing prepares her for the swirl of deception and the depth of the lies. Did Sally drown? Did her son? Was it an accident, or is their disappearance part of something bigger? In a town where secrets are crucial to survival, everyone is hiding something. Detectives Somers and Rourke clearly have an ulterior motive beyond solving the case. Malcolm Boon, who hired Clare, knows more about her than he reveals. And Helen is concealing a tragic family history of her own. As the truth surges through High River, Clare must face the very thing she has so desperately been running from, even if it comes at a devastating cost. Compulsively gripping and twisty, Still Water is a deep dive of a thriller that will leave you breathless.