Still Waters – Book Review

Until this month I had never heard of Tami Hoag, when I heard a book review of her latest offering on the 702 book show I made a mental note of her name. Odd that I haven’t heard of her, she has been writing for yonks and is very prolific. By coincidence in the same week I found a copy of her book ‘Still Waters’ at the 2nd hand book stall which I frequent.

Still Waters is a good light read but was not what I expected, I was a little worried that I would be terrified. The reviews at the front of the book are all along the lines of ‘turn on all the lights and lock the doors before reading’. I am a ninny, I don’t watch horror movies, my heart sits in my throat watching ‘Breaking Bad’ and during the ‘scary dark place with a pissy little torch’ scene in every X-files episode I find an excuse to hide in the kitchen for a few mins. I was worried that Tami Hoag may be too scary for my faint heart but that was not the case. I thought that the book would fit more snugly in the romance genre than crime / thriller. The book starts with the discovery of a murdered corpse but then the body count remains at 1 until about 3/4 through the book. During the first 3 quarters the focus is entirely on the friction and exchanged witticisms between the primary characters who clearly will fall in love and live happily ever after.

The romantic conclusion is exactly what you expect from the moment the hero and heroine meet and clash, it’s romance formula to a T. The crime side of the story is also very much punched out according to formula but held my attention. I will probably read at least 1 more of her books for escapist entertainment but from this example I won’t expect anything special or out of the ordinary.