Dead in the Water: A Novel

Book Description

In Dead in the Water, Stone has barely arrived in St. Marks, a lovely Caribbean island nation, on a sailing vacation when something very strange happens: A beautiful young woman sails into the harbor, entirely alone on a large yacht. Before long she is under the intense scrutiny of local authorities in the very considerable person of Sir Winston Sutherland, the minister of Justice. The problem is, though she arrived alone, she had departed the other side of the Atlantic in the company of her husband, a well-known writer, who is no longer in evidence.

Evidence is what fascinates Stone Barrington, and before many pages have been turned, he is all that stands between the apparently innocent Allison Manning and the patently evil intent of Sir Winston, whose motives are unclear. What is clear is that the St. Marks' system of justice bears little resemblance to the American courts to which Stone is accustomed and that his smallest error could prove fatal to his client.

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E-book Extra: 'We Are Very Different People": Stuart Woods on Stone Barrington. When beautiful Allison Manning arrives in St. Marks without her husband, she falls under the scrutiny of the notorious Minister of Justice Sir Winston Sutherland. Ex-cop attorney Stone Barrington spots Sutherland's strange motives, and must race to sort madness from murder -- before the storm of the century.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent fast paced mystery with a surprise ending.......2006-04-19

I'm really enjoying all of the Stuart Woods' novels with Stone Barrington. This one was a continuation of Stone's private life with a huge adventure into a hellish vacation in St. Marks defending a woman of murdering her husband. It's a fun ride. The only thing I'm always surprised at is Stone's avarice for bedding anything in a skirt. Of course they're all "beautiful" women with a voracious desire for sex, but it makes ole' Stone seem like a whore. Nevertheless, this book was a great read.

Jaw-dropping twists!.......2006-04-13

After Stone Barrington is stood up by his girl during a trip to St. Mark's, he gets involved in a murder trial for a fellow American, a young woman whom the local governmental big-wigs are apparently intent on railroading into a murder charge whether she is guilty or not. Stone, desperate to find some way to pressure the St. Mark's government into backing off, starts a major media blitz in the U.S. and floods the island with reporters. Various twists and turns ensue, and the final couple of twists in the story will absolutely blow your mind.

Woods had apparently been reading some L.E. Modesitt, Jr. around the time he wrote this, as he began paying very close attention to details about food for some reason, which I found quite wonderful. It's the tiny little day-to-day details in a book that truly bring it to life. I am not certain why more people do not enjoy this - I guess too many people want instant gratification and constant bang-bang action. I blame the television, and video and computer games for this. It has destroyed our capacity to enjoy details and the slow building of a story. Huzzah to Stuart Woods for going ahead and doing this anyway! He builds wonderful details into this book while still providing the action, suspense and thrills we have come to love from this series. I am hooked!

Shallow 'Water' .......2005-05-10

Stuart Woods' gifts as a writer are primarily in storytelling. His writing style isn't particularly exceptional and his characters are woefully one-dimensional, but he can spin a tale that'll keep you turning the pages. His Stone Barrington series is sort of the literary equivalent of an enjoyable-but-mediocre TV detective series. With "Dead in the Water," though, he drowns his story in bland dialog and meaningless detail (glad I'm not the only one annoyed that Woods chronicles the making of a Caesar salad, which was slightly more exciting than Stone Barrington's adventures in an earlier chapter making linguine and clam sauce). Though the state of journalism has declined to a degree that I could believe reporters could be goaded by a PR firm into flocking to an island resort to cover the plight of a rich housewife, the journalists in "Water" are never believable as journalists. Or as people. In fact, it's hard to believe any of the people in "Water," with all the characters shallow and broadly drawn. I never pick up a Woods novel with high expectations, but "Dead in the Water" leaves readers splashing around in a wading pool.

more twists than a pretzel factor!.......2004-12-11

ok, that title's a little cliched, but it pretty much sums up this book..

stone barrington returns for another great whodunnit penned by stewart woods..and this is my favorite of his books so far...

there's more than a few jaw dropping moments in this one...and the ending will have you wanting to read the very next book (which I plan on doing very soon)

very good read for fans of stone barrington, stuart woods, or good crime novels in general

Stuart Woods improves with each book........2004-09-23

I just started reading the Stone Barrington series. I'm finding that with each book, his storytelling gets a little better. Mind you, the first two were both enjoyable and quick reads, but I found that this one was more exciting. It's not necessary to rehash the plot, but the book definitely builds momentum at the end. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to other Stone Barrington fans. You will find, though, that it is best to read the books in order. He builds on the character with each book and makes references that would be lost if you haven't read each book that preceded it.

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Losing Bad Memories One Bird at a Time
Powerful in an understated way
unusual, unpredictable
uncommonly graceful
Prose that Soars

The Book of Dead Birds: A Novel
Gayle Brandeis
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0060528036
Release Date: 2003-04-29

Book Description

Winner of Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize, an award in support of a literature of social responsibility, The Book of Dead Birds is an intimate portrait of a young woman at a defining moment in her life, who stands at the intersection of two cultures and races.

Ava Sing Lo has been accidentally killing her mother's birds since she was a little girl. Now, having just finished her graduate work, Ava leaves her native San Diego for the Salton Sea, where she volunteers to help environmental activists save thousands of birds poisoned by agricultural run-off.

Helen, Ava's mother, has been haunted by her past for decades. As a young girl in Korea, Helen was drawn into prostitution on a segregated American army base. Several brutal years passed before a young white American soldier married her and brought her to California. When she gave birth to a black baby, her new husband quickly abandoned her, and she was left to fend for herself and her daughter in a foreign country.

With great beauty and lyricism, The Book of Dead Birds captures a young woman's struggle to come to terms with her mother's terrible past while she searches for her own place in the world. This moving mother-daughter story of migration, survival, and reconciliation resonates across cultures and through generations.

Customer Reviews:

Losing Bad Memories One Bird at a Time.......2007-05-07

I loved this book. The Mother's need to save every injured and neglected bird was so sad but also loving. The stories that she couldn't share with her daughter were lived through her actions. I thought this was a beautifully written book and I loved how every element however small it may have seemed at first was actually essential to the story and its resolution.

Powerful in an understated way.......2006-07-05

The characters were opened, raw and bleeding, stark under a bright light, much like the diseased and dying birds.
I was drawn to this book, but unsure exactly why. Maybe hope kept me going, but I was on some level grabbed by the understated power & intensitiy of this book.

unusual, unpredictable.......2006-02-17

This book kept you wondering where it was going next. The main characters were rich and flawed at the same time.

uncommonly graceful.......2005-04-06

Ms. Brandeis, the author of the inspirational nonfiction book for writers, Fruitflesh, scores again with this uncommonly lovely and graceful story about Ava Sing Lo, a San Diego native who learns to save birds rather than killing them, and her mother, Helen, who grew up in Korea where she was used as a prostitute on a U.S. army base. There is redemption here that does not come easy, making it all the more worthwhile when it at last arrives.

Prose that Soars.......2005-01-15

The Book of Dead Birds is a story within a story, layered with dead birds, historical tragedy, and the hope for future flight no matter how deeply a bird has been wounded. Following the life of heroine Ava Sing Lo, in first-person present tense, this novel explores themes of race, exploitation, pollution, and indigenous cultural survival. The book includes excerpts from Ava's mother's journal, which is actually an encyclopedia of dead birds, revealing a voice that holds the burdens of witness, grief, anger and defeat, in single-page entries, here and there throughout the book. Lyrical & redemptive storytelling.

Dead Water Rites: A Novel (Joynes, St. Leger. Booker Series, 4th.)

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Dead Water Rites

Dead Water Rites: A Novel (Joynes, St. Leger. Booker Series, 4th.)
St. Leger Joynes , and Monty Joynes
Manufacturer: Hampton Roads Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1571741909

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Dead Water Rites.......2002-10-28

Dead Water Rites is the fourth book in the Booker Series by Monty Joynes, however readers new to Joynes will understand its powerful message of man's fate if he continues to rape the earth.

A white man known sometimes as Booker and sometimes as Anglo "searches for new identity and spiritual completeness among the Pueblo people." He learns how water is the very lifeblood of the People, and that they regard it as a "living being." A tribal elder sees the water drying up and dying, and trusts Booker with the mission of finding the source of the "sick water."

If the water is truly dying, then the dead water rites will be performed, and life will cease to exist.

As he searches for the sick water, Booker also continues his journey of spiritual growth. He meets a militant female environmentalist, and begins learning of some of the politics involved in water rights. He also learns that perhaps the celibate life isn't right for him after all.

A group of land developers with the philosophy that "any day is a good day to make money" are also looking at the water. They draw up a proposal for a gambling casino, replete with promises of economic security. Buried in the fine print are the clauses handing over all water rights.

A former real estate developer himself, Booker recognizes the true impact of the casino on the People. He explains this to the tribal elders, who say they will "continue to pray and seek a vision." Booker and the young woman are seriously injured in a car accident, from which it takes months to recover. The developers move ahead unhampered with their plans.

Dead Water Rites "is lucid and literary, an articulate and artful plea to cease our self-destructive exploitation of the environment and native people." Those who read it will gain a new respect for the liquid essential to all life on Earth, and a better understanding of those who seek to keep it alive.

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By Stuart Woods, Dead In The Water: A Novel; Unabridged 7 Audio Cassettes, Read By Jonathan Marosz
Stuart Woods
Manufacturer: Books on Tape, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: B000JLAW94

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DEAD WATER - AN INSPECTOR ALLEYN NOVEL
Ngaio Marsh
Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000TBDR9Q

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Raise The Dead #3 : Thicker Than Water (Arthur Suydam's Andy Warhol / Marilyn Monroe Tribute Cover - Dynamite Comic Book 2007)
Leah Moore , and John Reppion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Comic Strips | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: B000RPN83O

Product Description

Dynamite enters the land of the dead with an all-new Zombie tale set in the middle of a full-scale zombie infestation! This time though, theres a twist, as Dynamite puts the "living" into the living dead! Writers Leah Moore and John Reppion are joined by the newest Dynamite artistic sensation, Hugo Petrus, for this special Zombie event! In issue #3, our dwindling band of survivors has headed out of the city and straight towards a research facility where they hope to take shelter from the growing undead tide. But what - and who - they will find there is just another horrific chapter in their desperate bid for survival!

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Dead in the Water: A Novel
Stuart Woods
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NWAJRO

Painkiller Jane #2 : Dead in the Water (Event Comics)

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Painkiller Jane #2 : Dead in the Water (Event Comics)
Brian Augustyn , and Mark Waid
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Amazon.com

Private investigator Kinsey Millhone has served Sue Grafton well through 16 letters of the alphabet in a perennially popular series that occasionally breaks new ground but more often traverses familiar territory, as is the case here. Two old, ailing cops--one retired, the other disabled--try to breathe some life into an 18-year-old mystery that haunts them both for different reasons. They enlist Kinsey's help in identifying the victim, a young woman who was murdered and left for dead in the old quarry of the title. Neither they nor Kinsey expect that reopening an old case will incite the killer to strike again--not once, but twice. And while the real case of the still-unidentified victim that inspired this fictionalized scenario continues to languish in the cold case file in the Santa Barbara sheriff's office, Grafton's solution is as plausible as any. While the unlikely trio of Millhone and her cranky geezer sidekicks offers a few chuckles, the inner reaches of Kinsey's soul remain largely inaccessible to her as well as to the reader, which will probably not bother most of Kinsey's or Grafton's many admirers. --Jane Adams

Book Description

She was a "Jane Doe," an unidentified white female whose decomposed body was discovered near a quarry off California's Highway 1. The case fell to the Santa Teresa County Sheriff's Department, but the detectives had little to go on. The woman was young, her hands were bound with a length of wire, there were multiple stab wounds, and her throat had been slashed. After months of investigation, the murder remained unsolved.

That was eighteen years ago. Now the two men who found the body, both nearing the end of long careers in law enforcement, want one last shot at the case. Old and ill, they need someone to help with their legwork and they turn to Kinsey Millhone. They will, they tell her, find closure if they can just identify the victim. Kinsey is intrigued and agrees to the job.

But revisiting the past can be a dangerous business, and what begins with the pursuit of Jane Doe's real identity ends in a high-risk hunt for her killer.

Q is for Quarry is based on an unsolved homicide that occurred in 1969, and Grafton's interest in the case has generated renewed police efforts. During the past year, the body was exhumed and a nationally known forensic artist did the facial reconstruction that appears in the closing pages of Q is for Quarry. Both Grafton and the dedicated members of the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department are hoping the photograph will trigger memories that may lead to a positive identification.

On the day Jane Doe was reburied, many officers were at the gravesite. "It's eerie," Grafton writes, "to think about the power this woman still has. Here we are, thirty-three years later, and she still wants to go home."

Customer Reviews:

Stone Deep.......2007-07-17

We've cheered for Kinsey Millhone from the beginning. "Q is for Quarry" pulls Kinsey out of a drab, newly acquired office and out into the field of pure police work. She is recruited by Stacy Oliphant, a retired cancer victim and Con Dolan, who is on medical leave to help them with one of the original cold case files. This trip Kinsey does leave the little black dress at home and gets caught having to attend a funeral.
Sue Grafton takes the reader on an extensive tour of the California desert country with slight clues that later take big steps from her 3x5 index file notes. Ms. Grafton has a fantastic grasp of description of the minute details which make her writing style both unique and compelling.
Thanks for another great read from a loyal fan.
Nash Black, author of "Qualifying Laps" and "Sins of the Fathers."

Q is for Quarry.......2007-06-28

This novel even though it is fiction is written in and around Santa Barbara County and that is home. It is great to figure out the new names for old places.

A Long Time Kinsey Fan.......2006-08-27

I really like the storyline of this book. I am interested in cold cases and liked the fact that this book was loosely based on a real unsolved California cold case. The book still drug for me in places like I feel all her books do but I am still glad I read it. I liked the addition of Detectives Oliphant and Dolan and the interaction between them and Kinsey. Overall a good read.

Grafton keeps us on the edge of our seats...and slowly falling........2006-07-13

PI Kinsey Millhone is at it again, this time trying to solve the eighteen-year-old murder of a previous `cold case'--an unidentified female victim.

Teamed ironically with two elderly cops, the ones who had originally found the woman's body, Kinsey sets out to discover both the identity of the victim and her killer who dumped the body in an old quarry.

Sue Grafton's 17th suspense novel in the `alphabet series' is filled with unexpected twists and turns, not to mention infused with Grafton's wry sense of humor. I loved the quirky relationship between the two old cops, Dolan and Oliphant! Amidst a story of tragic death and horrific murder, they were a great addition and added definite comic relief.

I would have like to see Kinsey's past delved into a bit more, but Grafton is the Queen of `dangling the carrot'. I'll be sure to read the next one (although I'm a bit behind in my reading as I'm busy writing my own novels). It's going to be a sad day when Sue Grafton finally gets to the letter `Z'.

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif
Author of Divine Intervention and The River
and Whale Song (978-1-897339-02-2) available 2007 from Kunati Books

MY FIRST SUE GRAFTON BOOK!! .......2006-06-29

THIS WAS THE FIRST SUE GRAFTON BOOK I HAVE EVER READ AND I MUST SAY I ENJOYED IT VERY MUCH. I LIKE THE WAY SHE KEPT IT LIGHT BUT IT HAD A GREAT STORY WITH THE COLD MURDER CASE, WHICH YOU FIND OUT IN THE END IS ACTUALLY BASED ON A REAL COLD MURDER CASE.
I ENJOYED THE CHARACTERS AND WILL DEFINATELY READ ANOTHER ONE OF HER BOOKS.

'q' Is For Quarry - A Kinsey Millhone Mystery

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'q' Is For Quarry - A Kinsey Millhone Mystery
Sue Grafton
Manufacturer: G. P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: B000IY3QD6

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Q is for Quarry
Sue Grafton
Manufacturer: Putnam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0739429337

Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries, Books N-S ("N" is for Noose, "O" is for Outlaw, "P" is for Peril, "Q" is for Quarry, "R" is for Ricochet, and "S" is for Silence)

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Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Mysteries, Books N-S ("N" is for Noose, "O" is for Outlaw, "P" is for Peril, "Q" is for Quarry, "R" is for Ricochet, and "S" is for Silence)
Sue Grafton
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Product Description

"N" is for Noose, "O" is for Outlaw, "P" is for Peril, "Q" is for Quarry, "R" is for Ricochet, and "S" is for Silence

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Q De Quien / Q Is for Quarry
Sue Grafton , and Antonio-prometeo Moya
Manufacturer: TusQuets
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Q Is for Quarry

Manufacturer: Berkley Pub Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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ASIN: B000HIP9JM

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Q is for Quarry
Sue Grafton
Manufacturer: G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: B000OKNYU4

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Q Is for Quarry Signed
Sue Grafton
Manufacturer: PENGUIN PUTNAM * TRADE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VRMVHC

Reader's Digest Select Editions (Hornet Flight, Leaving Eden, Q is for Quarry, Nights in Rodanthe, Volume 2 2003)

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Reader's Digest Select Editions (Hornet Flight, Leaving Eden, Q is for Quarry, Nights in Rodanthe, Volume 2 2003)
N/A
Manufacturer: Reader's Digest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VQFUPI

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Reader's Digest Select Editions (Hornet Flight, Leaving Eden, Q is for Quarry, Nights in Rodanthe, Volume 2 2003)

Manufacturer: Reader's Digest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000EMW0R0

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