Deep Waters

By: Jayne Ann Krentz

Narrated by: Stephanie Diaz

Charity Truitt was fighting yet another panic attack that made it increasingly clear she was not going to complete the corporate merger between the Truitt department store chain and Loftus Athletic Gear. She was not going to marry Brett Loftus either....

Notorious deal maker Elias Winters had changed gears and soon after, settled in Whispering Waters Cove. He'd been studying martial arts and Asian philosophy with one burning goal in mind - only to discover that he'd been swept into unknown emotional seas....

Facing crises of career and heart, two of the most powerful corporate figures in the Northwest are now borne by the currents of fate to the same small Washington town, and to their respective shops - a bookstore for Charity and a small curiosity shop for Elias. But no one, especially Charity Truitt, believes that Elias Winters has suddenly stopped out swimming the corporate sharks just to run a small business. As Charity and Elias begin a cautious exploration of each other's pasts, hidden agendas, and libidos, they discover one thing they definitely have in common: a martial arts master, he's a novice at relationships; a formidable executive, she's starting in the mailroom when it comes to love. After two shocking murders, Charity and Elias really join forces to catch a killer - and become next in line for an early demise.

In a story that is at once a 1990s Hepburn-Tracy affair and an astute observation of life in the Northwest, Deep Waters resonates with wit, vivid characters, and a mystery-romance to die for. Jayne Ann Krentz, as always, is a master!

©2008 Jayne Ann Krentz (P)2008 Simon & Schuster

Entertaining

I enjoy Jayne Ann Krentz's books no matter what name she writes under. I've read most of her books and now I'm listening to them too.

They got it wrong

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

no

Who was your favorite character and why?

The parot

What didn’t you like about Stephanie Diaz’s performance?

From the beginning of the book it constantly describes Isic's voice as very deep but the reader could not achieve anything like a deep voice. The character Isic's voice ended up sounding like a wimpy 13 year old boy. They got it wrong for this book it should have been read by a man. Most of the main characters were men.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

no film

Any additional comments?

I love Krents books and believe I have listened to most this one was hard for me to get through. Like I said I felt it should have been read by a man.

Good

A good book, although I had to get used to the voice and pace of the narrator. She talks a bit too fast for me. The story is good and entertaining. I can recommend it.

Waters Run Deep

If you could sum up Deep Waters in three words, what would they be?

Watery love story

Who was your favorite character and why?

When they say animals and babies steal the show, it is the truth the bird was an added character in this story that surprised you at the end.

Have you listened to any of Stephanie Diaz’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No this is my first and I did not think she did a bad job

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I thought it was funny in some parts while it made you think of the important things in life in other parts of the book

Nice Romance with Light Mystery

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend the paper version of this book which I did enjoy. I could not recommend the audio version due to the narrator.

What other book might you compare Deep Waters to and why?

Deep Waters is similar to other Jayne Ann Krentz books set in the northwest US, aspects of paranormal powers, romantic mystery, etc.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator reminded me of high school kids in class play - too melodramatic. It is very irritating and made me want to stop listening. Very unprofessional.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. The narrator was too annoying to listen to for very long.

Any additional comments?

I have read all of Jayne Ann Krentz's, Jayne Castle's and Amanda Quick's books and enjoyed them all. Narrators can destroy a favorite book by being too melodramatic or with other idiosyncrasies. Publishers should be required to fully listen to at least 5 chapters before they confirm a narrator.

This reading of the novel added greatly to my enjoyment of it

I listen to audio books because I have an age and genetic related problem with the vision in one eye and need to keep from straining my eyesight. I had read this book a couple of times since it was published but this is the first time I listened to the audio book version. I really enjoyed the audio interpretation done by the reader and the director of this audio book. I actually enjoyed it more than the times I read it. It added a new dimension to the character of Elias, the hero. When I had read this book in the past, I had an ambivalent reaction to Elias as a hero. His character, as portrayed by the voice actress, added a depth that made him a more likeable hero.

I have listened to many audio books in the past two years, the good, the bad, the so so. It is not often that a narration does that, helps to illuminate the personality of a character in a novel. I hope to find more audio books that are directed and acted so well.

Narrator Kills Story

The book itself was mildly entertaining, would possibly have been better with a narrator that had more experience. To bad a writer with the experience of Krentz had to have an inexperienced narrator. The poor parrot paid the price.

don't bother buying it

struggled to finished this book was hard to follow I will never listen to it again

It was good enough that I finished the book

but that's the best I can say. I didn't much care for the central characters. I found them whiney. this is definitely a mid-90s story. The characters were stock, the heroine is shrill though some of that may have been the narrator's interpretation. She is a bossy know-it-all who jumps to conclusions constantly and does little fact finding. It's hard to picture her as taking over a falling department store and putting it back on its feet (that happened before the beginning pig the book). Her opponents are a sleazy realtor, the kind that wears a flashy diamond ring to show how successful he is, and the town's mayor who is strident in her desire to turn the town into a trendy boutique vacation area. When someone finally gets killed it's almost a relief. It could be reworked into a good story but with Krentz writing so many winners and apparently never at a loss for ideas I can't see why she would want to.

Good mystery and characters, but bad narrator.

I enjoyed this as a paperback when I read it ten years ago. Recently I listened to the audiobook and was bored. There were too many philosophical comments about water like “Things are clearest in deep water” or “One pebble causes many ripples.” I think when I read the paperback I skipped over those. But in the audiobook there were too many and they felt odd.

But the worst thing was the audiobook narrator - Stephanie Diaz. She is fast reading without thinking about what she is reading. She does not read with feeling or curiosity about what is happening. It was hard to pay attention. The characters sounded like teenagers - tone of voice, emotional reaction, stubbornness, being sarcastic. They didn’t sound like adults except for the hero who sounded like a soft-spoken woman.

My tastes have been changing over the years. Some of the romance novels I used to read are less appealing to me now. If you currently like romance, you might like the paperback. Below are my comments from 2008.

I enjoyed Charity’s directness and honesty. She and Elias were doing their casual bantering during their getting-to-know-each-other phase, but when asked a direct question, she was refreshingly honest, even when once her answer was “Let me get back to you on that.” I enjoyed the stories surrounding Charity and Elias. They were both successful in the corporate world but left that world to run small shops in a small town. They cook gourmet meals for each other. Elias practices an esoteric eastern zen-type philosophy, based on meditation, contemplating water and martial arts. The main focus of the book is solving the mystery of who killed someone and why.

DATA:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Swearing language: a few occurrences. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: four. Setting: current day Seattle and a small coastal town in northern Washington State called Whispering Waters Cove. Copyright: 1996. Genre: romantic mystery.