Rating: 
Summary: fast-paced amateur sleuth mystery
Review: After leaving the marines due to an exercise scandal leaving seven soldiers dead, former drill Sergeant Fielding Smallwood accompanied by his family relocates in Beaufort, South Carolina. Fielding almost immediately starts an affair with a local widow even as his wife Lena is dying. His adult children detest Fielding, who has treated his family like he did his units, but feels they are his failures. His son Hank returns home after doing the worst deed by going AWOL two years ago. His youngest daughter Claire is a loser divorcee with three children. His other son Ashby is an unacceptable gay. Finally, Fielding blames all his trouble on his fourth child Georgie.They become even angrier with him when, without consulting his four adult children, Fielding has his spouse taken off life-support. As the children commiserate with one another, they all wish Fielding was dead. They got what they asked for as someone murders the former marine. Law enforcement believes that one or more of his chidlren committed the crime with Claire being the one arrested. This leaves it up to Georgie to uncover the truth because she cannot accept that brittle Claire had the iron to kill anyone. HIGH WATER is more than just a fast-paced amateur sleuth mystery. The story line focuses on a dysfunctional southern family struggling with self-images and interrelationships, of which none of the siblings seem capable of maintaining. The story line is fast-paced as expected from a Lynn Hightower tale, but the plot clearly belongs to the Smallwood family, as the author strips their souls bare for the audience to understand them inside a strong mystery. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: fast-paced amateur sleuth mystery
Review: After leaving the marines due to an exercise scandal leaving seven soldiers dead, former drill Sergeant Fielding Smallwood accompanied by his family relocates in Beaufort, South Carolina. Fielding almost immediately starts an affair with a local widow even as his wife Lena is dying. His adult children detest Fielding, who has treated his family like he did his units, but feels they are his failures. His son Hank returns home after doing the worst deed by going AWOL two years ago. His youngest daughter Claire is a loser divorcee with three children. His other son Ashby is an unacceptable gay. Finally, Fielding blames all his trouble on his fourth child Georgie. They become even angrier with him when, without consulting his four adult children, Fielding has his spouse taken off life-support. As the children commiserate with one another, they all wish Fielding was dead. They got what they asked for as someone murders the former marine. Law enforcement believes that one or more of his chidlren committed the crime with Claire being the one arrested. This leaves it up to Georgie to uncover the truth because she cannot accept that brittle Claire had the iron to kill anyone. HIGH WATER is more than just a fast-paced amateur sleuth mystery. The story line focuses on a dysfunctional southern family struggling with self-images and interrelationships, of which none of the siblings seem capable of maintaining. The story line is fast-paced as expected from a Lynn Hightower tale, but the plot clearly belongs to the Smallwood family, as the author strips their souls bare for the audience to understand them inside a strong mystery. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful but very sad
Review: Don't read this book if you're looking for a cheer-up. Hightower writes about yet another dysfunctional southern family. The heroine, Georgie, has escaped to her own antique shop; her sister is charmingly in her own world; her brother is gay. Georgie had a baby at the age of sixteen, a son who is now sixteen himself, and who has disappeared for the last two years. The family comes together after their mother dies under mysterious circumstances and Georgie suspects their father was responsible. Their father, while not typically abusive, could be cruel; his life has been directed by a stint in the Marine Corps, where he met men who would influence the rest of his life. Although the story is a suspenseful page-turner, we don't learn the story until the last few pages, when everything comes together. We get a sense of "Yes, now it all makes sense."
Yet in the end three people are dead and two were innocent of anything except getting caught up too deeply in the family struggles. One was implicated, falsely, in a murder. Among novels of dysfunctional families and psychological suspense, High Water ranks as one of the best. Unfortunately, I had just picked up Sacrament of Lies by Elizabeth Dewberry, which has a similar theme -- heroine wondering if father killed mother -- but is not as plausible, deep or well-written. After reading the two in sequence, I began to wonder if this isn't some new sub-genre, just as child and wife abuse was a theme a few years ago.
If you have to choose, read this one.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent murder mystery
Review: Excuse me, but aren't most all families somewhat dysfunctional? That's what makes Southern writers so intriguing and all of us Southerners so fascinating....our shameless ability to admit to and share our dysfunction with the world. I loved this bittersweet, melancholy tale of a family in crisis. Hightower has the basics of family dynamics down to an art in this tale of three siblings who have to deal with the apparent suicide of their mother and the murder of their mean, controlling, ex-military father. I read this one in a day and loved the surprise ending. I highly recommend all of Hightower's books!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent murder mystery
Review: Excuse me, but aren't most all families somewhat dysfunctional? That's what makes Southern writers so intriguing and all of us Southerners so fascinating....our shameless ability to admit to and share our dysfunction with the world. I loved this bittersweet, melancholy tale of a family in crisis. Hightower has the basics of family dynamics down to an art in this tale of three siblings who have to deal with the apparent suicide of their mother and the murder of their mean, controlling, ex-military father. I read this one in a day and loved the surprise ending. I highly recommend all of Hightower's books!
Rating: 
Summary: Depressing
Review: I bought this book thinking it was the next in the Sonora Blair series. The only reason I finished it is because I can't bring myself not to finish a book I've started. What was apparently supposed to be "suspense" came across as a very poor effort at writing literary fiction. The book had a very depressing tone to it, and I read it more to get through it and be done with it than because I was enjoying it. Stick with the Sonora Blair series -- this one really isn't entertainment and takes a whole lot of effort just to read.
Rating:
Summary: Really liked it!
Review: I love Lynn Hightower's writing. She is one of my most favorite writers. After reading Debt Collector I couldn't wait for another "Senora" book but I really liked High Water.
High Water is high-grade entertainment from beginning to the end. Another great story from Ms. Hightower!
Rating:
Summary: I miss Senora but I love this book!
Review: I love Lynn Hightower's writing. She is one of my most favorite writers. After reading Debt Collector I couldn't wait for another "Senora" book but I really liked High Water.
High Water is high-grade entertainment from beginning to the end. Another great story from Ms. Hightower!
Rating:
Summary: I miss Senora but I love this book!
Review: I love Lynn Hightower's writing. She is one of my most favorite writers. After reading Debt Collector I couldn't wait for another "Senora" book but I really liked High Water.
High Water is high-grade entertainment from beginning to the end. Another great story from Ms. Hightower!
Rating:
Summary: Really liked it!
Review: I was initially disappointed to find that I had not purchased a Sonora Blair novel, but immediately was taken in by the easy writing style of Lynn Hightower. I love her short chapters, twists and turns, and interesting characters. Miss Hightower never lets you down at the end of her books and I was shocked as I read the last chapter. WOW.
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