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Rating: 
Summary: intriguing plot marred by bad pacing...
Review: In the middle of making sure that all the inhabitants of River Terrace in the historic town of Shrewsbury have evacuated (the River Severn has burst its banks), the police make the startling discovery of a body in one of the houses. The house that the body was found in had been rented by James Humphreys, and the police, naturally, assume that the body is that of Humphreys; except that when Humphreys' wife turns up, she categorically denies that the body is that of her husband's. So if the body isn't James Humphreys', what was the dead man doing in the house that Humphreys rented? And why was he wearing Humphreys' clothes? And when the autopsy shows that the dead man was murdered in the house (the cellar actually), and then left there, Coroner Martha Gunn discovers the this particular case has captured her interest in a way that few others have. And she cannot help but want to be part of the investigation. And so, even though she shouldn't, Martha finds herself taking a hand in the investigation...I had high expectations of "River Deep," unfortunately, my hopes were not met. The plot was a very intriguing one, unfortunately the pacing was really off -- the flow was uneven and the story unfolded in fits and starts. And there was a scarcity of clues and suspects (red herrings or otherwise) -- this really frustrated me! Also halfway through the book, the novel's heroine, Martha Gunn, seems to have figured out what was going on before the police. Now how she was able to do this really stumped me -- perhaps I'm not as intelligent as I think I am! -- but I began to feel really sympathetic towards the blundering in the dark police officers. The other thing that frustrated me was that the authour had tagged on a small stalking subplot to the novel. This was NOT resolved at all, and Martha, the victim of this stalking simply shrugs it off!! I must be the only person to have found this development baffling and disturbing since neither the authour nor her editors were too worried about this. Ultimately however it was the poor and uneven pacing together with the scarcity of clues and suspects that made this a 2 star read for me.
Rating: 
Summary: A simmering mystery
Review: River Deep is a simmering mystery, set in a seemingly peaceful town in England. But a terrible murder has committed, of a man who cannot be positively identified - and with another man gone missing. A female coroner must question her instincts concerning the death, before more crime is unleashed upon the defenseless village in this tense page-turner.
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