Still Waters: A Quin and Morgan Mystery [Mass Market Paperback]

In over two dozen previous books, John Moss has tackled the state of the Canadian novel, collated field notes on Ireland, studied the Arctic landscape, and collected some of his own short stories. Now he’s tried his hand at a mystery, the first in a new series featuring Toronto police detectives David Morgan and Miranda Quin, and the results reflect those many years Moss spent writing about so many different topics.  In part this is because Moss has invested a great deal of energy fleshing out his main protagonists, showing how their 10-year partnership is as complex as a marriage (but almost devoid of sexual tension) and developing the telling details that mark Morgan and Quin as individuals. But it’s also because once the setup – the discovery of a high-powered lawyer floating dead in a Rosedale koi pond and the mysterious appearance of his mistress at the crime scene – is complete, Moss dispenses with conventional police procedure in favor of examining truly dark and disquieting paths. The prevailing theme in Still Waters is the way misunderstanding both results from and begets violence. This is never clearer than in an extended description of a rape, which is made horrifying by its flat narration and by the victim’s stubborn belief that she bears some blame for the act. There are shifting identities, repressed memories, and red herrings, but above all there’s a sense of how family bonds are irrevocably corrupted from one generation to the next, and how only outside influences can force new bonds to anneal. As a crime novel, Still Waters is uneven and doesn’t balance horror and compassion as well as it should, but John Moss is off to a good start, and Morgan and Quin are promising and appealing protagonists worth following in future books.

"Moss spins a mystery that sparkles with dynamic setting … with vivid pictures, resonant insights and a spin on mystery storytelling that is as multilayered as it is beautiful, Moss teases us down the path to resolution. Still Waters is a mystery told by a storyteller par excellence and is not to be missed." (Don Graves Hamilton Spectator, The )

"Mosses' writing is as lush as the Canadian fall setting and as exotic as the Koi themselves. The book is brimming with imagery and he writes wonderfully clever dialogues between Quin and Morgan. They put me in mind of Reginald Hill's Daziel and Pascoe, or perhaps the clever cocktail commentary of Hammett's Thin Man duo, Nick and Nora Charles ... I look forward to another Quin and Morgan mystery ..." (Merrill Young Reviewing the Evidence )

"Still Waters is both an assured debut in the mystery category and offbeat in the charming way only a newbie can be ... If anything, Moss' character-driven writing in Still Waters reminds me of the involving work of the British write Reginal Hill in the famed Dalziel and Pascoe series." (Eric McMillan, Town-Crier )

Moss skillfully enlarges his story to make it more than a murder mystery: it is a life mystery .... This too is a powerful novel.

(Star Phoenix, The )

"…John Moss weaves a most unusual plot connecting the past and the present. He produces unexpected events and hints of secrets hidden in the minds of his characters."

(Connie's Reviews Online Blog )

This psychological mystery introduces David Morgan and Miranda Quin, two maverick and culturally sophisticated Toronto police detectives. When a man is found dead in a garden pond in the wealthy heart of Toronto's Rosedale neighbourhood Morgan is lead into speculations about Japanese ornamental koi fish, and Quin into a chilling sequence of revelations that could destroy her. But the real mystery begins not with the deceased but with a woman who walks onto the crime scene and without emotion declares herself to be the victim's mistress. From that point on everything changes, even the past.

JOHN MOSS is the author of two dozen books, including Invisible Among the Ruins: Field Notes of a Canadian in Ireland and Being Fiction, a collection of short stories. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a scuba diving instruction. He lives in a stone farmhouse in Peterborough, Ontario.