Stars: 3 / 5
Recommendation: This was not the best book, but not worst either. At least the plot has some meat, and yes, she could reduce some pages. It was overdone and distracted a lot.
Below the Surface is the second book in the anthology book Still Water published in October of 2016 and written by Karen Harper. The stand-alone book by itself was first published in January of 2008.
Briana “Bree” Devon just makes in alive from a scuba dive in the midst of an unexpected storm in The Gulf of Mexico off South Florida. But she loses her dice boat and her twin, Daria. With help of her rescuer Cole DeRoca she sets on a mission to find what happened to her twin sister and in the process find the secrets she has been hiding.
The plot begins in 2006. And we go into underbelly of rescue and salvage world where the people not only find lost people and artifacts, but also underwater surveys helping environment stability; hull maintenance and everything that comes under the umbrella.
Author also explores supernatural element in a smaller note, specially around heightened perceptions by her heroine all due to environmental reasons. However the plot droned on a lot. Easily Harper could have reduced easily 100 or so pages. The whole chapter where Briana visits Josh Austin’s in laws sugar cane land was rather lengthy and felt the characters were forcing the scene.
There is lot of mystery in the story, but along the way it started to lose momentum and get the reader a bit bored. In fact I speed read the last three chapters. Also I cant believe Briana was very forgiving at the two people who could have helped save Daria from the situation. In real life not sure someone be so forgiving. That was a little unbelievable.
This was not the best book, but not worst either. At least the plot has some meat, and yes, she could reduce some pages. It was overdone and distracted a lot.
Spoiler Alerts:
Book Trivia and Plot Reveals:
Bree’s Family and friends: Their dive boats Mermaid I and Mermaids II; they own Two Mermaids Marine Search and Salvage Shop; their only employee Manuel “Manny” Salazar, his daughter Lucinda, Wife Juanita; Older sister Amelia Westcott, her husband Ben and two sons Jordan and James; Josh Austin, Florida Congressman and his wife Nicole “Nikki” Grann Austin; Mark Denton, Austin’s pilot-body guard-PR guy; Dave Mangold, Bree’s Civil Air Patrol friend;
Other characters: Carianna, Manny’s other daughter, Manny’s mother Grandmama Rosa; Sam Travers, the twins primary competitor in the salvage business, Bree dated his son Ted before they lost him to war; Dr. Micah Hawkins, ER doctor; Marla Sherborne, incumbent U.S. Congresswoman, having an affair with Josh’s father-in-law, Cory Grann AKA King Sugar; Dom Verdugo, a Miami businessman, owns the yacht Xanadu; Guy Russell, a boater; Ric and Lance, divers working for Sam Travers; Vivian and Frank Holliman, friends of Daria, own Shells Eternal, an eco-conscious sea burial business; Seth Johnson, Daria’s instructor; Pastor Wallace;
Cole’s Boat is called Streamin’ and his company is called Gulf Stream Yacht Interiors; both names after the famous Winslow Homer painting The Gulf stream. His ex-wife is Jillian.
Daria was seven weeks pregnant when she died.
Cole and Briana get married in the end and she is pregnant too.
Grammatical / Character / Plot / Geographical / Historical / Mythological Errors:
On Pg. 474, Line 17, there is an extra “soon” in the sentence.
On Pg. 534, the attacker of Briana calls her “Hey, Babe”. But later on Pg. 639, author says that the attacker said one single word “Babe”.
Galavant Reflections 