Down by the Water: A Stevie Diaz Mystery

Down By the Water picks up right where book one, In the Woods Somewhere, left off. Stevie Diaz, is still torn between the two men in her life with her husband not speaking with her and her boyfriend picking up the pieces. While Stevie is attempting to sort out her love life she receives a summons for jury duty, and is chosen to be a juror for a high stakes case of a woman accused of murder. In true Stevie fashion (IYKYK), she begins to dig deeper into the case to look for clues on what really happened. The only problem is that Stevie may just have unearthed more than she bargained for. Will this new information help break the case wide open or will it shatter her world as she knows it? Author Sam Evans, has done it again, letting us dive deeper into the fascinating and often chaotic world and mind of Stevie Diaz. Even though Stevie tends to hover in what some may call the morally gray, she is unapologetically true to herself and exudes an heir of confidence and resilience through it all, and it’s really impossible to not like her. Along with this fierce FMC, it’s especially hard not to love the two beaus orbiting around her with their love and affections. No matter what dilemma Stevie finds herself in, Troy and Brad both stand by her and have her back at any given moment. The two also have begun to have adjusted a bit to their romantic entanglement. While the comfort levels seem to have grown from book one to book two, they still haven’t come to a fully doable resolution. I’m not sure how this entanglement will eventually pan out but I kind of enjoy them both with Stevie so maybe they can land on a way to make it work, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see. Outside of the romance portion of the story, the murder mystery side of the book had me thrown for loop after loop. Without giving too much away, there were hard topics discussed and uncovered that Stevie had to work through and come to terms with. This is where her resilience really shined and it made me appreciate her so much more. In a way it showed that she is a girl’s girl. In more than one instance, we see her rallying on the side of women, especially those in difficult situations and as far as justice is concerned. Down By the Water also shows that justice isn’t linear, and that our justice system in the U.S. still has some growing to do. This series is perfect for anyone with an open mind to the experience of people living life on their own terms and for those who love a good neo-noir read, will always recommend! 5⭐️