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Mitch Mitchell #3
A Dance in Deep Water
Doug Allyn continually receives, praise for his series featuring deep water diver Michelle "Mitch" Mitchell. In his third novel in the series, Allyn intertwines an examination of parent/child relationships with an engaging puzzle to create a work of suspense and psychological depth.
When Mitch decides to reconnect with her estranged young son, she embarks on an emotional journey that forces her to face disturbing truths about her own mother's troubling death several years previous.
- GenresMysteryMystery Thriller
247 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1997
About the author
Doug Allyn
92 books21 followersDoug Allyn is the author of two previous novels, Motown Underground and The Cheerio Killings, featuring a Detroit police detective as well as the first Mitch Mitchell mystery, Icewater Mansions. A number of his short stories have won national awards, including the 1994 Edgar Award for Best Short Story. His "day job" is a night one; Allyn is a professional musician who travels with his wife, Eve, singer and bass player, and their rock band around the Midwest. The author lives in Montrose, Michigan.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 24, 2007
A DANCE IN DEEP WATER (Suspense-Michigan-Cont) – G+
Allyn, Doug – 3rd in series
St. Martin's Press, 1997- Hardcover
"Mitch" Mitchell is a former deep water diver who has returned to Northern Michigan to run her late father's café and reacquaint herself with her 11-year-old son, Corie. Mitch meets a man who knew her father, grandfather and her mother, who died giving birth to Mitch. She is lead to suspect that her father killed her grandfather and left his body in a defunct, now flooded, mine. For Mitch, tying to find out the truth results in encounters in a small town with local citizens, drug dealers, paramilitarists, local law enforcement and the FBI.
*** Allyn knows how to write a strong, independent woman with a sense of humor and her own insecurities. I liked that Mitch was as much trying to solve her personal mysteries and the external one in which she becomes involved. The supporting characters are developed more with each book, which is a small fault. But Allyn does a very good job at providing a sense of place and building suspense. This is a very enjoyable series and one I recommend.
Allyn, Doug – 3rd in series
St. Martin's Press, 1997- Hardcover
"Mitch" Mitchell is a former deep water diver who has returned to Northern Michigan to run her late father's café and reacquaint herself with her 11-year-old son, Corie. Mitch meets a man who knew her father, grandfather and her mother, who died giving birth to Mitch. She is lead to suspect that her father killed her grandfather and left his body in a defunct, now flooded, mine. For Mitch, tying to find out the truth results in encounters in a small town with local citizens, drug dealers, paramilitarists, local law enforcement and the FBI.
*** Allyn knows how to write a strong, independent woman with a sense of humor and her own insecurities. I liked that Mitch was as much trying to solve her personal mysteries and the external one in which she becomes involved. The supporting characters are developed more with each book, which is a small fault. But Allyn does a very good job at providing a sense of place and building suspense. This is a very enjoyable series and one I recommend.
April 24, 2014
I have enjoyed Doug Allyn's short stories in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine so I set out to find a novel by him. While most of his short stories feature blue collar male heroes, such as contractors who uncover a mystery while renovating a building, this novel stars Mitch Mitchell, a single mother from a difficult background who is attempting to reconnect with her 11 year old son,Cody, who has been in boarding schools while she worked as a deep water SCUBA diver on oil rigs in the Gulf. That portion of her life was apparently described in the two previous novels in this continuing series, neither of which were available to me in our local libraries. Like most of Allyn's books, this one takes place in northern Michigan, much of it on the isolated Upper Peninsula. (Some Yoopers might object to how they are characterized.)
On a camping trip with her son, Mitch encounters a wood carver who recognizes her family resemblance to a man who disappeared three decades earlier and proves to be the grandfather who disowned her teenaged mother when she became pregnant with Mitch. Mitch and Cody's investigation of her family background leads to encounters with a number of thoroughly disagreeable and dangerous locals, both human and animal including paramilitary survivalists, drug dealers and an attack trained Rottweiler, all of which make for exciting reading, leading, of course, to a deep water dive in an abandoned mine. Although the supposedly fractured relationship with Cody is featured prominently in the blurbs, mother and son quickly bond and make a good team. I suspect we will see more of them in future books.
On a camping trip with her son, Mitch encounters a wood carver who recognizes her family resemblance to a man who disappeared three decades earlier and proves to be the grandfather who disowned her teenaged mother when she became pregnant with Mitch. Mitch and Cody's investigation of her family background leads to encounters with a number of thoroughly disagreeable and dangerous locals, both human and animal including paramilitary survivalists, drug dealers and an attack trained Rottweiler, all of which make for exciting reading, leading, of course, to a deep water dive in an abandoned mine. Although the supposedly fractured relationship with Cody is featured prominently in the blurbs, mother and son quickly bond and make a good team. I suspect we will see more of them in future books.
April 17, 2021
Mitch is reunited with her teenage son and it brings up things in the past with her parents. Her mother died giving birth to her. While on a trip in northern Michigan, she meets someone who knew her parents and grandfather. The man infers that her father killed her grandfather and dumped his body in a defunct, flooded mine. She wants to know the truth and decides to dive the mine but she runs into trouble with a militia group who lease the land and don't want anybody on it. Soon there are other groups involved and she is in real danger. I enjoyed the novel and the series.
May 5, 2022
When “Mitch “ Mitchell goes on a road trip to reconnect with her son, she discovers that she may have family she didn’t know about. While searching for the truth, she stumbles into more troubles n bran for. I enjoyed this series and will be looking for other books by this underappreciated author.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews