Still Mine

By Amy Stuart

In this taut psychological thriller, one woman hunts for the truth about the suspicious disappearance of a local girl in a small town, where everyone is implicated.

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU VANISH FROM YOUR LIFE AND LEAVE NO STORY BEHIND?
SOMEONE WILL MAKE ONE UP FOR YOU.

Clare is on the run. From her past, from her husband, and from her own secrets. When she turns up alone in the remote mining town of Blackmore asking about Shayna Fowles, the local girl who disappeared, everyone wants to know who Clare really is and what she’s hiding. As it turns out, she’s hiding a lot, including what ties her to Shayna in the first place. But everyone in this place is hiding something—from Jared, Shayna’s secretive ex-husband, to Charlie, the charming small-town drug pusher, to Derek, Shayna’s overly involved family doctor, to Louise and Wilfred, her distraught parents.

Did Shayna flee? Was she killed? Is it possible she’s still alive?

As Clare uncovers the mysteries around Shayna’s disappearance, she must confront her own demons, moving us deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of lies and making us wonder what it is she’s really running from. Twisting and electrifying, this is a get-under-your-skin thriller that will make you question what it means to lose yourself and find yourself in the most unlikely places.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Release date: Mar 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781476790442

Amy Stuart

Amy Stuart is the #1 bestselling author of three novels: Still Mine, Still Water, and Still Here. Shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Best First Novel Award and winner of the 2011 Writers’ Union of Canada Short Prose Competition, Amy is the founder of Writerscape, an online community for hopeful and emerging writers. Amy lives in Toronto with her husband and their three sons. Connect with her on her website AmyStuart.ca and on Twitter @AmyFStuart.

Reviews for Still Mine

[bingereader87 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I absolutely loved this book. At first, I found it a little hard to get into, but, eventually, it got under my skin and I couldn't put it down.

This is about Clare, a woman on the run from her abusive husband, who finds herself in the small town of Blackmore under the name Clare O'Dey. She has been hired by a man named Malcolm Boon to help find a local missing woman named Shayna. This psychological thriller is filled with elements that just kept me intrigued to the very end. Addiction, depression, abuse, family drama, tragedy.

At the end, I found myself wanting to hear more of Clare's story and more on her family back home. I really enjoyed the writing and can't wait to read more from this author.

[ldvoorberg · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Not very thrilling nor suspenseful, which what the cover suggested to me. i expected a mystery like [book:Gone Girl] but there was not much mystery to reveal in this one. Plus, with characters who drank and did pills and shot at everyone, I found it hard to really relate. If you want a quick less intense thriller, go ahead. Otherwise take a pass.

[pet12-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

First off, there is no doubt that Amy Stuart can write. There is some beautiful prose in this. She successfully creates mood and atmosphere. The wordplay title is great. However, nice prose doesn't equal a good story.This story is about Clare, a woman on the run from her past. For reasons that are slowly revealed, she ends up in the dying backwater town of Blackmore charged with the task of finding a missing woman, Shayna Fowles. It turns out Clare and Shayna have a lot in common.The town of Blackmore has been shaped by a mine explosion in which several local men were killed and which left families traumatized and grieving and the town in steady decline. There are feuds, survivor guilt, drugs, and alcohol. Following the mantra "When in Rome", Clare 'infiltrates' the community and fits right in. She gets close to Shayna's ex-husband, rents a trailer from the local drug pusher and spends time with Shayna's mother who is suffering from dementia.The story of the dying town and its inhabitants takes center stage to the mystery of Shayna's disappearance. My favorite passage in the entire book was one of the survivor's re-telling of what happened in the mine on that fateful day. That part was really poignant. Regrettably, the rest of the time I felt rather indifferent towards the characters. I thought Malcolm for whom Clare is "working" had the potential to be a really intriguing character. Unfortunately, we never get to know him. There are one or two hints about his past, but that's it. He was like the invisible man, able to keep an eye on Clare in a town which is supposedly full of very suspicious people.I was disappointed that there was a lot of build-up and hints at something intense, something secretive, but nothing ever came of it. The biggest mystery turned out to be the revelation who hired Malcolm to find Shayna. The rest of the story was just straightforward, no twists, no thrills.Once again, I fell for a marketing promise, this one of "The Girl on the Train meets The Silent Wife in this taut psychological thriller" and "in the vein of The Good Girl". Nope. Wasn't taut nor was it a thriller. That's not the author's fault, but it builds an expectation. I like 'does exactly what it says on the tin', when it doesn't, I can't help but feel a bit let down. The comparison to "The Girl on the Train" is valid in as far as the protagonists are struggling with addiction and come across as irresponsible and irrational. I usually like a flawed character, but I didn't feel Clare was all that interesting.The ending leaves the door wide open for the sequel. So maybe the intention was all along to keep Malcolm and Clare, their backgrounds and characters vague in order to reveal more in the follow-up. But sadly, if I don't feel invested in the characters after 320 pages, I doubt I'll be enthusiastic enough to pick up the next book.Overall, better plotting and more intricate characterization would have made this more enjoyable for me. But as far as the prose is concerned, this isn't a bad debut novel.Thanks to Touchstone for providing me with an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[maggie1961-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I found this book extremely disappointing and expected so much better. The initial plot had a lot of potential and could have been developed so much better. I get what other viewers said about being bored. Clare has disappeared from her abusive husband and has been on the run for months not knowing that her husband Jason has hired someone to find her. And when he does find her, instead of letting Jason know he hires her to find another missing woman he was hired to find in exchange for not telling Jason where she is? Really? May I never end up in Blackmore where the most unlikable people live. I couldn't feel much for any of the characters, except maybe Clare for about three minutes when knowing her abusive but I didn't like her much. And you disappear, change your name but not your first name? Clare isn't that common a name.I really wanted to like this book. I loved the cover, that's what first drew me and the synopsis was also intriguing but I found this book to be all over the place and the ending just didn't work for me.

[twink_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Still Mine is Amy Stuart's debut novel.Clare is on the run - from a past that slowly comes to light as the story progresses. She is on her way to a rundown, remote mining town called Blackmore. Why? She's there at the direction of a man named Malcolm - to see if she can discover anything about a missing local woman named Shayna.Stuart is spare with details in the beginning - it absolutely ensures the reader will keep turning pages, eager to see who and why. And I did, but I felt a wee bit annoyed at the pacing of it. Malcolm is alluded to many times, without any idea of who he is and why Clare is following his directions until we're a fair ways into the book.The setting was good - dark, atmospheric and totally mirroring the tone and plot of the book. It had the feel of a cross between Justified and Winter's Bone - rundown town off the beaten track, poverty, drugs, violence and simmering undercurrents.And I held onto that image as I read - it allowed me to ignore my pragmatic nature and not question Clare's decisions. Her past seems to let her easily slip into the town's underbelly. I did have a harder time with some of the other locals - why they 'adopted' her so fast. An old man letting a woman he just met look after his dementia stricken wife alone was a bit of stretch for me.There are two stories running concurrently through Still Mine - Clare's and Shayna's. Journal entries interspersed between chapters give the reader a good idea what has happened to Shayna even as Clare continues to try to find her. Although Shayna's disappearance is at the centre of the plot, I found myself much more invested in Clare's story.I liked that I couldn't predict what was going to happen next in Still Mine. Stuart keeps the reader guessing right to the end. And the ending was perfect - opening up the door to the sequel that Stuart is working on - and I will be watching for.The title is very clever - no spoilers, but it can be taken two ways.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3.5 A woman turns up in the dying town of Blackmoor, she is on the run from someone, also sent by someone to find a missing woman. So for a while the reader doesn't know why she is willing to do this nor why. The town's mine had closed after a terrible accident which cost the lives of several miners. This also created a feud between those who lost family members and those who survived. The mining foreman is the missing woman's father. Without the mine to provide a living, many have left and some of those who stayed are either hooked on drugs or are producing and selling them.The feud, the dying town, people on the edge, the atmosphere, the feeling of this novel is very authentic. You get the sense of desperation, the giving up and finding solace whatever way you can, with whatever or whoever you can. Clare, our mystery woman, has quite an interesting past. In fact all Tue characters are well drawn. Clare does some things, takes chances I didn't quite understand but as the story goes on you see and understand much more. The title is very apropos, the suspense in the novel quite good for this author's first. Books end leaves a few things hanging but a sequel is planned, one I do intend to read. The letter at the very end is chilling. Quite a good first novel.ARC from netgalley.

[Suze Lavender · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Clare has run away from her husband and her awful past. She escaped months ago, but knows her husband won't stop looking for her. She has an assignment, looking for Shayna Fowles, a woman who disappeared from her hometown, Blackmore. Clare has to ask questions about someone she doesn't know, but does have a connection with. Blackmore's inhabitants are far from helpful, but Clare has found a way to fit in. This will mean she has to take a huge risk though. Will she be able to find out what happened to Shayna and will the sacrifices she has to make for the sake of information be worth it?

Still Mine is a dark story with an oppressive atmosphere. Clare is a woman of contradictions. She's brave, but she is scared, she's strong, but she is weak, she's curious, but doesn't want to acknowledge the truth and she's daring, but she is a coward at the same time. This makes her incredibly interesting. I didn't always like her, I didn't approve of a lot of her actions and I regularly wanted to talk some sense into her, but she's also a vulnerable person who needs protection and I kept hoping she'd find someone friendly enough to put her wellbeing first. This makes fascinating reading and I loved the ambiguous feelings I had while reading her story.

Still Mine isn't a standard whodunit. It's more of a psychological journey with many bumps in the road. Amy Stuart writing is beautiful, which is a strange contrast to her raw subject matter. Her story is about a main character that can't entirely be trusted. Clare isn't the most reliable person, but she also has goodness in her and her susceptibility unfortunately makes her the perfect victim for the kind of complicated problems she's getting sucked into. I loved how Amy Stuart plays with her behavior, she certainly made me think, I felt frustrated on Clare's behalf and I was curious to find out more about Blackmore and its many unlikable inhabitants. I loved her original approach of suspense and think she's written a terrific story with plenty of drama, despicable people and unfortunate accidents.

[carol420 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The beginning of this story is a little slow. There was a lot happening, but I didn’t feel ever really invested in the character of Clare. The reader needed to know more about her and how she ended up investigating Shayna’s life. There was lots of information about Shayna and the town…but not nearly enough about Clare. The story is both dark and disturbing and not a bad read at all. A lot of threads are left hanging so hopefully the story will be continued.

[alekee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have mixed feelings about this story, while I felt I was missing something, and not understanding what was going on, I felt compelled to keep turning pages, The words flew off the pages, and the book was read in no time at all.Clare is running from an abusive husband, how abusive you are about to find out, and I had the feeling that if he finds her he will kill her. The man he hires to find her, Malcolm is good at his job and has her in his sight in no time, but he soon has her working for him?She ends up in a small, really small mine town, and looks like a missing woman from there, a town that is really broken, from a mine disaster and drugs. What a place for her to end up in with her drug problem, but it appears she has not choice.We visit with the mother of this girl, a person in the throes of dementia, rational at times, but lost. The mother talks of seeing her daughter yesterday, but did she, or the dementia talking.Keep reading, you really won’t be able to stop once you start, an explosive end and surprises, and we end on the biggest surprise of all.I received this book through the Publisher Simon and Shuster and was not required to give a positive review.

[bookofsecrets · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

STILL MINE. First of all, the title. When I finished this book, it dawned on me that the title has two different meanings in relation to the story. I was so fixated on one that I almost missed the other. Clever!Clare is running from an abusive husband. In a strange turn of events, she ends up in the remote mountain town of Blackmore, hired to find a missing woman named Shayna. The locals don’t buy Clare’s cover story at first, but her troubled past allows her to fit in better than she’d hoped. Maybe too well for her own good.It was easy to get wrapped up in Shayna’s mysterious disappearance, and also Clare’s turbulent life. The tone throughout the book was dark and ominous, giving it an ever-present edge of suspense. It was hard to tell which characters were trustworthy, including Clare herself. Something at the end made me question her… Reliable? Unreliable? I’m not quite sure. I hope there’s a sequel.