Thank you to @amazonpublishing and @netgalley for the gifted ARC of Deadly Waters by Dot Hutchinson.

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Synopsis from the publisher: Florida journalism undergrad Rebecca Sorley is like any other college student. She tries to keep up with her studies, her friends, and her hot-tempered roommate, Ellie, who regularly courts trouble with the law. When a male student’s remains are found in alligator-infested waters, the university warns students to stay away from the reptiles. But then a second body shows up, and the link is undeniable. Both men belonged to the same fraternity and had a reputation for preying on and hurting women. Ellie has previously threatened to kill men who don’t take no for an answer. Rebecca and her friends thought Ellie was kidding. But now a vigilante killer is roaming campus—someone who knows how to dispose of rapists. Someone determined to save female students from horrible crimes. With each passing day, those who know Ellie become more convinced she’s responsible. But if she is, stopping her might not be in everyone’s best interest…

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Well where to begin… I was a HUGE fan of this author’s previous series The Butterfly Garden, and was so excited to see where her next book would take us, however this is not at all what I was expecting. Let me start by saying I really appreciate the sentiment behind this book and the attempt to empower women in the #metoo era, but this book missed the mark by making every character a caricature of an angry feminist man hater. All the female leads were one dimensional with zero character development. All they talk about in college is the evil men of the frats and the sweet angry justice of the gator murders. There are no male peer characters that offer a not all men are predators perspective, only a lone male police officer whose relationship with a student is questionable. This just kept beating the same note over and over that men are all sexual predators and women are all prey and that the only justice is the kind you take into your own hands. As a sexual assault survivor I appreciate the sentiment but also don’t believe in an eye for an eye. This didn’t work for me but it may work for other readers.

Rebecca Sorley is a responsible, even-keel college student in Florida, and she's trying to get good grades, keep her scholarship, spend time with her friends--and keep an eye on her hot-tempered roommate, Ellie.

Ellie's vocally open about her fury at what many of her fellow female students have to put up with from young men who won't hear no and don't treat women with respect. She's known for getting into tussles with men trying to prey upon women. But the men's behavior seems to be getting more aggressive, more entitled, and more dangerous, and Ellie can't fight off every man on behalf of every woman who needs protection.

Then some of the most offensive and reportedly abusive male classmates start turning up dead--killed by alligators, but under suspicious circumstances. It's starting to seem like a vigilante killer may be on the loose, somehow taking justice into his or her own hands. And the response from the college community isn't completely damning--young women begin speaking publicly about their attacks and attackers rather than only whispering in bathrooms to trusted friends. The women are becoming less afraid--but the young men who have behaved abominably and often criminally are rightfully growing terrified.

It's starting to look to Rebecca and their other roommates as though Ellie's fight against injustice and predation might have taken a turn toward homicide. Could she--would she do such a thing?

The college friends have strong bonds of loyalty; they sometimes behave impulsively; and they are appropriately young and wild at times. But the group has two young women connected closely to them who have been permanently debilitated related to attacks by men, and the women's primary concern is keeping themselves and each other safe. They sometimes have to go to great lengths to do so because everyday dangers loom around every corner in the form of men who feel entitled to use women however they want.

This book was not what I thought it was going to be. I imagined that the alligator angle might make for a campy revenge fantasy. And it is revenge fantasy. But the issues Hutchison explores are very real, and there is far more meat to this story than I expected. The author builds a framework in Deadly Waters of brutalized women's fear and anger, establishes the problematic societal "conversation" between some men and women (males' groping, lewd comments, and entitlement; females' rejection presented as rude, unacceptable, or simply ignored), and she reinforces how infrequently men are prosecuted for their abusive actions. Hutchison is setting the stage for an enraged fire of backlash--and she delivers on it.

The deaths are brutal, yet they do feel like some version of justice to those who have been victimized. And the homicides seems to be shifting the tide of power and changing men's behavior in general. Even the most reasonable and calm friend in the group is pushed to ask at one point, regarding suspicions that Ellie may be behind the deaths of the men, "How do I condemn Ellie for taking a terrible action--maybe taking a terrible action--when I'm so damn grateful for the results?" This was really interesting in ways I didn't anticipate, and I also like Hutchison's writing style very much.

(A horrifying side note: did you know alligators can climb trees?!? I almost fainted when I confirmed that this was true. Make it stop. No.)

I received a prepublication copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer.

So good! My first book by the author but I really enjoyed it! Very interesting and a unique twist! I highly recommend.

After reading and loving the first two books in Dot Hutchison's "Collector" series I was super excited to read "Deadly Waters".
An interesting story that deals with a very important topic - sexual predators on a college campus.
Set in Gainesville, Florida where there are alligators aplenty, a vigilante decides to be rid of the men that are preying and hurting women, in an extremely gruesome way.
My initial guess as to who the murderer could be was correct however, the author had me constantly second guessing myself. I had an issue with the way the author implied that every man in this story (except for one) was a sexual predator.
A good #MeToo book for the dangers women experience on a campus and the injustice of it all.
Overall an interesting and unique read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an arc of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

* I was provided an arc by NetGalley in exchange for a review*

As a Florida girl I was super excited to read this set in Florida book, and that excitement stayed present throughout my read. This was an entertaining book, and I probably feel closer to it for the whole Florida reason, because I do think there was too much going on within the book, which made it not a smooth read unfortunately.

This book started out so well. The writing was captivating and I couldn’t wait to find out why the characters did what they did in the opening chapter.

It wasn’t long and the vigilante aspect turns into pure hate. The book was no longer enjoyable for me.

I received this galley from NetGalley.

DNF at 15%. I really enjoyed The Butterfly Garden and was looking forward to this one. At the beginning I felt immediately transported to hot and humid Florida and the group of friends at UF. However pretty quickly it started to feel like each of the women is an over exaggerated stereotype of a person. We can get it that Ellie has a strong sense of justice without being hit over the head (pun semi-intended) with how she gets kicked out of every bar for picking fights with men.

I can appreciate a story of vigilante justice for men who take advantage of women but this one wasn’t what I hoped for when I picked it up. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

Deadly Waters is an anthem to the "Me Too" movement. It is for all of the women who have ever had to clean themselves up in a bathroom, dried their tears with their friends in a stall, been told they should not have been somewhere, should have worn something different, looked different, just been pleased someone noticed them. This is for women who have been groped in the workplace, who were threatened with lesser grades if they didn't comply with professors, who batted eyelashes at their bosses to keep their jobs. This is for those who testified against Supreme Court nominees only to see that POS sitting on the highest court of the land. It is for women every where, even those too brainwashed by a male dominated culture to know it is for them.

Eight college women living in a suite at a Florida university know about all of these things. They go to bars where they are touched, groped, have to walk in pairs, watch their drinks so they don't get tanked and still end up attacked in the parking lot. It is about someone's revenge against the worst of the aggressors - because this world knows you cannot deal with them all - by feeding them to the alligators who are in the swamps near the campus. The author grapples with the emotions that all of the women are going through - shock, joy, relief, horror, more joy, the "what-ifs" and we, as a reader, take that journey with them.

Admittedly, even as devout feminist, my first reaction was "why do these girls keep going to these bars!?" Wait, back that up. WHY don't these men stop harassing women at bars, drugging their drinks!? You see, I'm originally from the south and I know a thing or two about southern universities and specifically I know about Florida and Arizona universities because they are diving schools. They are the worst. The things written in this book are accurate. It IS this bad. I'm not at all appalled that a woman began doing something about it herself because we have all sat by over the past decade and seen what is done to the men who are accused - NOTHING. EVER. And yet, other readers and reviewers have the audacity to say that the book is about hate? You bet it is! I am enraged at what our society has become. That readers can review books about male serial killers until the cows come home and love them but because this one is about a female, about women who actually are happy that men finally have to meet justice for the horrors that they perpetrate on women, then female reviewers have their delicate sensibilities in an uproar. Shame on you! How many of us have been in the same situation? How man of us - even on places like Facebook and Goodreads - have to block the trollers who will not leave us alone just because we have tits!? And you think this book is about hate!? No - the world men have created is about hate and it is called misogyny!

I loved the book. I think it should required reading for women just so their minds are opened because, apparently, far too many have been brainwashed by society for far too long. I also love the fact that, because I did not receive this book from a publisher I am able to write an honest review my true opinions and not some watered down version of what I really think. It's refreshing to be able to do that for a change.

Well, this is a difficult review to write. I have read the entire The Collector series and thought it was excellent. This is the 5th book I have read by Dot Hutchison and I expected to love it. Unfortunately, there were too many aspects that just didn't work for me.

To start with a positive, I like Dot Hutchison's writing style. I like the way she can draw a picture or show a relationship.

However, a lot of the story revolves around college culture. There is a lot of drinking and basic obnoxious drunkenness. Reading about drunk people tripping over themselves is no more fun for me than spending time with drunk people while sober. I have no interest in reading about people acting foolish.

I definitely see how many reviewers felt that this book was all about man-hating. It is an angry book. It’s sad that it is based on very realistic experiences that many women have. However, it is certainly exaggerated. Most of the men in the story are some level of sexual predator and many (if not all) of the young women have been significantly impacted by men being disgusting, violent humans. Also, condensing it into a short time period and adding a legitimate man-hating young woman with no verbal filter to the core group makes it feel even more toxic.

I like the idea of the story, but I think it was just buried by too much stuff. There were times I felt like I was being lectured. Some parts felt too unrealistic. I think the bones of the story were fine, but the telling just didn't work.

On a personal note, I am really tired of MCs with red hair. Why do so many characters in this book have red hair? Seriously, at least 5 of them had red hair and it was mentioned repeatedly.

Oh boy... I certainly didn't expect to have this reaction to Dot Hutchison's newest story at all. I mean, I loved her The Collector series, and I fully expected to have a similar reaction to Deadly Waters too. I confess that I requested this title months ago without even reading the blurb (something I tend to do when I've loved multiple books by an author), and I started reading this story without reading the already available reviews first... I kind of wish I would have done that now, because I would have been warned at least that way. Warned, you say? Yes, sadly Deadly Waters wasn't what I was expecting at all, and not in a good way. I'll try to explain why this book didn't work for me below and I'll try not to turn it into a rant along the way (no promises though).

So... Basically, Deadly Waters is all about an over the top, exaggerated man-hating world where all men are abusing, rapist bastards and the girls on the Florida campus are all in constant danger. You would think I must be exaggerating with that description, but sadly this is an all too accurate summary of what you will find in this first book of a new series... And this is where it all starts going downhill. Don't get me wrong, I normally applaude authors for bringing attention to abuse/rape victims and the struggles they have to face while trying to find justice, but doing so with such a negative vibe simply has the opposite effect. And then we're not even talking about the credibility of it all... Oh yes, this was definitely a miss for me.

It doesn't stop with that constant negativity and hate oozing out of the pages though. Oh no, there were a lot of other elements that unfortunately didn't work for me either. The plot itself feels extremely exaggerated and over the top, using excessive violence and attacks to create an atmosphere were all men are predators and every girl is in constant danger. With exaggeration I'm talking multiple attacks on just about every female character in play and just about every male character popping up acting like a bastard. How on earth is this credible? How on earth is this supposed to help abuse/rape victims finally find their voice? It only makes for uncomfortable and trigger warning worthy reading, all doused with so much hate and negativity that it was hard to swallow. This lack of credibility was omnipresent and continued until the very end... Another nail on the coffin.

To make things worse, even the characters didn't make up for it. Instead of an interesting and well developed cast of characters, we are dealing with what is basically a group of college student cliches. The good girl, the bad girl, the silent girl, the crush on the older male, the drunk college boys, the bastards... And I can go on and on. Apart from the fact that it lacks originality and doesn't add dept to the story, the characters themselves didn't really experience any development either. Instead, they just kept behaving as cliches; the female characters raging at the world and how all men are bastards and they should get what they deserve. Ugh, I'm getting angry all over again just trying to type down my thoughts, and that's not me angry at what happens in the book, but angry with the book itself. It's normally a good sign when a book manages to provoke strong emotions, but somehow I don't think this was the emotion they were looking for.

Let's pause this negativity and try to add some positive thoughts instead. What I did think had potential was the whole murder part of the plot with the alligators. How ingenious is that?! Especially how it relates to the college itself with its Gator mascott and all... Those chapters set from the killer's POV where a bit of a relief, even though even those chapters were doused with negativity and man-hate. Talking about the killer: I actually saw that twist coming early on and I basically only kept reading to hopefully discover I was wrong... But I guess I wasn't that lucky. I can't deny that the story made the most of its Florida setting though.

Wow, this has really turned into a rant after all... I guess I really did have strong feelings about this book that needed to come out. I'll stop now as these rambles are becoming way too long already, and leave you with a short summary before I sign off. Basically, with all that anger and hate literally streaming out off the pages, Deadly Waters turns into a very VERY unappetizing read. Combine this with the undeveloped character cliches, the exaggerated plot with excessive violence and attacks and lack of credibility in general, I really wish I would have just opted to DNF Deadly Waters instead. Am I sad to feel this way about a story I had highly anticipated? Yes. But that doesn't make my reaction any less real, and judging the other reviews I've seen so far I'm not the only one who feels this way either. You've been warned!

Many thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer, and Dot Hutchison for the opportunity to read her latest book and the first in a new series. I have heard only rave things. about her Butterfly Garden series so I was anxious to read this one. 3.5 stars rounded up.

Rebecca is attending the University of Florida (home of the Gators!) and lives in a dorm with her roommates. Male students are suddenly being found murdered by alligators at a rate too common to be considered normal alligator behavior. But all of the victims are fellow college students who have portrayed horrible behavior towards women students, whether it be drugging drinks, physical assaults, verbal assaults or a combination. Rebecca begins thinking that a serial killer may be at work - maybe one of her own friends?

While I enjoyed the mystery part of this book, the overall message that all men are predators was so overwhelming that it took away some of the enjoyment of the book. There was a great message of empowerment of women and finding their voice, but not at the expense of coloring all men in such a broad stroke. I would definitely read the next in this series in hopes that the author tones down the men hating aspect.

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Veronica – ☆☆☆☆
Deadly Waters is mostly told from the perspective of journalism and criminology student Rebecca, but we also get snippets of our killer as he/she commits their crimes. From the very first chapter, where the killer cleverly kills a victim by having him eaten by an alligator, I knew there was no way I wasn't finishing this book.

Fiona and her roommates have dealt with some horrible sexual assaults in their lives, and the behavior of some of the male students and the things they get away with at this college campus are disgusting. When they go out, these young women like to look out for other women who are being harassed by men and help them. Her friend Ellie, in particular, is not afraid to use violence on unsuspecting douche bags in bars and does so regularly.

The impact of male violence on the female college students is front and centre in this story and it is hard to conjure up much sympathy for the males that are being taken out. I found the misogyny on the campus and the lengths the female students go through to mitigate the threat posed by the men around them to be confronting and it made me angry.

I found the pacing of this story to be slow but there was no way I was putting the book down. I had to know who did it and honestly, watching these men get their comeuppance was pretty satisfying. I'm a sucker for a good mystery and Deadly Waters was a great read. A solid 4 stars.


Ruthie – ☆☆☆
3.5 stars of murder mystery

This is definitely a book with a message. The female students of this college have been treated appallingly by a significant and utterly unchecked predatory male population. Someone has decided that enough is enough and is starting to fight back... with a little help from the resident alligators.

The immersion into college life, and the group of women who are central to the story, is instant and takes a little bit of unravelling. Once that has been accomplished, we have chapters told mainly by Rebecca, interspersed with ones from the perpetrator. We get clues, as well as predictions and suppositions as to who the murderer is, and every time someone is out on a bike, one has to wonder...

I thought that the buildup was clever, and the outpouring of sentiment and honesty about the level of damage done was highly disturbing. I really hope that life is not truly that awful in all colleges, because if so, why would any woman go, let alone any parent let them. And the authorities are surely not all run by misogynistic men who would allow it to continue... I did have to allow my imagination to accept that which I found to be implausible (having worked in the sector for years).

Overall, a very readable book, with an amusing twist at the end.

Deadly Waters is a psychological thriller for the "Me Too" movement. A vigilante killer has tired of the "boys will be boys" attitude of authorities and the way women are treated as roadkill on mens' roads to success and she's decided to solve the problem herself. It's alligator mating season and they're a little more riled up than usual - which makes it easy for her to lure her victims into becoming gator bait. The killer is targeting the types of men who are known to assault and date rape, drug womens' drinks, and disregard the word "no".

I had previously read Dot Hutchison's The Collector series and already knew her writing would draw me in; the combination of that an the intriguing premise of a vigilante killer enacting her own justice had me utterly drawn in from the outset.

I, like many women, can relate to the experiences of the protagonists and Hutchison masterfully captures the feelings of rage and despair that can accompany being a woman who has supported friends through or herself been the victim of sexually assaultive behavior.

Although I figured out early on who the killer was, it didn't diminish my enjoyment of the book at all and I found myself highlighting section after section to share with friends. I highly recommend Deadly Waters for fans of psychological thrillers.

This book was not for me.
It is really well written and I had high hopes going into it since it seemed to have an interesting plot. But...no.
It is full of man-hating. It's like all men were bad, bad, bad. I didn't really like any of the characters, either. It felt like the evil man-hating was all they talked about. To the point where it was just too much.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

Errrr- this one is hard to review. When college men start turning up as body parts fed to alligators, Detective Corby and Rebecca both ask themselves questions about exactly what's going on. Rebecca and her friends have all had interactions with these guys- and others- most of them bad. But was one of the women killing them? Well, you know the answer is going to be yes. This went over the top for me. Virtually all of the men were horrible and there was just so much.....of everything. I didn't have anyone to root for. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Fans of the vigilante novel might enjoy this but it wasn't for me.

A serial killer is feeding sexual predators to alligators in Florida. Yeah, you’ll want some wine to go with this one. This was a chilling take on a revenge story. If you want a unique mystery and don’t mind if it’s not super realistic then grab this one for some entertainment.

Rebecca is a college junior living with six best girlfriends. The girls’ eighth suite mate, Kacey, was viciously assaulted the year prior and is now in a vegetative state. All the girls are extra cautious and concerned about their well being and safety after the attack.

Gator season has seen a huge uptick in human attacks this year. The campus is on edge as attacks start happening closer to campus and students are directly impacted. At first, encroachment on the gators’ natural habitat seems the likely cause, but when the rates seemingly triple overnight, it starts to feel a little too coincidental. Soon, people around campus start noticing that the only gator victims seem to be college boys with a history of sexual violence against women.

Told from the perspective of the killer and in third person for Rebecca, we see how the campus starts to evolve in the wake of the attacks. At first, the campus is in mourning for the “nice young men” who have lost their lives. But as the truth about their treatment of women becomes more common knowledge, more and more women are coming forward and going so far as to advertise potential future victims for the killer.

The premise of this novel was fantastic and intriguing. I loved that the killer was targeting men, that the killer was presumed female, and the method (gator bait) that the victims met their fate. I thought it was pretty predictable but that didn’t detract from the story for me.

As a feminist, I wanted to love this book. However, I thought the overall presentation was really poor and extremely aggressive. Hostility toward men and accusations about most men being evil cluttered every chapter and I noticed that I rarely read more than a few pages without being reminded about how horrible men are. It was all way over the top and exaggerated. For example, any time a female walked home from the library alone (it should be noted that this book took place at a university with 25k students so someone ever being “alone” was next to impossible) or stepped outside of the bar for fresh air, she got assaulted; nearly every bar scene involved drugged drinks; and every frat boy had earned panties from numerous women that they flaunted to their brothers. I was so irritated with the unnecessary hyperbole that it ended up really impacting my opinion of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this novel.

Rebecca Sorley, a journalism major, is doing her best to keep her friends safe after a horrific attack leaves one of them in a long term care facility. She gladly stays sober while her friends party and have a good time. But being the sober one doesn't always mean you're safe from harm. This book perfectly portrayed the appalling double standard that women have to deal with every day. When a woman says no or resists a man's advances, she is called a host of vulgar names and incorrectly assumed to secretly consent to their demands, however, a man is called a player or it is said they are just "boys being boys". The victim is repeatedly victimized when they protest while the perpetrators are given a slap on the wrist or left unpunished to offend again. This book opens a conversation that should be had all over the world, women are not the pawns or playthings for men to use as they want. Personally if I knew the person behind the killings in this book, I don't think I would report them, the scum got what they deserved. This book caused a wide range of emotions from sadness to fury and I loved every minute of it!

It's sad when the writing is good and the subject is important, but the result is a one-tracked stupidity.

Is caricature the best strategy?

Rebecca Sorley is an undergrad at UFlorida Gainesville, a campus where, if we are to believe Ms Hutchison, women are never ever for a minute safe from men who harass, drug, rape, and demean them. They must cluster in their dorms for safety. The portrayal is so negative that I wonder if Florida will sue to have the book withdrawn. I went to a women's college long before date rape drugs so I checked with my nieces who are of college age. They don't have friends at Gainesville but say that beastly male behavior and date rape drugs are real dangers, but that some campuses are worse than others. I believe them. Nevertheless, too much of a bad thing seems more like a caricature than a life drawing. I wonder if compressing every kind of anti-woman crime, some with horrific outcomes, into a few weeks of campus life is the best strategy.

I also remember reading something in the text that positively eliminates the killer from being the killer. I don't have the energy to re-read the whole thing to find it, but Ms Hutchison's beta readers should have caught it.

It also irritated me that "pantie" is used throughout as the singular of the undergarment.