In 1930s California, glamour and seduction spawn a multitude of sins in this New York Times bestseller from the author of Tightrope. At the exclusive Burning Cove Hotel on the coast of California, rookie reporter Irene Glasson finds herself staring down at a beautiful actress at the bottom of a pool…. The dead woman had something Irene wanted: a red-hot secret about an up-and-coming leading … red-hot secret about an up-and-coming leading man—a scoop that may have gotten her killed. As Irene searches for the truth about the drowning, she’s drawn to a master of deception. Once a world-famous magician whose career was mysteriously cut short, Oliver Ward is now the owner of the Burning Cove Hotel. He can’t let scandal threaten his livelihood, even if it means trusting Irene, a woman who seems to have appeared in Los Angeles out of nowhere four months ago.
With Oliver’s help, Irene soon learns that the glamorous paradise of Burning Cove hides dark and dangerous secrets. And that the past—always just out of sight—could drag them both under….
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Always enjoy her books. Well developed plots and complex characters make for a great read.
A new time period for Quick, The Girl Who Knew Too Much departs from her regency romantic suspense stories to set the stage in 1930 and the Golden Age of Hollywood. Quick’s Irene Glasson, a gossip reporter in California, and Oliver Ward, a former magician, join together to sail through misdirection, deceitful villains, and non-gore type murders with their usual aplomb. While a big fan of Quick’s historicals for many years, I thoroughly enjoyed the time period switch and look forward to reading the second book in the Burning Cove Mysteries: The Other Lady Vanishes.
My first Amanda Quick mystery. In the 1930s, Anna Harris flees the home of her murdered employer, Helen Spencer, who bequeathed her cash and a notebook with mysterious notations. She drives across the country to restart her life as Irene Glasson in Burning Cove, California, just outside LA, but there are ruthless villains who will do anything to obtain that notebook. Very good world-building, with plenty of flapper glamour, champagne, beautiful hotels, exotic cars, and movie stars with Pasts they want to keep hidden. Light, quick, often wry prose that feels just right, and with a nice spritz of romance.
A mystery involving a cub reporter on the run from a murderer and a washed-up magician avoiding his past, all set in glamorous 1930s southern California. Some brief love scenes, mature-audience material, but not erotica. Handled very tastefully, as one expects from the marvelous Amanda Quick. This romantic mystery does not disappoint Quick’s fans.
Great reads like this one just keep coming from this author
Amanda quick, Jane Anne parents, Jayne castle is always a great author.
LOVE all of Amanda Quick’s work!
I wish I could be in the mind of Amanda Quick as she maps out the plots of her books. The twists and turns are fascinating. She uses vivid language that allows the reader to visualize the scenes and the characters.
I was not sure about reading an Amanda Quick that was not a Victorian book. I was pleasantly surprised, I like the book, It was more like a Jayne Ann Krentz. It kept my interest. I would recommend this book.
Characters were well developed and just when you thought you knew what was going to happen the author surprises you.
Really enjoyed the story being told at the golden age of Hollywood!
Love Quick/Krentz/Castle books. Her e-books are a little too expensive though.
Wonderful suspenseful book with a great hero and heroine.
Loved it.
“AQ” is Jayne Ann Krentz’s historical romantic suspense pen name. In this first novel of a trilogy, she broke from her prior Victorian-era milieu to plunge into the glamour world of 1930s Southern California and Hollywood. The result is a delightful plot-twisting mystery peopled with fascinating characters.
I enjoyed the setting and the characters. I enjoy the way Amanda Quick lays out a story.
Jayne Anne Krentz/Amanda Quick is a pleasure to read; tight plot, interesting story, correct historical details that keep you in the read. The characters here are well drawn, and the HEA well deserved.
Dead tipsters are not something a reporter on the gossip beat generally expects, so when Irene Glasson finds the woman who was going to give her a lead on a hot new actor dead, she naturally suspects foul play. Oliver Ward, a former magician whose last act almost killed him, now owns the Burning Cove Hotel. He’s not thrilled to have a dead body in his pool, but he’s even less happy that one of his guests has murdered another and assumes Oliver will cover it up. Teaming up with a reporter may go against all his own rules but working with Irene feels very right. As additional bodies pile up, the chances of coincidence lessen and patterns emerge. But along with threats from crazed fans and movie studio execs, Irene begins to worry that she’s dealing with more than one killer. Because she has a few secrets in her past that she hasn’t shared with Oliver, and it looks like they may be catching up with her.
When Irene Glasson discovers two murder victims in the space of the first four chapters of The Girl Who Knew Too Much, readers can be excused for thinking Irene has seriously bad luck. The truth is that, like any good reporter, Irene has a sense for secrets and the tenacity to want to follow a story no matter where it leads. Quick does an excellent job of filling in Irene’s past with a few deft strokes, not bogging down the story but giving us enough to know why Irene is a strong and independent woman, and why she is, unlike many of Quick’s other heroines, not especially naive or trusting of others. However, Irene isn’t yet jaded by life, and is still learning to navigate the rocky road of Hollywood gossip and the movie studios that practically run L.A.
Oliver Ward is a bit jaded, and a lot cynical, but retains a magician’s sense of curiosity and need to know why things work- including Irene. He often seems to have the weight of the world on his shoulders (as a hotel owner who employs a large number of people right after the Depression, that is slightly true) but fortunately he follows his instincts (and curiosity) when it comes to Irene. The two make a good team, with a quiet connection that turns into love without either of them quite knowing it’s happened.
Readers will mostly associate Amanda Quick (aka Jayne Ann Krentz/Jayne Castle) with her novels set in Regency England (Ravished) and late Victorian England (‘Til Death Do Us Part). The Girl Who Knew Too Much is her first foray into 1930s America. As a huge fan of Regency and Victorian England historicals, I was disappointed to learn that Quick’s newest book was moving to a different era. But as a devotee of Jayne Ann Krentz under all her names, there was no question about not giving Girl a fair chance. The murder mystery in Girl is perhaps one of Quick’s best so far. Nothing is quite what it seems and as the reader puts the puzzle together with Irene and Oliver to create one solution, like one of Oliver’s magic tricks suddenly seeing it from another angle shows us an entirely new answer. I do have to admit to some disappointment at the end with the new time period. The Hollywood glitz and glamor, and art deco brilliance advertised don’t really live up to the promise. While in Quick’s other historical romances the era is as much a character as the people, the 1930s doesn’t feel all that different from the ‘modern’ world. Some typewriters, phone booths, and cigars are thrown in to set the stage, but otherwise the book could have been any of Jayne Ann Krentz’s modern day titles. I don’t know enough about the 1930s to know if that was part of Quick’s point: the more things change the more they don’t. However, clues in Girl suggest we may return to Burning Cove to learn more about Oliver’s friend Luther. As a nightclub owner with possible shady connections, Luther may be able to show us the time period glamour and grittiness that struck me as situation normal for Hollywood.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much combines Quick’s trademark dry wit, fast-paced plotting, and snappy dialogue with brilliant, multi-layered mystery. The twists, turns and multiple threats blend seamlessly into one brilliant whole, with plenty of surprises along the way even when you are sure everything is solved.
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Great story line! Just loved the characters in the book!
Want a fast-paced read with snappy dialogue? I recommend this 1930s romantic suspense. It was like watching Chicago or His Girl Friday.