The Girl Who Knew Too Much

Starred review from April 17, 2017
Quick’s ambitious novel, set during the golden age of Hollywood, sparkles with wit and clever plotting. Irene Glasson’s boss warned her to leave town, and then was murdered. She drove the length of Route 66 to reach Hollywood because it seemed like the ideal place to recreate herself and start a new life. Now working as a reporter for a celebrity rag, she’s at the Burning Cove Hotel to get a hot scoop on actor Nick Tremayne. But when she finds her source at the bottom of the pool, she doubts the woman’s death was an accident. Hotel owner Oliver Ward is forced to agree with her, particularly once they start to explore why this woman may have been silenced. Oliver was once a famous stage magician, and he’s deft at sleight of hand and misdirection. He can sense that Irene is hiding something from him, but she’s too smart to give away her secrets indiscriminately. Quick (Jayne Ann Krentz, who also writes as Jayne Castle) transports readers back to the 1930s, showing the grimy truth behind Hollywood’s glamorous facades and proving that she is a titan of historical romantic thrillers. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House.

March 1, 2017
Quick, who is Jayne Ann Krentz in thriller mode, moves her setting from Victorian London ('Til Death Do Us Part, 2016, etc.) to golden-age Hollywood.Anna, private secretary to wealthy New England socialite Helen Spencer, finds her boss dead at her upstate New York lodge, apparently the victim of multiple stab wounds. The warning "Run" is written in blood on the wall. And run Anna does, after finding a letter from Helen, cash, and a leather-bound notebook. With the notebook, which contains arcane, scientific-looking squiggles, Anna heads for California, changing her name to Irene. She lands a job as a cub reporter with a Hollywood gossip rag, Whispers. A scoop is promised when starlet Gloria Maitland summons Irene to the exclusive Burning Cove Hotel on the Pacific coast. Irene hopes to glean juicy details about Gloria's rumored affair with movie star Nick Tremayne, whose career is rocketing into that rarified strata previously reserved for Clark Gable and Cary Grant. Arriving for the midnight appointment only to find Maitland's body floating in the pool, Irene barely escapes menacing footsteps behind her. Later, Oliver Ward, the hotel's owner, helps Irene assess clues and risks. Oliver knows all about misdirection and distraction, tools he used to his advantage as a magician, a stint cut short by a crippling injury. Nick Tremayne and his studio handlers are obviously suspect. However, notorious womanizer Nick can hardly see gossip as a murderworthy threat. The mystery deepens as more women, among them another gossip reporter, die by drowning. Against her better judgement, Irene keeps a rendezvous with another Nick paramour at a deserted warehouse only to learn, unsurprisingly, that a deadly trap has been set for her and Oliver. Emerging unscathed, they come across the paramour's unsurprisingly drowned corpse. Now Irene and Oliver must deploy his sleight-of-hand arsenal on two possible culprits, one a movie star, the other an East Coast lawyer with ties to Spencer. And of course, romance being Quick/Krentz's default mode, Oliver must deploy his sleight-of-hand on Irene. A passably entertaining whodunit with very few surprises.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from April 15, 2017

The bloody word run, written on the wallpaper, was all it took for Anna Harris to flee the scene of her boss's brutal murder. Even though she's reinvented herself as aspiring reporter Irene Glasson and is living on the other side of the country in tiny Burning Cove, CA, she senses she's in harm's way and all because of a cryptic notebook in her care. She hopes not to call attention to herself, but then the actress she was in town to interview ends up at the bottom of the pool at the exclusive Burning Cove Hotel. Now Irene and compelling magician-turned-hotel owner Oliver Ward are swept up in a game of mystery and suspense that becomes more complex by the page. Suspicion battles with attraction as our protagonists work to overcome their trust issues and put the puzzle pieces together. VERDICT This swiftly moving romance brims with surprising plot twists, delicious sensuality, and a delightfully classy 1930s California setting. An adventurous romp that will have readers hungry for more. Quick ('Til Death Do Us Part) lives in Seattle.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 1, 2017
The message Anna Harris' employer, Helen Spencer, left for her was short, simple, and written in Helen's blood: Run. So, flee is exactly what Anna did. Upon arriving in California, she reinvents herself as Irene Glasson, but now, just when Irene is settling into her life as the newest rookie reporter for the Hollywood gossip rag Whispers, she finds herself tangled up in another murder when she agrees to meet movie actress Gloria Maitland at the Burning Cove Hotel and discovers Gloria's body at the bottom of the pool. Determined to solve the mystery of Gloria's murder, Irene finds herself forced into a reluctant investigative partnership with Oliver Ward, a former world-class magician and now owner of the hotel. All of the key ingredientswit-infused writing, sharply etched characters, and plenty of simmering sexual chemistrythat readers have come to expect from Quick ('Til Death Do Us Part, 2016) snap into perfect alignment in this stellar novel. Put that together with a plot that neatly marries high-stakes suspense and a glamorous, old Hollywood setting, and you have a blockbuster that will not only delight historical-romance readers but also entice historical-mystery fans to join in on the fun.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)