Quick takes readers on a spin through the wild and woolly 1930’s in her latest. Adelaide Blake has escaped the private sanatorium she’s been locked up in and made tracks for Burning Cove, California, the kind of place where Hollywood types like to go to get a psychic reading, a purifying cleanse or just a cup of herbal tea. Adelaide takes a job in one of those herbal tea shops and meets some interesting characters, actors, hoodlums, con-men and gangsters are everywhere. She takes a liking to Jake Truett, who says he’s a businessman getting a little rest. When Madame Zolanda rolls into town, she becomes the darling o the Hollywood set, who all want their fortunes told. Adelaide doesn’t believe in any of that baloney, but when the psychic predicts her own murder, and it comes true, she and Jake wonder just who had it in for the lady and why.

Another winner from Amanda Quick! Adelaide has escaped a horrible fate and is starting a new life when she meets Jake at the tea shop where she works. He has secrets of his own but Adelaide feels she can trust him. Murder, blackmail, treachery, drugs, second chances, love - this book has it all. A great read!

I'm a long time fan of the author whether she's writing as Jayne Castle, Jayne Ann Krentz or Amanda Quick and always look eagerly forward to her next book. This book is set in the 1930's. Prohibition is gone, movies are the rage and the country is moving toward joining the war in Europe. I was reminded of the movies of that era...no cell phones, famous night clubs, operator assisted long distance phone calls, information stored in actual paper files. The writing seemed more gracious....flowing nicely. As always the characters are well developed and likeable. The plot lines are interesting. I thought the plot line involving the invention of a LSD type drug was quite interesting. Some romance, some terror and suitably despicable villains make this an enjoyable read.

Get out the popcorn and the Sno Caps, Amanda Quick has written another movie for our minds!

Quick returns to her new series setting, Burning Cove, California (leaving behind Victorian London, the site of her previous historicals). The Southern California town is a retreat for movie stars during Hollywood's golden era. Quick manages to create a 1930s, which is rife with danger and intrigue, including blackmail, illicit drugs, phony psychics, and secret agents--all this sans modern technology.

Adelaide Blake is hiding out in Burning Cover after having escaped from a very involuntary stay in a shady mental asylum. She works in a tea room, hoping she won't be discovered by the "husband" who put her there.

Jake Truett is the former owner of an import/export business, in town ostensibly to recover from a case of shattered nerves.

Of course, no one is who they seem to be in Burning Cove, especially the celebrities who come to escape the pressures of Hollywood but manage to be photographed frequently all the same.

Quick is a master at complex plotting, bringing characters and story lines together seamlessly, sometimes in expected, and sometimes in very unexpected, ways.

Clear your calendar for an afternoon and treat yourself to an entertaining escape in which the good guys rise above their flawed pasts and the bad guys get their just deserts--a very satisfying read.

Full Disclosure--Net Gallery and the publisher provided me with a digital ARC of this book. This is my honest review.