In the 1950's, Reporter Sydney Lockhart takes an assignment to cover the development project for Pelican Island in her home town of Galveston Tx. She will be staying at the Hotel Galvez which happens to be where her beloved grandfather, the doorman , was murdered 18 yrs ago.
When immediately upon arrival she starts receiving mysterious threats she is determined to plug on. Then a dead body shows up in the trunk of her car and she realizes this is about much more than just the assignment.
Who is afraid that Sydney will dig up the past and uncover things they want to remain buried?

This was my first time reading a book by this author and I admit the fact it takes place where I now live , although it is 70 yrs in the past, was a strong pull for me to give it a shot. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found the glimpses of Galveston's seedy past to be intriguing and the fact I know where some of the place are like Guido's and the beautiful Galvez hotel , or used to be like the Balinese Room which washed out to the gulf during Hurricane Ike,made it so real for me. I also really liked the main character and her spunkiness. I would definitely look for the next in this series and will probably go back and start at the series beginning as well.
4 stars on Goodreads.
I received this book free from #netgalley for an honest review.

A mix of noir, romantic suspense and historical fiction. It's entertaining but there's a lot of information that made it hard to read.
Not my cup of tea
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

It was a lighthearted mystery but many parts of it felt like an internet search had been dumped into the story for an unclear reason.

This was the first book I've read in this series, set in the 1950s. I was attracted to the female protagonist, trailblazing in a career dominated by males, and by the location in Galveston, where I used to live. It reminded me a bit of the film noir detective stories, but also had some humor and a bit of romance. The characters were quite unique and the story line held my interest. A fun read.

This mystery started well with reporter Sydney Lockhart arriving in Galveston to cover a convention for the development of a local island. Nefarious things start happening almost immediately (threatening phone calls, her car’s tires slashed, etc) and the keynote speaker is found dead in her car’s trunk. Her cousin shows up to help her sleuth, while Sydney tries to hide from her mother at the same time (this is Sydney’s hometown, and people know her here).
She quickly finds the present day murder is tied to the drive-by shooting murder of her grandfather, and with a local wealthy guy.

I started out enjoying this mystery, and Sydney’s pluck, but about 2/3 of the way through I stopped caring about the mystery and the characters, and was not particularly interested in the story’s resolution.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Anamcara Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

This perfectly spooky, nostalgic read reminds me of my hometown — which happens to be Houston. I picked up this read because I’ve been to Galveston hundreds of times. Even though I am aware of the hotel hauntings in this beach town, I loved how the author wrote a tale so dark and mysterious.