The Hurricane Blonde is a murder mystery set in Hollywood.

Salma Lowe is a former child star but now is working for a tour bus company that shows people places where famous people have died. She is on the last stop which just happens to be where her famous sister died. When she sees the pool, she sees a body at the bottom. She jumps in to save the woman, but it is too late. This brings up all too familiar memories that Salma would rather keep deeply hidden.

The woman looks remarkably like her sister and has died the same way. Salma struggles with her memories of the past which have haunted her for years. Since her sister's murder remains unsolved, Salma is determined to find out the truth once and for all.

This book is typical over the top glamour set in Tinseltown. There are many secrets that will be revealed, and the killer will be a shocking surprise, although I had guessed early on.

I can see this as being made into a movie as it has just the right touch for the overly pampered town.

Salma is a lost former child-star. She's the youngest of a family full of Hollywood royalty. Her sister was murdered 20 years ago and Salma has been spiraling ever since. Salma has been giving ghost tours between stints in rehab. Pulling up to the house where her sister died, she sees a woman in the pool who is the mirror image of her deceased sister.

This is a WILD story, with that delicious gossipy feel that so many LA based books try and create.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review.

Hollywood and the film industry in books are always something i gravitate towards as a big pop culture fan, so I was expecting to really love this one.
I loved the setting and the unique storyline - our protagonist (a former child star) had a sister (also an actress, both descendants of actor parents) who was found murdered 2 decades ago, and now her former boyfriend wants to direct a film about her death and its investigation…a bit convoluted but promising.
I had an okay time with this one but it definitely did not live up to my expectations. I think my issue here was the writing - I always felt distanced from the characters and the narrator just seemed like an amalgamation of standard thriller tropes. she was a bit boring and i found it hard to root for her or care much about what was going on.

The Hurricane Blonde wasn't for me. I had a really hard time following the story and it wasn't for me. I will still recommend this book to other people. I may try it on audio at a later time.

I loved every second of this “seedy side of Hollywood movie making” story! Salma, cutely nicknamed Salmon, is a Hollywood Dead Girls tour guide and a recovering alcoholic and all around hot mess. She is also the youngest daughter of the Hollywood IT couple and has lived a life of open doors, free drugs and alcohol, and no consequences for any of her bad behavior. Until the worst happens and her older sister and best friend, a highly sought after starlet, is murdered and Salma thinks she knows who did it. Maddeningly he is still a free man and loved by many. When a second girl dies in the same place that her sister was killed, Salma has had enough and she is going to get to the bottom of how her sister died and make sure the murderer pays this time. This story is so atmospheric, terrifying at times and full of horrible secrets and cover ups all for the movie biz. I hate to say it, but this would make a great movie, lol! Thank you Netgalley, Penguin Group Putnam, and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on August 8, 2023

Thanks to @thrillerbookloverspromotions for the #gifted copy of the book.

Salma's sister. Tawney, was murdered twenty years ago. The murderer was never found, but Salma had always suspected her sister's former fiancee, Cal who is also a famous director. They had a very public tumultuous love affair. Salma is determined to find out who murdered her sister no matter what. It comes at a cost though. Is it worth the price, to her? To her family?

Have you ever wondered how the interworking's of Hollywood movie production works? Well, this book sure gave some insight to what goes on behind the scenes and I found it to be quite interesting!

I enjoyed this book; I liked the setting and the characters. Be sure to pick this up if you like old Hollywood, tabloid stories, or unsolved mysteries. This book gives a look at the behind-the-scenes film life and the some of the heartbreak encompassing this life. I read this one quickly! 4 star

Salma is determined to find out who killed her starlet sister twenty years ago. When she finds a look alike dead body at the home where her sister, Tawney, died, her insistence in bringing both (or the same) killer to justice intensifies. As she navigates LA, she followers her sisters' volatile director ex-fiancé, building a case against him. But will Salma's past with addition make her unreliable or will she be able to move on from the past?

This book is almost an LA noir- there is lots of film industry talk, an old Hollywood family, power and corruption, and murder. I liked this book and felt like it was a good story, but some of the writing was almost juvenile and made me wonder why it was not edited better. I also had trouble connecting with the main character- it took her fifty pages more than me to come to some of the realizations. The Me Too stuff was not done completely well, and some easy dialog or character actions could have helped this (I'm being vague as to not give away any plot points.)
It was also too long for a murder mystery. All in all, I liked this book and think it will satisfy readers, I just wanted it a little more polished.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advance copy for review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, G.P. Putnam's Sons, for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Salma Lowe is a former child star and youngest daughter in the Hollywood royalty Lowe family that goes back several generations. Salma is also an addict struggling to find her way in sobriety and is currently driving a bus giving ghost tours in Hollywood. Her sister was Tawney Lowe, aka, the Hurricane Blonde who was murdered at the Jacaranda House 20 years ago. Salma has just found out that the husband of her dead sister, the man Salma blames for her sister's death, is producing a movie made about the Hurricane Blonde.

This is a fast paced thriller with suspense, twists and turns. I really loved the Hollywood Studios back story as it added a lot of color. The characters were well developed and there is so much going on in the story!

Highly recommend.

Short synopsis: Salma gives Dead actor tours in Hollywood, one of those actors bring her sister Tawney who was murdered in the mid 90s thats is still unsolved. When she finds another body in Tawney’s old pool, Salma is determined to find the truth.

My thoughts: This one pulled me in so quickly and had me filing pages wanting to find answers along with Salma.

I loved this old Hollywood glitz and glamor, and the unsolved mysteries added such a fun element. Halfway through and I was still not convinced on who I thought was the culprit.

The ending didn’t coke as a huge surprise to me as I kept reading, but the family secrets were just so big and intense. I loved the drama!

Read if you love:
- Old Hollywood
- True crime
- Family secrets
- Unsolved murders
- Famous family

Thank you to PRHAudio for the ALC and Putnam for the ARC!

Few people can truly understand what Hollywood about behind the scenes, but former child star Salma Lowe does. Having left her acting days behind long ago, she now leads bus tours called “Six Feet Under”, which takes tourists through areas where stars met their untimely demises. This is personal to Salma, as her sister Tawney, known as “The Hurricane Blonde”, was murdered in the mid 90’s. Her case still remains unsolved. When another dead woman is found on one of Salma’s tours, wearing Tawney’s hair clip, Salma feels she has no choice but to immerse herself into Hollywood again, to put a stop to her sister’s killer once and for all.

This story read a bit like a tabloid magazine - it had such a fun “gossipy” feel to it, and that was refreshing from other thrillers I have recently read. More over, I enjoyed getting to see the good, the bad and the ugly about behind the scenes in Hollywood. I loved Salma as a character, and admired her tenacity in discovering who killed her sister. It pushed her to confront some terrible things and the final twist had my jaw on the floor. This was a fun thriller! The audio was narrated perfectly by Natasha Soudek, who brought Salma to life.

“The Hurricane Blonde” releases August 8th! This review will be shared to my instagram blog (@books_by_the_bottle) shortly.

The Hurricane Blonde reads like a true story! The beginning was a wee slow but it was all a set up for so many jaw dropping twists and turns!
Halley Sutton tackles some major issues that sadly effect (effected) so many women. Halley did a great job giving victims names and let their story be heard.

4.5 stars. Salma Lowe spends her days re-hashing the 20-year-old murder of her sister, a famous starlet named Tawney but dubbed "The Hurricane Blonde" for her famous temper. Giving yet another tour to nosy true-crime lovers, Salma is shocked to discover a dead woman in the pool of her sister's former house. Not only that, but the dead woman looks just like Tawney, and she was slated to star in an upcoming movie. Two dead blonde starlets in the same pool? Salma doesn't believe in coincidences, so she starts digging into the past despite everyone's insistence that the two events aren't related. What she'll find may blow her world to bits.

Full disclosure: I requested this ARC because Ashley Winstead recommend it on her instagram, and I trust her judgment when it comes to other thriller authors. I was not disappointed!!

I am personally a big fan of all things vintage Hollywood, and while this book is set in modern Los Angeles, Hollywood history plays a decent-sized role in the storyline. I loved Salma's backstory and her portrayal as a real and flawed human. I also DID NOT predict one of the first big twists in this story, and it knocked my socks off. COMPLETELY OFF. There are a handful of turns in this that kept me guessing, and I really enjoyed the reveals. I think the pacing of this was perfect and I never found myself bored or skimming. A great beach thriller!!

Thank you to Halley Sutton, G.P. Putnam's Sons, and NetGalley for my advance digital copy.

THE HURRICANE BLONDE by Halley Sutton is a thriller that takes a pretty standard trope of a dead woman and another haunted woman who is determined to solve it, and puts it in a very grim and bleak (but pretty on point) critique of the pitfalls, dark sides, and violence of Hollywood and the women who aspire within. I thought that the mystery itself was fairly familiar, with protagonist Salma, who is traumatized after a childhood in the spotlight and the very public murder of her starlet older sister Tawney, suddenly determined to find out what really happened after another dead woman is found at Tawney's old home. I had a good guess as to what had happened and how it all shook out, but what makes this book stand apart is how it tackles Hollywood culture and the way that it puts beautiful women on pedestals and then rips them to shreds. There were lots of shocking and upsetting moments, many of which took inspiration from real Hollywood tragedies, and I thought that this was the aspect of the book that made it really stand out from other thrillers I've read in the past few years.

THE HURRICANE BLONDE is a tough read, but I think that thriller fans should definitely seek it out.

4.5 stars

If you love thrillers with unsolved murders, complicated family dynamics, and Hollywood gossip, check out this book!

The setup of a former child star finding a body while giving a celebrity murder tour that includes her sister's unsolved murder catches your interest right away. Our main character Salma is sometimes quite frustrating, but ultimately just wants to find out what happened to her beloved sister and can't move on from the now cold case. It makes for an interesting mix of feeling her grief and struggles, while also getting salacious glimpses of dark Hollywood drama.

I loved the character dynamics in this book. The men hold a lot of power and it was interesting to see how it affected the women we focus on. At times they are competitive and judgmental of each other, occasionally supportive, and sometimes more protective of the men's egos than each other.

I went into this book expecting a fun, bingeable thriller and I did get that, but also felt like it brought up some really interesting topics to think about. How much sway does the media hold in creating and destroying celebrity? When are secrets helpful to keep versus harmful? Who is complicit in abuses of power, are you guilty for standing by even if you have no power yourself?

Salma has always suspected famous director, Cal, of being involved in her sister’s murder. Her sister was a famous actress whose life was cut too short. Now that Cal is making a movie of her life, and death, Salma becomes involved.

I enjoyed this one particularly for the inside look at making a movie. This story was pure Hollywood and I found that really compelling. I was genuinely interested in finding out who the killer was. I had a suspicion and I was right, but I still enjoyed the book.

“Hollywood loved a dead girl. She’s always photogenic.”

The Hurricane Blonde comes out 8/8.

Murder and juicy dark secrets lurking behind the dazzling lights of Hollywood erm… YES PLEASE!! 🤩🤩

Salma Lowe is a promising young actor from acting royalty. Her life suddenly hits the skids when she finds her older sister, and fellow actor, Tawney murdered in her home. Fast forward and she’s passing the days running the Stars Six Feet Under tours for true crime junkies 🫠🫠 Part of this tour includes Tawney’s home and final resting place. Well…. as if that isn’t bad enough, but does Salma not go ahead and replay history by finding ANOTHER dead girl in the same place… looking like Tawney’s double…. You know that this just reeks of trouble…!😮😮

Cue Salma going full throttle to uncover the connections between the two murders - and what she does uncover is way more than she bargained for…! 😨🫣

I really liked Sutton’s writing style, and Salma was such a broken and vulnerable character, I was rooting for her all the way. 🖤🖤 I found the first half of the book slower in pace as the background was uncovered, and then from about half way it ramped up as Salma got the bit between her teeth.

The behind the scenes of movie making were 😱😱 and I was eager to see how it all played out. I guessed the twist two thirds in but it didn’t disappoint as it was well executed.

A juicy fun popcorn thriller 🍿🍿 Perfect for a rainy afternoon ☕️ or a summer beach read! 🏖️

Thank you so much as always to Thriller Book Lovers Promotions for putting this on my radar and Putnam, and NetGalley for the advanced E-copy. Out August 8th!!

3.5 stars
A dark Hollywood story with a murdered starlette immediately drew my attention. Unfortunately, this book was just "ok." Although it had a compelling start, the middle part really dragged. The ending was good, but not great. I think that Sutton had the right idea here, but the execution just didn't live up to the prospect.

Who doesn’t love a juicy Hollywood murder mystery? Tawney was a famous actress born to famous actor parents. She was in a tumultuous relationship with a fellow leading man. One day, her 15 year old sister shows up at her house and finds her strangled to death by the pool. The mystery of Tawney’s death was never solved.

Flash forward to today…..her ex is now a director making a film about Tawney’s life. The actress hired to play Tawney was later found dead IN Tawney’s old actual pool! Family secrets and lies come to fruition.

Twisty and hard to put down, this is a page turner folks! I loved the past and present timelines, and how they eventually came together to solve the mystery of both murders!

This was my first by this author. The premise was intriguing, the execution was well done-filled with character-driven,long hurried family secrets/drama amidst the dark side of the entertainment industry in Hollywood. I wouldn’t call this a fast-paced thriller, but more a character study with a film in production covering a 20 + year old murder mystery of the MC’s sister, as the focal point. There are some very heavy themes within this one with some difficult subject matter, so I would suggest looking into triggers before diving in. I really loved the old Hollywood feel and especially the iconic locations, such as Musso and Franks, Chateau Marmont, among several others. While this book definitely took me a bit to get into, it still held my interest, had beautiful prose, and concluded nicely. Thank you so much to Netgalley, GP Putnam’s Sons for my eARC!