The Girl Who Knew Too Much

I was a bit skeptical with a book set in the 1930's. But I really did enjoy this one. I should not have douted Ms. Quick's ability to such me into the story.Irene had ro reinvent herself after fleeing th sceen of her boss' murder. Now in California, she works as a journalist for a gossip magazine and is investigating yet another murder when more women are killed.Oliver is no stranger to illusions and reinventing ones self. After all, he has done that as well. But when a woman is murdered in his hotel, he wants answers.While I did enjoy this story and the twists and turns, I didn't really feel the connection between Irene and Oliver. It felt more of a friend connection rather than a lover connection. I will be reading the next in this series.

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.

REVIEW REPOSTED FROM DEAR AUTHORReview:Dear Amanda Quick,I was very surprised when I found this book under your Amanda Quick’s name on Amazon Vine, since it isn’t a Regency romance/mystery. But of course I ordered it and decided to review it here as well.In my opinion this is not a romance, this is a mystery with romantic elements, but just as in many of your books there is a couple who is gets together at the end of the story and has a happy ending, so I understand if other readers would classify this as a Romance. It is a matter of degree – just how much space you think a romantic storyline should occupy compared to a mystery one.I thought that the main couple were mostly investigating a mystery, fell in love very quickly, and at the end of the book decided to be together forever.We meet Irene Glasson in the very beginning of the story when she is still named Anna and is working as a private secretary to a wealthy New York socialite. Anna comes home to find her employer, whom she liked and respected, has been brutally murdered. Her employer’s last message to her is written in blood and says Run. Anna indeed runs, all the way to California, and that’s where we meet her four months later as Irene. She works for gossip rag now, and apparently she has come to Burning Cove to chase a story about rising movie star Nick Tremayne. When she comes to the hotel to meet the woman who promised to spill her guts about Nick, Irene discovers her dead body, and she also feels that someone is watching her as well and is ready to kill her.The owner of the hotel, the infamous Oliver Ward, is intrigued by Irene. First and foremost he wants to protect his guests, but Oliver tells Irene that if somebody in his hotel killed this woman he won’t protect the murderer. Although they are mistrustful of each other, Oliver and Irene begin to work together to solve the mystery, and the count of dead women starts to increases quickly.Surprise, the dead women seem to all be connected to Nick Tremayne in one way or another. Nick is a womanizer who seems to have only short hookups. Is he (or more precisely the people from the Studio who clean up his messes) making sure that his former liaisons disappear forever? Do these women know something really terrible about his past? Is Nick involved at all? As she tries to answer these questions Irene herself is getting into more and more dangerous situations and it is clear that her life is in danger too.I found this story compulsively readable. I badly wanted to find out who did it. We find out who killed Irene’s employer very early on; I am not going to reveal who they are but I don’t think saying we know is a spoiler. I thought the red herrings were pretty good and I was almost convinced that one of those people was the murderer, so good job keeping me guessing. We don’t know who killed all these other people almost until the end of the book and I did not guess that killer at all. It was easy in retrospect to understand their motivations, but I did not think the clues and foreshadowing to the second killer’s identity worked that well.Basically, the second killer was doing things in large part because they had a past connection with one of the characters. My problem was that the second killer and that character were only shown to interact on page couple of times. Unfortunately I did not buy that someone with a past similar to these characters would interact with the other person that way.As I stated before, I thought that the romantic storyline was less important than the mystery one, but I still liked Oliver and Irene both together and separately. I want to note that one of the things I liked about Irene is that even when she accepted Oliver’s help with her investigation, she did not forget that she could still rely on her own wits as well.I have to admit that there was one thing I missed in this book so very much – humor. Of course this is not a light-hearted book in the same way as Amanda Quick’s early books were, and I did not expect humor and laughter on every page or even every other page, but I would have loved to see more humorous touches .Grade: B

All previous Amanda Quick have been set in the Georgian/Victorian era, this book is set in 1930s. This book is set along side the days of Hollywood studio power.A Chicago Secretary finds her employer murdered but also leaves her a message to run. She is a smart lady and knows how to hide and make a new life. But it isn't long before murder finds her again.While trying to save her life in a Hotel spa.she comes to meet a Man with as many secrets as her in his past , who offers to help her . Will she be able.to ignore the message her boss left her and give her trust to him to save them both. Good sweet romance and well written suspense. On to the next book

I have enjoyed a lot of the JAK/ Jayne Castle/Amanda Quick books, mostly in the paranormal genre, so this made a nice change of pace.I enjoyed the characters, strong female lead with a past etc.I thought the storyline was really good and enjoyed the plot twist at the end.I'm looking forward to reading the next books in the series.

This book was started with a murder and led you on a merry dance with other murders on the way but who was responsible? Irene is no shrinking violet but an independent woman of the time. The romance is there but it plays alongside solving the mystery of murders. A new era in time for Amanda Quick but still had me engrossed from the beginning. Waiting to read the next one in this series.

A different century for an Amanda Quick novel but just as good.It caught me from the first page - a body and a message written in blood ! Then it continued to get better !! 1930's California and the power of the big film studios made a fascinating back ground to murder and mayhem.I can thoroughly recommend this book to anyone wanting a bit of glamour mystery and of course romance .

This is an easy read. Written with a light touch and fast pace so that you tend to ignore the implausibilities or the slightly clunky double plot.This is fun escapism, romance and glamour in 1930s Hollywood with a backdrop of murder and scandal.Although the era is new for this author the story remains much the same sort of fair. However it is none the worse for that as romantic suspense is her forte..