ARC Review: The Other Lady Vanishes by Amanda Quick

The Other Lady Vanishes
Author: Amanda Quick
Publication: Berkley (May 8, 2018)

Description: The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Knew Too Much sweeps readers back to 1930s California--where the most dazzling of illusions can't hide the darkest secrets...

After escaping from a private sanitarium, Adelaide Blake arrives in Burning Cove, California, desperate to start over.

Working at an herbal tea shop puts her on the radar of those who frequent the seaside resort town: Hollywood movers and shakers always in need of hangover cures and tonics. One such customer is Jake Truett, a recently widowed businessman in town for a therapeutic rest. But unbeknownst to Adelaide, his exhaustion is just a cover.

In Burning Cove, no one is who they seem. Behind facades of glamour and power hide drug dealers, gangsters, and grifters. Into this make-believe world comes psychic to the stars Madame Zolanda. Adelaide and Jake know better than to fall for her kind of con. But when the medium becomes a victim of her own dire prediction and is killed, they're drawn into a murky world of duplicity and misdirection.

Neither Adelaide nor Jake can predict that in the shadowy underground they'll find connections to the woman Adelaide used to be--and uncover the specter of a killer who's been real all along...

My Thoughts: Burning Grove, California, is a hot bed of crime again in this second book Amanda Quick has set in the 1930s. Adelaide Blake has taken up residence after escaping from a private sanitarium where she was subjected to an experimental drug which caused hallucinations. She is on the run from a man who says he's her husband and a pair of doctors. She finds refuge working in a tea room and blending her customized teas.

Burning Cove has become a getaway for Hollywood's rich and famous and others looking for a quiet spot. Jake Truett has come because, newly widowed, his doctor has recommended a quiet, stress-free rest. Madame Zolanda, psychic to the stars, has followed her clients along with her chauffeur/co-conspirator Thelma Leggett. Raina Kirk has come to start her own private investigations agency. Vera Westlake, Hollywood's current "most beautiful" actress, has come to mend her shattered nerves.

But everyone who has come to Burning Cove has many secrets. When Madame Zolanda is found dead outside her home - an apparent suicide - Adelaide and Jake begin their investigations. When someone breaks into Adelaide's house, Jake comes to the rescue and spends the night guarding Adelaide providing both of them with alibis for Madame Zolana's death. He's convinced that she is a blackmailer who has a diary that implicates his wife in treasonous activity but someone else has removed the evidence before Jake can find it.

Madame Zolana and Thelma were also dealing the drug that was being made in the sanitarium giving even more people reasons to want her dead. And someone wants Adelaide dead too. Jake and Adelaide become closer as they share their secrets and fall in love.

I like the 1930s setting and I liked seeing some of the characters from THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH in their cameos in this one. I liked the twisty plot and wide variety of suspects. I liked that the romance between Adelaide and Jake grew slowly through the book.

Favorite Quote:

Adelaide frowned. "Where did you hear all this?"

"The hardware store. Where else? Women get their local news at the beauty shop. Men get it ar the hardware store."

"I'll remember that."

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.