Book Review: The Other Lady Vanishes

Author: Amanda Quick

Publication Date: May 8, 2018

Publisher: Berkley

Series: Burning Cove # 2

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'll be drawn into a murky world of duplicity and misdirection.

Neither Adelaide or 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...

While this was written from multiple POVs, the main characters were Adelaide and Jake. Both characters have secrets unveiled as the story progresses, but it was Jake that I was most interested in because of his shady businessman friend.  For health reasons, Jake Truett was taking a break from his import/export business. So his trip to Burning Cove, California, was in part for his health, but Jake’s primary goal was to find his deceased wife’s diary. Jake knew that if the diary fell into the wrong hands, and made public, her family’s reputation would greatly suffer. Meeting Adelaide in his travels was just what he needed to make sure his greatest fear did not become reality.

We meet Adelaide Blake, our heroine, from the start where she is in the process of trying to escape from an insane asylum.  Adelaide knows she must run for her life, and someone is trying to kill her.  Adelaide was locked up by her “husband” and the evil people in charge at the asylum, who were doing experiments with her and others using a hallucinating drug. Adelaide is currently working as a waitress in a tea room in Burning Cove, where she works making herbal teas to help her regulars. This tea room is where our protagonists meet and action, suspense, and a little sprinkle of romance ensue.

They make a sweet couple and a slow, highly anticipated romance burns as the story unravels!

Amanda Quick’s writing will leaving you wishing that you were living in 1930’s Burning Cove solving mysteries right alongside Adelaide and Jake. This intriguing story is filled with blackmail, drugs, intense action scenes, and an intriguing mystery. Almost at every turn, Jake and Adelaide found themselves in grave danger by those trying to kill them.

Amanda Quick has an awesome character in Adelaide. I was so intrigued with her escape from the insane asylum, and of course with the fact that her husband is trying to track her down in order to obtain her inheritance. This was an interesting addition to the story. Amanda Quick once again gives us a complex mystery that had a bit of everything and the fun of being in the glamorous world of 1930’s.  I suggest you read the first book to enjoy the setting of this series, but The Other Lady Vanishes reads very well as a standalone.

I love historical fiction, mystery, and a small dose of romance, so I literally got the best of all these worlds with the newest addition to Amanda Quick’s Burning Cove series. The romance did not overpower the story. It was slow, started as a friendship, and developed as the story did – the perfect amount of romance, in my opinion! A lot was going on in this story, with plenty of twists, villains, and suspects. However, Quick tied it all together and kept me engaged. While I guessed early on the mastermind behind the threat, Quick added some twists that surprised me and I enjoy when that happens.

I highly recommend this series to anyone looking for a thrilling ride of mystery with a tie-in of a beautiful historical setting. Fans of historical fiction and murder-mysteries that deliver on danger and suspense while mixing in a delightful romance will enjoy The Other Lady Vanishes.