About the Book:

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…

Click on title below for direct Amazon buy link:
The Other Lady Vanishes

My Review:                 

As Adelaide Blake is mourning the loss of her parents, Conrad Massey conveniently appears on the scene, just in time to help the heiress through her grief and loneliness.  The couple becomes engaged, with Conrad pushing for a quick wedding.  Adelaide has started to emerge from the fog of sorrow, and realizes that she acted hastily, and tells Conrad that she can’t marry him.  The next thing she knows, she is resident in an asylum, being called Mrs. Massey, and told that she had a nervous breakdown.  While there, she becomes a guinea pig to test an unpredictable drug, which causes hallucinations.  Through her own resourcefulness, she manages to escape Rushbrook Sanitarium, and ends up in the town of Burning Cove, California, where she is now Adelaide Brockton, working in a tearoom.

Jake Truett has also come to Burning Cove, which is known as a haven for Hollywood bigwigs.  He appears to be at loose ends, dealing with the death of his wife, and the sale of his family’s import/export business.  He politely makes small talk with Adelaide every day at the Refresh Tearoom, until a gift of show tickets has them going out on a date.  As he drops Adelaide at home, and it appears that there has been an intruder, Jake’s protective instincts kick in, and he and Adelaide find their relationship becoming more personal.

When a murder occurs, and Jake and Adelaide are both at the scene, it appears clear that someone was hoping to frame Adelaide.  They first agree to become investigative partners, then they become friends.  Eventually Adelaide trusts Jake enough to tell him about her past, and to her relief and surprise, he believes her.  Jake also has secrets, both about his past life, and about his real reason for being in Burning Cove.  As attempts are made on both their lives, and more deaths occur, Jake and Adelaide find some solace in passion as they become lovers.  The pieces of the mystery begin to fall into place, and it seems that there is a connection between Jake’s reason for being in town and Adelaide’s bogus institutionalization.

THE OTHER LADY VANISHES is an amazingly well written mystery that never pauses to catch a breath.  The reader is taken on a wild ride of twists and turns guaranteed to hold your interest, and keep you turning the pages as quickly as you can.  Though the romance happens in a relatively short period of time, it feels as if it built slowly and believably.  The heroine, Adelaide, is strong and resourceful, yet cautious, and I admired her pluck and determination.  The hero, Jake, who has a more colorful past than he initially reveals, is strong, protective, and accomplished.  Yet, he retains his humanity and his vulnerability.  I fell in love with him as he got emotional when confessing his feelings to Adelaide, and how he treated her as they were intimate.  Every facet of THE OTHER LADY VANISHES worked for me, and I heartily recommend this Book Number 2 of the BURNING COVE SERIES.  ~Rose

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