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Burning Cove #1
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
Amanda Quick, the bestselling author of ’Til Death Do Us Part, transports readers to 1930s California, where glamour and seduction spawn a multitude of sins…
When Hollywood moguls and stars want privacy, they head to an idyllic small town on the coast, where the exclusive Burning Cove Hotel caters to their every need. It’s where reporter Irene Glasson finds herself staring down at a beautiful actress at the bottom of a pool…
The dead woman had a red-hot secret about up-and-coming leading man Nick Tremayne, a scoop that Irene couldn’t resist—especially since she’s just a rookie at a third-rate gossip rag. But now Irene’s investigation into the drowning threatens to tear down the wall of illusion that is so deftly built around the famous actor, and there are powerful men willing to do anything to protect their investment.
Seeking the truth, Irene finds herself drawn to a master of deception. Oliver Ward was once a world-famous magician—until he was mysteriously injured during his last performance. Now the owner of the Burning Cove Hotel, he can’t let scandal threaten his livelihood, even if it means trusting Irene, a woman who seems to have appeared in Los Angeles out of nowhere four months ago…
With Oliver’s help, Irene soon learns that the glamorous paradise of Burning Cove hides dark and dangerous secrets. And that the past—always just out of sight—could drag them both under…
When Hollywood moguls and stars want privacy, they head to an idyllic small town on the coast, where the exclusive Burning Cove Hotel caters to their every need. It’s where reporter Irene Glasson finds herself staring down at a beautiful actress at the bottom of a pool…
The dead woman had a red-hot secret about up-and-coming leading man Nick Tremayne, a scoop that Irene couldn’t resist—especially since she’s just a rookie at a third-rate gossip rag. But now Irene’s investigation into the drowning threatens to tear down the wall of illusion that is so deftly built around the famous actor, and there are powerful men willing to do anything to protect their investment.
Seeking the truth, Irene finds herself drawn to a master of deception. Oliver Ward was once a world-famous magician—until he was mysteriously injured during his last performance. Now the owner of the Burning Cove Hotel, he can’t let scandal threaten his livelihood, even if it means trusting Irene, a woman who seems to have appeared in Los Angeles out of nowhere four months ago…
With Oliver’s help, Irene soon learns that the glamorous paradise of Burning Cove hides dark and dangerous secrets. And that the past—always just out of sight—could drag them both under…
368 pages, Hardcover
First published May 9, 2017
1583 people are currently reading
12886 people want to read
About the author
Amanda Quick
93 books5,493 followersPseudonym of Jayne Ann Krentz
The author of over 40 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, JAYNE ANN KRENTZ writes romantic-suspense, often with a psychic and paranormal twist, in three different worlds: Contemporary (as Jayne Ann Krentz), historical (as Amanda Quick) and futuristic (as Jayne Castle). There are over 30 million copies of her books in print.
She earned a B.A. in History from the University of California at Santa Cruz and went on to obtain a Masters degree in Library Science from San Jose State University in California. Before she began writing full time she worked as a librarian in both academic and corporate libraries.
Ms. Krentz is married and lives with her husband, Frank, in Seattle, Washington.
Pseudonym(s):
Jayne Ann Krentz
Jayne Castle
Stephanie James
Jayne Bentley
Jayne Taylor
Amanda Glass
The author of over 40 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, JAYNE ANN KRENTZ writes romantic-suspense, often with a psychic and paranormal twist, in three different worlds: Contemporary (as Jayne Ann Krentz), historical (as Amanda Quick) and futuristic (as Jayne Castle). There are over 30 million copies of her books in print.
She earned a B.A. in History from the University of California at Santa Cruz and went on to obtain a Masters degree in Library Science from San Jose State University in California. Before she began writing full time she worked as a librarian in both academic and corporate libraries.
Ms. Krentz is married and lives with her husband, Frank, in Seattle, Washington.
Pseudonym(s):
Jayne Ann Krentz
Jayne Castle
Stephanie James
Jayne Bentley
Jayne Taylor
Amanda Glass
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,312 reviews
June 21, 2017
After her boss is murdered unexpectedly and leaves her with a mysterious notebook Anna flees New York and heads out to LA. Anna hides out there by changing her name to Irene and getting a job at a third rate gossip magazine to keep a low profile. While on an assignment for the magazine Irene goes to meet an aspiring movie star who has some information on a famous actor. Unfortunately when Irene arrives at the spa where she's meeting the actress, the actress has drowned and Irene hears someone chasing her. Even though she manages to escape, Irene gets tangled up in a series of murders as she tries to prove that Nick Tremayne, the famous actor involved with all the women, is the one who's behind the murders.
The plot is kind of a mess to begin with, there was no reason to layer the two arcs together with Anna and the notebook as well as the mystery of who's killing all the women. It made everything seem convoluted and hard to believe. Same thing with who ends up being the murderer, it felt like a cope out so the author could just pull a plot twist. The resolution of the notebook thing also was so tidy and convenient. The execution of the book wasn't good and didn't work for me at all.
The plot is kind of a mess to begin with, there was no reason to layer the two arcs together with Anna and the notebook as well as the mystery of who's killing all the women. It made everything seem convoluted and hard to believe. Same thing with who ends up being the murderer, it felt like a cope out so the author could just pull a plot twist. The resolution of the notebook thing also was so tidy and convenient. The execution of the book wasn't good and didn't work for me at all.
May 24, 2017
Irene Glasson has come to California to escape a dangerous killer. She reinvents herself from personal secretary into an up-and-coming journalist for a small time gossip paper. While she’s on the hunt for a story she finds herself embroiled in another murder mystery, but this time she’s got Oliver Ward on her side. They work as partners to catch a murderer, all the while a simmering attraction brews between them!
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Girl Who Knew Too Much. It’s the perfect summer read! An engaging mystery set in the 1930s on the California coast. Dramatic cliffs overlooking the blue-green ocean are the backdrop for the Burning Cove Hotel, a Spanish style beauty that caters to the rich and famous, including glamorous silver screen stars.
Oliver Ward, a once famous magician and illusionist extraordinaire, is now the proprietor of this luxurious haven, and he has a strict policy excluding reporters and photographers. That doesn’t stop Irene Glasson, from getting her scoop, though. Unfortunately, her private invitation is marred by the murder of a woman and Irene is caught in the middle of a dangerous situation all over again.
I love the time period this mystery is set in: the 1930s is a time of art deco, dressing up for dinner, dancing and cocktails, and old Hollywood glamour. Burning Cove Hotel with its elegant old world Spanish style may have looked like:
The setting was fantastic, but the mystery and romance are what kept me glued to the pages. Filled with thrills and danger, attraction and romance, The Girl Who Knew Too Much is a fast, addictive, fun mystery, and I loved it!
A copy was kindly provided by Berkley Books in exchange for an honest review.
This review is also posted at The Readers Den.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Girl Who Knew Too Much. It’s the perfect summer read! An engaging mystery set in the 1930s on the California coast. Dramatic cliffs overlooking the blue-green ocean are the backdrop for the Burning Cove Hotel, a Spanish style beauty that caters to the rich and famous, including glamorous silver screen stars.
Oliver Ward, a once famous magician and illusionist extraordinaire, is now the proprietor of this luxurious haven, and he has a strict policy excluding reporters and photographers. That doesn’t stop Irene Glasson, from getting her scoop, though. Unfortunately, her private invitation is marred by the murder of a woman and Irene is caught in the middle of a dangerous situation all over again.
I love the time period this mystery is set in: the 1930s is a time of art deco, dressing up for dinner, dancing and cocktails, and old Hollywood glamour. Burning Cove Hotel with its elegant old world Spanish style may have looked like:
The setting was fantastic, but the mystery and romance are what kept me glued to the pages. Filled with thrills and danger, attraction and romance, The Girl Who Knew Too Much is a fast, addictive, fun mystery, and I loved it!
A copy was kindly provided by Berkley Books in exchange for an honest review.
This review is also posted at The Readers Den.
May 7, 2023
The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Amanda Quick
Burning Cove series #1. Historical romantic mystery. 1930’s California.
The Burning Cove Hotel caters to the rich and famous. Reporter Irene Gleason discovers a once beautiful actress at the bottom of the pool. She and Oliver Ward, a once famous magician, investigate and find themselves in danger from the hidden killer.
Intriguing visit down Route 66 to this hotel of secrets.
The beginning can be a bit confusing, especially if listening to the story in audiobook format. Lots of side characters and even Irene changes her name. The audiobook to me sounded “tin y” as if it were actually recorded in the 30’s. Maybe it was on purpose but it also gave the story a campy vaudeville feel.
Overall I liked the mystery and the very slow burn romance.
Burning Cove series #1. Historical romantic mystery. 1930’s California.
The Burning Cove Hotel caters to the rich and famous. Reporter Irene Gleason discovers a once beautiful actress at the bottom of the pool. She and Oliver Ward, a once famous magician, investigate and find themselves in danger from the hidden killer.
Intriguing visit down Route 66 to this hotel of secrets.
The beginning can be a bit confusing, especially if listening to the story in audiobook format. Lots of side characters and even Irene changes her name. The audiobook to me sounded “tin y” as if it were actually recorded in the 30’s. Maybe it was on purpose but it also gave the story a campy vaudeville feel.
Overall I liked the mystery and the very slow burn romance.
May 20, 2024
I've given this a C- for narration and a D+ for content at AudioGals, so I'm leaving it at 2 stars.
Anyone who has read or listened to even a small number of Amanda Quick’s historical mysteries will have realised that her books tend to be somewhat formulaic. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing; Ms. Quick’s particular formula – independent heroine meets mysterious, slightly dangerous hero and they solve a mystery while falling in love (and have their first sexual encounter anywhere else but a bed!) – is a popular and successful one, and I have no problem with formulaic when it’s done well. I wanted to listen to The Girl Who Knew Too Much mostly because the setting of 1930s Los Angeles is a departure from the author’s usual setting of 19th Century England, and being a bit of an old movie buff, I was looking forward to a noir-ish mystery with a touch of good old Hollywood glamour. Sadly, however both the noir and the glamour were missing and the mysteries – there are two of them – were very predictable.
Adding to my disappointment was the narration by Louisa Jane Underwood, which did nothing to help an already lacklustre book and in fact, made listening to it a chore rather than a pleasure. Had I not been listening for review, I’d have DNFed and returned it to Audible.
The book opens upon the first of the mysteries I mentioned, when personal assistant, Anna Harris, arrives at the swanky country home of her employer, Helen Spencer, to find that she has been murdered. Before she died, Helen appears to have had the time to leave a note, scrawl the word “RUN!” in blood and direct Anna to the location of a valuable notebook that she must not under any circumstances tell anyone about, not the police, not the FBI, not ANYONE. I had to ask myself at this point exactly what she was supposed to do with it if she couldn’t tell anyone she had it.
Anyway, Anna runs, changes her name to Irene Glasson and ends up in L.A., working as a reporter for Whispers, one of the various Hollywood gossip rags. She is due to meet with Gloria Maitland, an aspiring actress who has some sort of scoop on the up-and-coming heartthrob actor, Nick Tremayne – but Irene finds Gloria dead, in the swimming pool of the Burning Cove Hotel where they had arranged to meet.
The hotel is owned by Oliver Ward, a former stage illusionist and magician, whose career was cut short a couple of years earlier when an act went wrong and he almost died on stage. Remember that, because it’s important. It must be, because it’s mentioned so many times that I stopped counting after the sixth or seventh instance. After his career ended, Oliver put everything he had into the Burning Cove Hotel and has made it THE place to go for all the top stars and studio execs, so naturally, he isn’t best pleased at the bad publicity likely to ensue over the fact there’s a dead body in the pool.
Fortunately, however, Oliver becomes Irene’s biggest ally as the pair of them team up to try to find out who killed Gloria. Irene reveals that her friend and mentor, Peggy Hackett, died under suspicious circumstances rather like Gloria’s, and that she now suspects that Peggy was also murdered. Naturally, the further Irene digs into the pasts of the victims, the more she attracts the wrong sort of attention from the wrong sort of people. Nick Tremayne might be nice to look at and a talented actor, but beneath the veneer, he’s selfish and unpleasant and was trying to end his affair with Gloria before she met her watery end. Now he’s desperate to get Irene off his back and isn’t above resorting to threats. His studio’s fixer, Ogden, will do whatever it takes to protect its stars from bad publicity, and tries to put the frighteners on Irene, which culminates in another dead body; and Nick’s newest friend is the enigmatic and handsome Julian Enright, son of an old money New York family and heir to one of that city’s most prestigious law firms, which has a nice sideline in extortion and assassination. Throw in Nick’s stalker, his exceedingly nervous assistant, Claudia, Oliver’s eccentric uncle Chester, Irene’s brusque editor and a variety of other secondary characters, and the book is pretty much bursting at the seams. I can’t understand the need for two separate mystery plots – the notebook and the L.A murders – and quite honestly, it’s all one big mess. The former plotline is resolved too easily and the identity of the murderer of the women seems to have been the result of sticking a pin in the list of characters to choose whodunnit, because there’s no build up to it at all.
The dialogue smells cheesier than month old camembert and the characterisation is paper-thin. As for the romance, well, blink and you’ll miss it. There is zero chemistry between Irene and Oliver, who go from kiss to shag (not in a bed the first time as per the formula) to pretty much living together with no discussion about what they’re doing or where they’re going.
I can’t say for sure if I’d have enjoyed this audiobook had the publishers used a different narrator, because the story is extremely weak, but I can’t help thinking that, if they’d used someone like, say, Julie McKay (to whom I listened in Beatriz Williams’ The Wicked City recently) I might have enjoyed the actual listening experience more. It’s no secret that I get just the teeniest bit annoyed when I hear a British-set historical romance narrated in an American accent, so here I’m levelling the exact opposite criticism. Louisa Jane Underwood seems to be the current “narrator of choice” for Amanda Quick’s work, but she is completely wrong for this book, and I don’t get why a British narrator was used instead of an American one. She performs all the narrative in her native British accent and the dialogue in some kind of American accent, but the juxtaposition is off and kept pulling me out of the story. I freely admit to not being an expert in American accents, but to my ears it sounded like Ms. Underwood was able to do two different ones; a kind of “all purpose American” and a slight “New York Bronx” (which she employs for Claudia and some of the hotel staff.) At one point Oliver says that it’s easy for West Coast people to identify people from the East Coast by their accent. Well, good luck with that, Oliver, because I heard absolutely no difference. I’d love to hear an opinion from an American who has listened to this (or part of it), because to my ears, the accents are excruciatingly fake.
The character differentiation is also quite poor. Ms. Underwood does an okay job with her characterisations of Oliver, Irene and some of the other female characters, but her other male characterisations leave much to be desired, and in the case of some of them – Chester, for example – they sound like they’re TALKING IN ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME. This is also true of Irene’s editor, to whom she talks on the phone a lot. The woman is obviously meant to be one of those hard-ball woman-in-a-man’s-world types, but to my ears SHE WAS JUST SHOUTY.
A poor narration coupled with a less than scintillating story is a recipe for disaster and that’s exactly what we’ve got here. I was glad when I heard the words “The End.”
Anyone who has read or listened to even a small number of Amanda Quick’s historical mysteries will have realised that her books tend to be somewhat formulaic. I’m not saying that’s necessarily a bad thing; Ms. Quick’s particular formula – independent heroine meets mysterious, slightly dangerous hero and they solve a mystery while falling in love (and have their first sexual encounter anywhere else but a bed!) – is a popular and successful one, and I have no problem with formulaic when it’s done well. I wanted to listen to The Girl Who Knew Too Much mostly because the setting of 1930s Los Angeles is a departure from the author’s usual setting of 19th Century England, and being a bit of an old movie buff, I was looking forward to a noir-ish mystery with a touch of good old Hollywood glamour. Sadly, however both the noir and the glamour were missing and the mysteries – there are two of them – were very predictable.
Adding to my disappointment was the narration by Louisa Jane Underwood, which did nothing to help an already lacklustre book and in fact, made listening to it a chore rather than a pleasure. Had I not been listening for review, I’d have DNFed and returned it to Audible.
The book opens upon the first of the mysteries I mentioned, when personal assistant, Anna Harris, arrives at the swanky country home of her employer, Helen Spencer, to find that she has been murdered. Before she died, Helen appears to have had the time to leave a note, scrawl the word “RUN!” in blood and direct Anna to the location of a valuable notebook that she must not under any circumstances tell anyone about, not the police, not the FBI, not ANYONE. I had to ask myself at this point exactly what she was supposed to do with it if she couldn’t tell anyone she had it.
Anyway, Anna runs, changes her name to Irene Glasson and ends up in L.A., working as a reporter for Whispers, one of the various Hollywood gossip rags. She is due to meet with Gloria Maitland, an aspiring actress who has some sort of scoop on the up-and-coming heartthrob actor, Nick Tremayne – but Irene finds Gloria dead, in the swimming pool of the Burning Cove Hotel where they had arranged to meet.
The hotel is owned by Oliver Ward, a former stage illusionist and magician, whose career was cut short a couple of years earlier when an act went wrong and he almost died on stage. Remember that, because it’s important. It must be, because it’s mentioned so many times that I stopped counting after the sixth or seventh instance. After his career ended, Oliver put everything he had into the Burning Cove Hotel and has made it THE place to go for all the top stars and studio execs, so naturally, he isn’t best pleased at the bad publicity likely to ensue over the fact there’s a dead body in the pool.
Fortunately, however, Oliver becomes Irene’s biggest ally as the pair of them team up to try to find out who killed Gloria. Irene reveals that her friend and mentor, Peggy Hackett, died under suspicious circumstances rather like Gloria’s, and that she now suspects that Peggy was also murdered. Naturally, the further Irene digs into the pasts of the victims, the more she attracts the wrong sort of attention from the wrong sort of people. Nick Tremayne might be nice to look at and a talented actor, but beneath the veneer, he’s selfish and unpleasant and was trying to end his affair with Gloria before she met her watery end. Now he’s desperate to get Irene off his back and isn’t above resorting to threats. His studio’s fixer, Ogden, will do whatever it takes to protect its stars from bad publicity, and tries to put the frighteners on Irene, which culminates in another dead body; and Nick’s newest friend is the enigmatic and handsome Julian Enright, son of an old money New York family and heir to one of that city’s most prestigious law firms, which has a nice sideline in extortion and assassination. Throw in Nick’s stalker, his exceedingly nervous assistant, Claudia, Oliver’s eccentric uncle Chester, Irene’s brusque editor and a variety of other secondary characters, and the book is pretty much bursting at the seams. I can’t understand the need for two separate mystery plots – the notebook and the L.A murders – and quite honestly, it’s all one big mess. The former plotline is resolved too easily and the identity of the murderer of the women seems to have been the result of sticking a pin in the list of characters to choose whodunnit, because there’s no build up to it at all.
The dialogue smells cheesier than month old camembert and the characterisation is paper-thin. As for the romance, well, blink and you’ll miss it. There is zero chemistry between Irene and Oliver, who go from kiss to shag (not in a bed the first time as per the formula) to pretty much living together with no discussion about what they’re doing or where they’re going.
I can’t say for sure if I’d have enjoyed this audiobook had the publishers used a different narrator, because the story is extremely weak, but I can’t help thinking that, if they’d used someone like, say, Julie McKay (to whom I listened in Beatriz Williams’ The Wicked City recently) I might have enjoyed the actual listening experience more. It’s no secret that I get just the teeniest bit annoyed when I hear a British-set historical romance narrated in an American accent, so here I’m levelling the exact opposite criticism. Louisa Jane Underwood seems to be the current “narrator of choice” for Amanda Quick’s work, but she is completely wrong for this book, and I don’t get why a British narrator was used instead of an American one. She performs all the narrative in her native British accent and the dialogue in some kind of American accent, but the juxtaposition is off and kept pulling me out of the story. I freely admit to not being an expert in American accents, but to my ears it sounded like Ms. Underwood was able to do two different ones; a kind of “all purpose American” and a slight “New York Bronx” (which she employs for Claudia and some of the hotel staff.) At one point Oliver says that it’s easy for West Coast people to identify people from the East Coast by their accent. Well, good luck with that, Oliver, because I heard absolutely no difference. I’d love to hear an opinion from an American who has listened to this (or part of it), because to my ears, the accents are excruciatingly fake.
The character differentiation is also quite poor. Ms. Underwood does an okay job with her characterisations of Oliver, Irene and some of the other female characters, but her other male characterisations leave much to be desired, and in the case of some of them – Chester, for example – they sound like they’re TALKING IN ALL CAPS ALL THE TIME. This is also true of Irene’s editor, to whom she talks on the phone a lot. The woman is obviously meant to be one of those hard-ball woman-in-a-man’s-world types, but to my ears SHE WAS JUST SHOUTY.
A poor narration coupled with a less than scintillating story is a recipe for disaster and that’s exactly what we’ve got here. I was glad when I heard the words “The End.”
September 16, 2019
This was a really fun read. It's very much like other Amanda Quick books I've read, though one without the magic or woo-woo that some contain. It has a strong heroine, a manly man, and an interesting plot that holds together very well.
This is mostly a mystery story with the romance playing a sideline (though one I really appreciated). I loved how well it worked out, frankly. There was even a really great twist that made total sense once revealed that I totally hadn't caught and that's nice in this type of story.
My only qualm is the sex happening in a time period pre-ubiquitous birth control but without any concerns about pregnancy. That always strikes me as strange, particularly in the women (who bear the majority of the cost of child bearing). It fits neatly-enough under genre expectation, though, so I chose not to worry about it. Much.
So this ends up a five star read that I really enjoyed on the romance, mystery, character, plot, and worldbuilding levels. So that's all the levels, right?
A note about Steamy: There's a single explicit sex scene, but the lights go out pretty quick and future sex is merely alluded to. So this is on the low end of my steam tolerance and I think that fit the story very well.
This is mostly a mystery story with the romance playing a sideline (though one I really appreciated). I loved how well it worked out, frankly. There was even a really great twist that made total sense once revealed that I totally hadn't caught and that's nice in this type of story.
My only qualm is the sex happening in a time period pre-ubiquitous birth control but without any concerns about pregnancy. That always strikes me as strange, particularly in the women (who bear the majority of the cost of child bearing). It fits neatly-enough under genre expectation, though, so I chose not to worry about it. Much.
So this ends up a five star read that I really enjoyed on the romance, mystery, character, plot, and worldbuilding levels. So that's all the levels, right?
A note about Steamy: There's a single explicit sex scene, but the lights go out pretty quick and future sex is merely alluded to. So this is on the low end of my steam tolerance and I think that fit the story very well.
August 10, 2017
3,5 Stars
Set in the 1930s, a first for Amanda Quick, against the backdrop of a luxury hotel on the West Coast, buen retiro for the Hollywood jet-set, and revolving around a woman on the run hiding a compromising notebook, a former magician and a killer on the loose, in the hands of a skilled author in her element with this genre The Girl Who Knew Too Much made for a solid mystery with strong romantic undertones.
Nicely conveying the glamour of that era and written in a smooth prose punctuated by lively dialogues, I just wished for a more even pace and more time given to building the relationship between the leads, but as a whole a very enjoyable read.
Set in the 1930s, a first for Amanda Quick, against the backdrop of a luxury hotel on the West Coast, buen retiro for the Hollywood jet-set, and revolving around a woman on the run hiding a compromising notebook, a former magician and a killer on the loose, in the hands of a skilled author in her element with this genre The Girl Who Knew Too Much made for a solid mystery with strong romantic undertones.
Nicely conveying the glamour of that era and written in a smooth prose punctuated by lively dialogues, I just wished for a more even pace and more time given to building the relationship between the leads, but as a whole a very enjoyable read.
September 19, 2017
I have to admit that I'm quite besotted with this cover. I like how different it is, the crisscrossing of colorful squares over the image of the girl and I love the combination of the colors. Now, you should not choose a book just because of the cover, but I'm the first one to raise my hand to admit that I do it over and over again. But, I'm a bit cautious when it comes to historical romance because it's just not often my type of book. However, I discovered Amanda Quick years ago and she is one of few authors that I have come to like when it comes to historical romance. And, that's because her books have an element of suspects to them. And nothing spices a romance as a crime.
READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!
READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW OVER AT FRESH FICTION!
April 13, 2017
Reviewed for herding cats & burning soup.
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2fZvpST
A peek into the glamorous and oh so scandalous world of 1930s Hollywood? Amanda Quick? A retired magician and a heroine on the run? Yes, please! The Girl Who Knew Too Much captured me completely.
This was a little different than most I've read from Quick since it's set in Hollywood in the 1930s but I ended up really enjoying the setting. The glamour, scandal, grit, the mystery and illusions behind tinseltown. It was a fun time watching Irene and Oliver--who met when she discovered a dead body at his exclusive hotel--join forces to figure out the secrets Hollywood is ruthlessly trying to hide.
Irene and Oliver. Irene's recently reinvented herself as a gossip columnist after escaping a dangerous past. She's quick, smart and like a dog with a bone. She smelled a "story" and she wasn't going to give up until she figured out who was behind the string of deaths that kept popping up around one of Hollywood's leading men. And Oliver--A former magician who was gravely injured and had to reinvent himself as well. He could be a little gruff now and again and play things close to the chest but I loved him and that even if she exasperated him now and again he supported Irene and was determined to help her figure out what was going on. He's so a caretaker, too, making sure everyone around him is provided for.
Their romance is a bit slow moving and takes a back seat to the mystery but it was fun watching them work together and break down each other's barriers. There's a tiny bit of heat but not much. I did think things escalated a bit too quickly at the end commitment-wise but it was deal-able.
All in all, I had a grand time with The Girl Who Knew Too Much. With her usual magic Quick brought to life a bygone era full of danger, mystery and glitter...with a few twists and turns thrown in when least expected. I just love that. I'm definitely hoping there will be more from this cast of characters. It certainly sounded like there's potential for future stories. *fingers crossed*
~~~~~~
11/4 *flails about* Can I resist reading this until closer to release date? Gah! I don't think I can! I don't think I can!
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2elZPKp
April 25, 2017
This book read like a parody of a bad B-movie. Maybe that was intentional, but it certainly is not a writing style that I enjoy. Everything was explained rather than just showing actions and letting the reader draw their own conclusions. "She hesitated. Something told her that she had to know what was inside the velvet bag. Perhaps the contents will explain what had happened that night." The dialogue felt stilted and artificial. Also, details seemed off, like when a character demanded to be made vice president of a law firm although firms aren't structured that way (but maybe they were in the 1930s?). In any event, I was not liking this book so I abandoned it and I don't feel inclined to try anything else by this author.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
May 8, 2017
Amanda Quick (Jayne Anne Krentz) always manages to pull me into her stories and THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH offered an interesting cast of characters. Irene Glasson is hiding a secret, and Oliver Ward is determined to discover it. As the two begin to investigate, they find themselves facing down danger and finding passion. I connected with Irene and admired her spunk and quick wits. She is tenacious and once she gets a hold of a story she just doesn't let go. Oliver was an interesting character, from his connections to the secret he carries that resulted in him walking with a limp. He protects those he cares about, and he quickly decides Irene needs his help.
Quick gives us two mystery threads. The first involves Irene and her former life. We are even privy to the thoughts of those who seek her. This was a dark thread that added suspense to an already interesting murder case that's connected to Nick Tremayne. I loved the different suspects and players involved. Quick did a great job of sharing their mindset, throwing down red herrings and providing twists. All of this allowed me to slip into the world and become involved.
I absolutely loved the setting and Quick easily captured the atmosphere, glitz, and glamor of the 1930s Hollywood scene. Her characters felt authentic, and the murder mystery threads offered surprises that kept me flipping the pages.
The romance that develops takes a backseat to the mystery plot, but we do get brief moments of passion and discovery. Their relationship felt genuine, and they worked well together, but for me, this was the weakest thread in the tale. There really wasn't enough page time to allow the romance itself to simmer, but Quick writes a compelling story that held its own, and I actually wouldn't mind meeting this couple in a future mystery.
Copy provided by the publisher. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer
Quick gives us two mystery threads. The first involves Irene and her former life. We are even privy to the thoughts of those who seek her. This was a dark thread that added suspense to an already interesting murder case that's connected to Nick Tremayne. I loved the different suspects and players involved. Quick did a great job of sharing their mindset, throwing down red herrings and providing twists. All of this allowed me to slip into the world and become involved.
I absolutely loved the setting and Quick easily captured the atmosphere, glitz, and glamor of the 1930s Hollywood scene. Her characters felt authentic, and the murder mystery threads offered surprises that kept me flipping the pages.
The romance that develops takes a backseat to the mystery plot, but we do get brief moments of passion and discovery. Their relationship felt genuine, and they worked well together, but for me, this was the weakest thread in the tale. There really wasn't enough page time to allow the romance itself to simmer, but Quick writes a compelling story that held its own, and I actually wouldn't mind meeting this couple in a future mystery.
Copy provided by the publisher. This review was originally posted at Caffeinated Book Reviewer
June 14, 2018
I don't have much to say here. This book took me almost three days to get through because that's how boring it was. Taking place in the 1930s, I was expecting to see some language/slang from that era. You don't get that at all and just have a woman on the run (who decides to reinvent herself as a reporter) and a former magician (yeah I know) getting caught up in murder and mayhem.
Irene (formerly Anna) is pulled into investigating when a woman turns up dead in Burning Cove, CA. The woman is found dead at an exclusive hotel run by Oliver Ward. Oliver is angry that someone dared to murder someone on his grounds. Irene is hoping for a story that is going to launch her career.
Irene and Oliver felt like cardboard cutouts when compared to Quick's Regency heroines and heroes. We get I think one love scene with them and I think after that everything is just a fade to black type thing. I don't even get why they were attracted to each other. Oliver being an ex-magician should have been more interesting than what we got.
There are also too many secondary characters to keep track of while reading this book. You have Nick Tremayne (up and coming Hollywood actor), his assistant, Irene's boss, a hired killer, the hired killer's father, Oliver's close associates (who I refuse to look up) and at a certain point I ceased to care about keeping people straight in my head.
The writing was not typical 1930s. I was hoping for a screwball comedy type writing (think His Girl Friday) or some typical noir mystery book that would have fit in perfectly.
The pacing was awful from beginning to end. When you think one mystery is over, the second mystery jumps in and it goes back and forth. I still don't know what happened and who did what to who except in one of the plot-lines. Maybe that was the issue, we had too much going on in the first book in this series.
Burning Cove, CA is the setting of this book and it did not come to life to me at all. You would think there would be some hint of the Great Depression or the second World War. The whole book felt weirdly out of touch with the time period being depicted.
Hard pass.
Irene (formerly Anna) is pulled into investigating when a woman turns up dead in Burning Cove, CA. The woman is found dead at an exclusive hotel run by Oliver Ward. Oliver is angry that someone dared to murder someone on his grounds. Irene is hoping for a story that is going to launch her career.
Irene and Oliver felt like cardboard cutouts when compared to Quick's Regency heroines and heroes. We get I think one love scene with them and I think after that everything is just a fade to black type thing. I don't even get why they were attracted to each other. Oliver being an ex-magician should have been more interesting than what we got.
There are also too many secondary characters to keep track of while reading this book. You have Nick Tremayne (up and coming Hollywood actor), his assistant, Irene's boss, a hired killer, the hired killer's father, Oliver's close associates (who I refuse to look up) and at a certain point I ceased to care about keeping people straight in my head.
The writing was not typical 1930s. I was hoping for a screwball comedy type writing (think His Girl Friday) or some typical noir mystery book that would have fit in perfectly.
The pacing was awful from beginning to end. When you think one mystery is over, the second mystery jumps in and it goes back and forth. I still don't know what happened and who did what to who except in one of the plot-lines. Maybe that was the issue, we had too much going on in the first book in this series.
Burning Cove, CA is the setting of this book and it did not come to life to me at all. You would think there would be some hint of the Great Depression or the second World War. The whole book felt weirdly out of touch with the time period being depicted.
Hard pass.
November 18, 2016
ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This seems to happen to me quite often: I enjoy a story, no matter how many flaws I find in it.
I read Amanda Quick years ago, just one book by her, and I wasn’t a fan of her writing so I never went back. When I read the synopsis for The Girl Who Knew Too Much I was too tempted to resist. I love these kind of stories, and the fact that it was taking place in the 1930s, with Hollywood and stars and all that fancy flashy goodness, how could I not want to read it.
I haven’t read enough Quick books to form an opinion on her writing with enough strength to say that she’s just not up to par with that I ever like and I will never read her again. However, this story was incredibly bland. Yes, it was a fun mystery/thriller by its idea, but the delivery was far too simple and slightly rushed. So much time was spent on overwhelming dialogue that I had a hard time reading the characters’ personalities and emotions.
For what it’s worth, I really liked the detail included about Oliver and his leg. Not to sound weird, but I just enjoy it when a lead has some sort of setback. It makes him/her more real, more likeable and relatable. Less perfect. And I enjoy reading how that character has to get around such a difficulty in order to deal with the different aspects of the story. But, I also wanted a little more emotion in the man.
It’s an okay novel, but not what I was hoping for.
This seems to happen to me quite often: I enjoy a story, no matter how many flaws I find in it.
I read Amanda Quick years ago, just one book by her, and I wasn’t a fan of her writing so I never went back. When I read the synopsis for The Girl Who Knew Too Much I was too tempted to resist. I love these kind of stories, and the fact that it was taking place in the 1930s, with Hollywood and stars and all that fancy flashy goodness, how could I not want to read it.
I haven’t read enough Quick books to form an opinion on her writing with enough strength to say that she’s just not up to par with that I ever like and I will never read her again. However, this story was incredibly bland. Yes, it was a fun mystery/thriller by its idea, but the delivery was far too simple and slightly rushed. So much time was spent on overwhelming dialogue that I had a hard time reading the characters’ personalities and emotions.
For what it’s worth, I really liked the detail included about Oliver and his leg. Not to sound weird, but I just enjoy it when a lead has some sort of setback. It makes him/her more real, more likeable and relatable. Less perfect. And I enjoy reading how that character has to get around such a difficulty in order to deal with the different aspects of the story. But, I also wanted a little more emotion in the man.
It’s an okay novel, but not what I was hoping for.
June 24, 2024
The Girl Who Knew Too Much by Amanda Quick offers a mix of mystery and romance set against the backdrop of 1930s Hollywood. This is a novel focuses on the golden age of suspense and modern sensibility.
The story follows Irene Glasson, a woman with a mysterious past, as she flees to California and takes on a new identity as a reporter in the small town of Burning Cove. When Irene finds the body of a famous actress, she is pulled into a dangerous world of secrets and lies. As she investigates leads she meets Oliver Ward, a former magician. Together, they investigates the dangerous world of Hollywood's elite. During this time they uncover dark truths and form an unexpected bond.
The the novel keeps my interest. The characters seem weak. The plot predictable. Worth the read, but don’t keep expectations too high.
The story follows Irene Glasson, a woman with a mysterious past, as she flees to California and takes on a new identity as a reporter in the small town of Burning Cove. When Irene finds the body of a famous actress, she is pulled into a dangerous world of secrets and lies. As she investigates leads she meets Oliver Ward, a former magician. Together, they investigates the dangerous world of Hollywood's elite. During this time they uncover dark truths and form an unexpected bond.
The the novel keeps my interest. The characters seem weak. The plot predictable. Worth the read, but don’t keep expectations too high.
December 14, 2016
Like many recent Amanda Quick books, I feel like this one had so much potential, but much of that potential was wasted in the execution. A lot of that comes from the fact that besides the interesting time period twist, much of the story and the characters left me with a "blah" feeling. The dialogue, unfolding of the plot, and the character development was all pretty color-by-numbers. Irene tried to be interesting, but her too-quick trust/attraction to Oliver turned me off. Not horrible, but it definitely is an addition to the growing pile of Quick books I have no interest in reading (even skimming) again.
*I received a review copy from the publisher/author via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.*
*I received a review copy from the publisher/author via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.*
September 12, 2019
Ca fait du bien de retrouver Amanda Quick. J'ai retrouvé tout ce que j'aime chez elle dans un cadre inédit pour moi et pour elle: héros ancien magicien et l'histoire se passe après la 2ème guerre mondiale. Une très belle réussite, j'ai hâte de lire la suite.
November 20, 2022
3.5 stars
April 7, 2017
Release Date: May 9th, 2017
NOTE: This is a spoiler-free review, and I will try my best to keep it that way....
This book is very different from anything I have read in Quick's previous works. (I'm a big fan of her 90's material, which centers on love).
And I'll admit I was a bit nervous after seeing such positive reviews because I'm usually that person.
"THAT PERSON": The one who doesn't like the book everyone loves....
But for the first time in a long time, I found myself agreeing with those around me! The drama that occurs in TGWKTM is insane!
You've got Irene: a gossip columnist with a dark past....(Lea Michelle would be my Irene...)
The you've got Oliver: a former magician, who is trying to start over.
THE PLOT (short version): a killer is on the loose! Determined to get the story and figure out who is behind the crimes, Irene takes matters into her own hands with the help of Oliver.
Writing: 10.
Cover: 10
Plot: 10
Love: 5. But it worked. There was just enough to keep me satisfied.
Mystery: 10
Character Development: 10
POV: written in third person, but has a strong voice narrative.
Conclusion: Definitely one of the Best books of 2017. Quick has a way of making you feel for her characters and grow emotionally attached to them. I can't explain it. She has the ability to create a plot that leaves your mind reeling days after you've finished the book.
I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Paula Hawkins. (Aka, The Girl on the Train)
Arc was provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review
August 13, 2022
I enjoyed this. This - I think - is a romantic suspense done well. I generally like Amanda Quick, but would say this is one of her better ones. I like the balance between the two protagonists in it. I like their chemistry. I really like the world (1930s Hollywood-adjacent is just fun). And I like that even though the male lead is clearly used to being "in control" he respects the heroine, and this always feels like a partnership, rather than him just taking over. Even when they don't entirely trust each other, they respect something about the other and it works. I also really like how this teases the next book in the series. All in all, very fun.
July 27, 2018
There were things that I liked about this book and things that I didn’t. Things that were new and others that were rehashed. So it all evens out to a mediocre rating.
Let’s start with the good. I was glad to see JAK moving on to a new time period. As all her long-time fans have been saying for years, her previous works in her chosen three time periods had gotten very stale indeed. So branching out into the Golden Age of Cinema offered a great opportunity to shake things up. And I was extremely gratified to find that JAK managed to resist the urge to have any of her characters experience a “frisson” of awareness.
I also thought she did a decent job with the mystery of who was killing all the women. Enough characters were introduced throughout the story that the villain wasn’t obvious and multiple plausible red herrings were provided.
Now for the things I didn’t like.
1) I didn’t get a good feel for the time period. Aside from a couple of references to the fashions of that era, I felt like it could have been set in present day. I think the choice of location was the problem. Having the whole story take place in a hotel in a small town made it completely generic. Hollywood and “The Studios” kept being discussed, but they were far away and never felt real. It would have been much more immersive if the story had taken place actually IN Hollywood, or at least L.A.
2) I think it was a mistake to try to cram two mysteries into the story because each created problems for the other. It was a great hook to start the story to have Irene/Anna come home to find her employer murdered and a message written in blood telling her to run. I was totally on board with her frantic race to disappear….and then that whole story line gets completely dropped for 90% of the book. Instead, we have Irene, who is supposedly 100% convinced that a murderer is looking for her and that she needs to remain anonymous and hidden, taking a job as a gossip rag reporter and deliberately calling attention to herself by breaking stories on famous movie stars. It didn’t make sense. If you want to stay hidden, you take a job as a maid or waitress in some backwoods town. You don’t go to the media capital of the world and start effectively waving your arms and screaming “Hey look at me!”
So right from the start the whole premise of the first mystery gets shot in the foot because JAK wanted to set up a plausible reason for Irene to be involved in the second mystery. And quite frankly, I didn’t find it all THAT plausible that Irene was such a dedicated reporter that she was willing to carelessly risk her own life just to get the story. Four months ago she was a personal secretary and had absolutely no ambition to become a reporter. Now I’m expected to believe she finds this vocation to be SUCH a calling that she’s willing to risk her life, AND risk someone finding out her deep dark secret, just to break a story? Yeah, I call BS on that one.
And as the book progressed, these contradictory instances just kept popping up. When Irene and Oliver’s picture gets taken and splashed onto the front page of the newspaper, it never even crosses Irene’s mind that her ex-employer’s killer might see it. This is a woman who we’re supposed to believe is living in terror every minute that this killer might find her. She carries money, a gun, and the notebook the killer is after with her at all times so she’ll be ready to cut and run at a moment’s notice….and yet she’s totally chill about having her picture in the paper? Come on! Likewise, when she finds out that someone with an “East coast accent” (which would be what exactly? New Yorkese? Bostonian? Georgian? Jersey Shore? Baltimorese? News flash JAK, the East Coast is not just one place with a single accent) who claims to be her cousin, called looking for her and was given her address, Irene thinks this is probably just The Studios trying to intimidate her again. Seriously? That’s idiotic. So all in all, the dual mystery thing caused more trouble than it was worth.
3) The main characters were really weak. We never even got a physical description of Irene and all we know of Oliver’s looks is that he’s broad-shouldered and has a bad leg. And, man, are we ever beaten over the head with that bad leg. It gets discussed over and over and over. That it hurts, that Oliver is overly sensitive about it and hates when Irene tries to make accommodations for him, that he still has nightmares about how it happened. Ugh, I was so sick of hearing about that damn leg. JAK needs to get over her obsession with giving her heroes crippling or disfiguring injuries. Enough already.
Aside from their weak descriptions, I never felt much of a spark between Irene and Oliver. Rather than giving us a bunch of scenes where one thought lustful thoughts about the other, JAK thought it better to tell us how lonely Oliver was, and how he felt just a little less lonely when Irene was sleeping upstairs in his guest bedroom. Oh be still my heart. Putting it like that makes it seem like virtually any woman would do for Oliver. That he’s not interested in her because they have some electric, I’m-barely-able-to-keep-from-ripping-your-clothes-off kind of effect on each other, but rather because he’s tired of being alone and wants a warm female body next to him to fend off the cold nights. That is NOT romantic.
And Irene was even worse. At least Oliver spent some inner monologue time thinking about how he’d like to get together with her. Irene never gave Oliver a passing thought and never behaved as if she was the least bit interested in him. Their early interactions were super awkward, with Oliver ham-fistedly trying to reassure Irene that he doesn't expect her to sleep with him in exchange for his assistance…and Irene getting insulted and pissed off. And, in typical JAK style, when they finally do have their one and only on-page sex scene it’s the opposite of romantic.
5) And finally, I do NOT recommend listening to this as an audiobook. The narrator was way out of her depth. It seems that the same narrator has been contracted to read all of the Amanda Quick books because I recognized her voice from previous ones. She’s British and that worked great when the books were set in merry old England, but now that they’re set in 1930’s America, she’s all wrong. She read the narration parts in her regular British accent, but then switched to excruciatingly fake American accents for all the dialogue. The switch by itself was jarring enough but the fake accents were like nails on a chalkboard. And it was clear that trying to create and keep track of multiple character voices in an accent she wasn’t comfortable with was too much for her, because she frequently used the wrong voice for the speaker. And for many of the secondary characters she resorted to having the characters shout all their lines in order to give them a "unique" voice, which was really annoying to listen to. If this is going to turn into a whole series of books for JAK then I beg her to pick an American narrator for the rest of them.
So, all in all, I was hopeful this book would be an exciting new beginning for JAK, but I’m left dissatisfied. Most of the plot contradicts itself when you stop to think about it and that’s never a good thing.
Let’s start with the good. I was glad to see JAK moving on to a new time period. As all her long-time fans have been saying for years, her previous works in her chosen three time periods had gotten very stale indeed. So branching out into the Golden Age of Cinema offered a great opportunity to shake things up. And I was extremely gratified to find that JAK managed to resist the urge to have any of her characters experience a “frisson” of awareness.
I also thought she did a decent job with the mystery of who was killing all the women. Enough characters were introduced throughout the story that the villain wasn’t obvious and multiple plausible red herrings were provided.
Now for the things I didn’t like.
1) I didn’t get a good feel for the time period. Aside from a couple of references to the fashions of that era, I felt like it could have been set in present day. I think the choice of location was the problem. Having the whole story take place in a hotel in a small town made it completely generic. Hollywood and “The Studios” kept being discussed, but they were far away and never felt real. It would have been much more immersive if the story had taken place actually IN Hollywood, or at least L.A.
2) I think it was a mistake to try to cram two mysteries into the story because each created problems for the other. It was a great hook to start the story to have Irene/Anna come home to find her employer murdered and a message written in blood telling her to run. I was totally on board with her frantic race to disappear….and then that whole story line gets completely dropped for 90% of the book. Instead, we have Irene, who is supposedly 100% convinced that a murderer is looking for her and that she needs to remain anonymous and hidden, taking a job as a gossip rag reporter and deliberately calling attention to herself by breaking stories on famous movie stars. It didn’t make sense. If you want to stay hidden, you take a job as a maid or waitress in some backwoods town. You don’t go to the media capital of the world and start effectively waving your arms and screaming “Hey look at me!”
So right from the start the whole premise of the first mystery gets shot in the foot because JAK wanted to set up a plausible reason for Irene to be involved in the second mystery. And quite frankly, I didn’t find it all THAT plausible that Irene was such a dedicated reporter that she was willing to carelessly risk her own life just to get the story. Four months ago she was a personal secretary and had absolutely no ambition to become a reporter. Now I’m expected to believe she finds this vocation to be SUCH a calling that she’s willing to risk her life, AND risk someone finding out her deep dark secret, just to break a story? Yeah, I call BS on that one.
And as the book progressed, these contradictory instances just kept popping up. When Irene and Oliver’s picture gets taken and splashed onto the front page of the newspaper, it never even crosses Irene’s mind that her ex-employer’s killer might see it. This is a woman who we’re supposed to believe is living in terror every minute that this killer might find her. She carries money, a gun, and the notebook the killer is after with her at all times so she’ll be ready to cut and run at a moment’s notice….and yet she’s totally chill about having her picture in the paper? Come on! Likewise, when she finds out that someone with an “East coast accent” (which would be what exactly? New Yorkese? Bostonian? Georgian? Jersey Shore? Baltimorese? News flash JAK, the East Coast is not just one place with a single accent) who claims to be her cousin, called looking for her and was given her address, Irene thinks this is probably just The Studios trying to intimidate her again. Seriously? That’s idiotic. So all in all, the dual mystery thing caused more trouble than it was worth.
3) The main characters were really weak. We never even got a physical description of Irene and all we know of Oliver’s looks is that he’s broad-shouldered and has a bad leg. And, man, are we ever beaten over the head with that bad leg. It gets discussed over and over and over. That it hurts, that Oliver is overly sensitive about it and hates when Irene tries to make accommodations for him, that he still has nightmares about how it happened. Ugh, I was so sick of hearing about that damn leg. JAK needs to get over her obsession with giving her heroes crippling or disfiguring injuries. Enough already.
Aside from their weak descriptions, I never felt much of a spark between Irene and Oliver. Rather than giving us a bunch of scenes where one thought lustful thoughts about the other, JAK thought it better to tell us how lonely Oliver was, and how he felt just a little less lonely when Irene was sleeping upstairs in his guest bedroom. Oh be still my heart. Putting it like that makes it seem like virtually any woman would do for Oliver. That he’s not interested in her because they have some electric, I’m-barely-able-to-keep-from-ripping-your-clothes-off kind of effect on each other, but rather because he’s tired of being alone and wants a warm female body next to him to fend off the cold nights. That is NOT romantic.
And Irene was even worse. At least Oliver spent some inner monologue time thinking about how he’d like to get together with her. Irene never gave Oliver a passing thought and never behaved as if she was the least bit interested in him. Their early interactions were super awkward, with Oliver ham-fistedly trying to reassure Irene that he doesn't expect her to sleep with him in exchange for his assistance…and Irene getting insulted and pissed off. And, in typical JAK style, when they finally do have their one and only on-page sex scene it’s the opposite of romantic.
5) And finally, I do NOT recommend listening to this as an audiobook. The narrator was way out of her depth. It seems that the same narrator has been contracted to read all of the Amanda Quick books because I recognized her voice from previous ones. She’s British and that worked great when the books were set in merry old England, but now that they’re set in 1930’s America, she’s all wrong. She read the narration parts in her regular British accent, but then switched to excruciatingly fake American accents for all the dialogue. The switch by itself was jarring enough but the fake accents were like nails on a chalkboard. And it was clear that trying to create and keep track of multiple character voices in an accent she wasn’t comfortable with was too much for her, because she frequently used the wrong voice for the speaker. And for many of the secondary characters she resorted to having the characters shout all their lines in order to give them a "unique" voice, which was really annoying to listen to. If this is going to turn into a whole series of books for JAK then I beg her to pick an American narrator for the rest of them.
So, all in all, I was hopeful this book would be an exciting new beginning for JAK, but I’m left dissatisfied. Most of the plot contradicts itself when you stop to think about it and that’s never a good thing.
October 15, 2018
4.5 stars Amanda Quick may have abandoned Victorian England for 1930s Hollywood, but her ability to spin a gripping, suspenseful tale is still very much in evidence in her latest novel, The Girl Who Knew Too Much. The plot emphasizes mystery over romance without forsaking the latter. I thoroughly enjoyed it (and I think I detect hints of a potential sequel, yay!)
Irene (formerly Anna) is a typical Quick heroine: quick-witted, self-reliant, curious, loyal, and determined beyond the point of stubbornness, traits that stand her in good stead in her new career as a reporter. She’s also wary, distrustful, and suspicious of everyone–with good reason. Like Irene, Oliver has reinvented himself, in career and purpose if not in name. He also leans toward suspicion and distrust, and is very good at both reading people and misdirection. Once past their initial distrust and Irene’s prickly independence, they make a good pairing.
I did have to stretch my credulity in order to buy the idea that a woman who had been involved in one murder would end up involved in several others (under a new identity) — and that the second set of murders was unconnected to the first. But after a prologue involving the first murder, Quick swiftly swept me into the second set, not allowing the first to impinge again until I had bought into the second series. The first killer is known to the reader (but not to Irene) from the prologue on, but the villains in the second series of deaths are a mystery, along with the motive(s) for the killings. There are lots of twists and turns and some skillful misdirections; I honestly didn’t see the ending coming.
All of this works only because Quick (aka Jayne Anne Krentz) is such a good storyteller. Her dialogue sparkles with wry humor, irony, and occasional laugh lines. Her stories are fast-paced without becoming breathless, timing each new clue or revelation perfectly yet keeping you in suspense until nearly the end. It’s a formula that works, and works well, as her many bestsellers under three names attest.
I admit that I had reservations going into The Girl Who Knew Too Much. I’ve been reading Quick for at least a decade, and I’d become comfortable with her slightly quirky view of 19th-century England. But she pulls off the switch to 1930s California very well–though I did spot at least one anachronism. (While homeowners did sometimes take in paying guests during the Depression, I don’t think the B&B as such existed in America until after World War II, and certainly not by that name.) That said, the book feels closer to her contemporary romantic suspense (written as Jayne Ann Krentz) than to the Amanda Quick line of historical romance and historical romantic suspense. Since I’m a fan of all three of her incarnations, I really enjoyed it. . . and if my suspicions are right about a sequel, I’ll be first in line at the library!
Challenges Read for #CleanSweep2017
Review originally published at The Bookwyrm's Hoard.
FTC disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher. All opinions are entirely my own.
Irene (formerly Anna) is a typical Quick heroine: quick-witted, self-reliant, curious, loyal, and determined beyond the point of stubbornness, traits that stand her in good stead in her new career as a reporter. She’s also wary, distrustful, and suspicious of everyone–with good reason. Like Irene, Oliver has reinvented himself, in career and purpose if not in name. He also leans toward suspicion and distrust, and is very good at both reading people and misdirection. Once past their initial distrust and Irene’s prickly independence, they make a good pairing.
I did have to stretch my credulity in order to buy the idea that a woman who had been involved in one murder would end up involved in several others (under a new identity) — and that the second set of murders was unconnected to the first. But after a prologue involving the first murder, Quick swiftly swept me into the second set, not allowing the first to impinge again until I had bought into the second series. The first killer is known to the reader (but not to Irene) from the prologue on, but the villains in the second series of deaths are a mystery, along with the motive(s) for the killings. There are lots of twists and turns and some skillful misdirections; I honestly didn’t see the ending coming.
All of this works only because Quick (aka Jayne Anne Krentz) is such a good storyteller. Her dialogue sparkles with wry humor, irony, and occasional laugh lines. Her stories are fast-paced without becoming breathless, timing each new clue or revelation perfectly yet keeping you in suspense until nearly the end. It’s a formula that works, and works well, as her many bestsellers under three names attest.
I admit that I had reservations going into The Girl Who Knew Too Much. I’ve been reading Quick for at least a decade, and I’d become comfortable with her slightly quirky view of 19th-century England. But she pulls off the switch to 1930s California very well–though I did spot at least one anachronism. (While homeowners did sometimes take in paying guests during the Depression, I don’t think the B&B as such existed in America until after World War II, and certainly not by that name.) That said, the book feels closer to her contemporary romantic suspense (written as Jayne Ann Krentz) than to the Amanda Quick line of historical romance and historical romantic suspense. Since I’m a fan of all three of her incarnations, I really enjoyed it. . . and if my suspicions are right about a sequel, I’ll be first in line at the library!
Challenges Read for #CleanSweep2017
Review originally published at The Bookwyrm's Hoard.
FTC disclosure: I received a review copy from the publisher. All opinions are entirely my own.
November 17, 2025
Author: Amanda Quick
Title: The Girl Who Knew Too Much
Series: (Burning Cove, #1)
Cover Rating:
Book Rating:
When Hollywood moguls and stars want privacy, they head to an idyllic small town on the coast, where the exclusive Burning Cove Hotel caters to their every need. It's where reporter Irene Glasson finds herself staring down at a beautiful actress at the bottom of a pool; The dead woman had a red-hot secret about up-and-coming leading man Nick Tremayne, a scoop that Irene couldn't resist; especially since she's just a rookie at a third-rate gossip rag. But now Irene's investigation into the drowning threatens to tear down the wall of illusion that is so deftly built around the famous actor, and there are powerful men willing to do anything to protect their investment. Seeking the truth, Irene finds herself drawn to a master of deception. Oliver Ward was once a world-famous magician; until he was mysteriously injured during his last performance. Now the owner of the Burning Cove Hotel, he can't let scandal threaten his livelihood, even if it means trusting Irene, a woman who seems to have appeared in Los Angeles out of nowhere four months ago; With Oliver's help, Irene soon learns that the glamorous paradise of Burning Cove hides dark and dangerous secrets. And that the past always just out of sight; could drag them both under
I enjoyed The Girl Who Knew Too Much for its slow pace and light character building. Although I wish I'd gotten more out of our cast and the world itself which I had been hoping would have been more detailed and more explored was interesting, it just wasn't as exciting as I was anticipating.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much was still a decent story as one of those girlie type Dick Tracy kind of reads without the rhyme or reason this usually includes I would like more stories from this time period with more time and development.
Krissys Bookshelf Reviews received a digital copy in exchange for an honest review from the publisher. All thoughts, comments and ratings are my own.
If any of Krissy's Bookshelf Reviews has been helpful please stop by to like my post or leave a comment to let me know what you think. I love hearing from you!
April 30, 2017
Rating: 3.5/5.0
This is a suspense thriller set in the 1930s in California. Involves Hollywood, studios and glamour. The whole story is about Anna Harris who one day finds her boss killed with a note advising her to escape far away with a notebook that she has left. She advises her not to trust anybody including the FBI and police regarding the information there in the notebook. Anna moves to Hollywood, changes her identity, name and gets a job of reporter. More murders happen there and she gets heavily involved.
This book is going to release in May the 9th. I love the feel, fonts and the colors used for its cover. Just gives you all the Hollywood vibes of that era. The book started on a very fast suspensful pace but towards the middle the suspnse cooled down a bit but the end definitely was a proper one. Not expected but at the same time not very surprising. The main charcters were defined but I would have loved to know more about some side characters. Overall this was an enjoyable reading.
Note: I have won a free copy of this book by participating in a giveaway.
This is a suspense thriller set in the 1930s in California. Involves Hollywood, studios and glamour. The whole story is about Anna Harris who one day finds her boss killed with a note advising her to escape far away with a notebook that she has left. She advises her not to trust anybody including the FBI and police regarding the information there in the notebook. Anna moves to Hollywood, changes her identity, name and gets a job of reporter. More murders happen there and she gets heavily involved.
This book is going to release in May the 9th. I love the feel, fonts and the colors used for its cover. Just gives you all the Hollywood vibes of that era. The book started on a very fast suspensful pace but towards the middle the suspnse cooled down a bit but the end definitely was a proper one. Not expected but at the same time not very surprising. The main charcters were defined but I would have loved to know more about some side characters. Overall this was an enjoyable reading.
Note: I have won a free copy of this book by participating in a giveaway.
December 1, 2024
1⭐️ = Not For Me.
Paperback.
Mmm…very slow and I didn’t particularly enjoy the writing style. Although it was set in the 1930’s, it actually felt quite modern. Not what I was expecting.
Short chapters, if that’s something you like, which I do.
Paperback.
Mmm…very slow and I didn’t particularly enjoy the writing style. Although it was set in the 1930’s, it actually felt quite modern. Not what I was expecting.
Short chapters, if that’s something you like, which I do.
October 17, 2025
3.5 stars
April 24, 2017
I received this for free on GoodReads. A multi-layered mystery set in 1930s Hollywood. The writing is nothing fancy, but solid and the plot and pacing are great. I would have liked to get a better feel for the Hollywood glamour. I also didn't like that when things got hairy, the "boys" seemed to take over and the "girl" took a bit of a backseat. Still, very entertaining and engaging. This will make a good beach read this summer.
May 10, 2017
3.5 stars. A little bit of a different read from Quick...good but not great.
February 16, 2018
I had hoped this would provide a better reading experience than the end result. 3 of 10 stars
June 4, 2017
I didn't love this book but I liked it. It was really enjoyable.
I thought it was predictable at first and I was sure I figured everything out on chapter 7 or 8 which made me feel disappointed and it may be the reason why the middle felt a bit slow for me, because I was just waiting for the big reveal thinking that I already knew everything and that it wouldn't be a big surprise. I was wrong! I'm happy I was! although I did figure some things out, the author managed to surprise me at the end. I was completely wrong about the identity of the killer so well done Ms. Quick :)
The main characters were likeable, their romance believable. The description of the scenery made me want to be there under california sun, on the beach in the 1920s.
This was my first book by this author, I may try her other books.
I thought it was predictable at first and I was sure I figured everything out on chapter 7 or 8 which made me feel disappointed and it may be the reason why the middle felt a bit slow for me, because I was just waiting for the big reveal thinking that I already knew everything and that it wouldn't be a big surprise. I was wrong! I'm happy I was! although I did figure some things out, the author managed to surprise me at the end. I was completely wrong about the identity of the killer so well done Ms. Quick :)
The main characters were likeable, their romance believable. The description of the scenery made me want to be there under california sun, on the beach in the 1920s.
This was my first book by this author, I may try her other books.
dnf
May 19, 2021Not feeling it and I'll probably never finish, so dnf it is.
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