If you like your novels melodramatic and over the top, The Other Lady Vanishes by Amanda Quick is just right. Daring escapes, mysterious drugs, beautiful starlets and dead bodies galore make this a delightful page turner.
Adelaide, she of the daring escape from an insane asylum, is hiding out in Burning Cove California. Once a research librarian, now she is glad to be a waitress in a tearoom. However lowly, it has given her friends who will notice if she is spirited away again by her fortune-hunting husband. Adelaide has the misfortune of being heiress to a fortune. Hubby and the doctors who experimented on her with a dangerous hallucinogen Daydream, a drug invented by Adelaide’s dead scientist parents, need to track down Adelaide so they can keep control of her money
Burning Cove might not be the best place for a hideout. The quaint seaside town is also the playground for the rich and famous of Hollywood and just about everyone is under the stare of prying eyes.
Most mysterious of all is Jake, a fit, healthy, rock solid man, sent to the seaside for a nerve cure. Never nervous, Jake is in town to recover his late wife’s stolen diary and all the secrets it contains. In spite of their many secrets, Adelaide and Jake are attracted to each other and partner up to solve the murder of the psychic to the stars, Zolanda.
As Adelaide and Jake investigate–they uncover blackmail, a drug ring, and possibly national security secrets–their lives become more and more endangered. Will they find their way through the myriad plots and plans as Jake fights to keep Adelaide and her secrets safe?
This brimful little jazz cocktail of a book can be found on the Augusta-Richmond County Library’s Libby app. For more information, contact your local branch library, or go the library’s homepage at arcpls.org.
