Author: Evan Marshall
Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #: 9781575665504; 9781980340003
Kensington Publishing
303 Pages
[Various Prices[; $2.99 Amazon
February 11, 2018
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After Jane's last brush with a murderer landed her with a feature in People magazine, she is eager to get back to her literary life as a book agent -- reading book proposals, making deals, talking to authors. She's glad to put fame aside and now that her beloved son Nick's birthday is coming up, she's busy planning a birthday party for him.
She selects one of her favorite spots, a local inn, but before anyone can sing Happy Birthday and say "make a wish," the body of a young woman is found hanging from a tree in the woods back behind the inn.
No one seems to know who she is, but she has been murdered.
Found near the body is a clipping of the People magazine article about Jane, the only clue. Why did this woman have it? What does it have to do with her murder? And why was she so interested in Jane and her neighbors?
The mystery deepens as more people start to die in Shady Hills while Jane and her detective friend hunt as fast as they can for clues as to the identity of the mystery woman -- and of the killer on the loose.
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Jane Stuart is a literary agent who's just getting her life back to normal after finding a dead body. She's planning her son's tenth birthday party at a friend's inn, and all seems to be going well. The day of the party she hears a scream while the kids are on a scavenger hunt, and runs to find her son -- and the body of a dead woman hanging from a tree. When it's determined that this is a homicide, Detective Stanley Greenberg is brought in to investigate. But there's no clue as to whom the woman is, nor how she got there. Jane's friend Louise thinks she saw her walking into the woods, But Louise has bigger problems of her own -- and Jane wants to help her.
Then Jane's assistant Daniel tells her he's going to marry his fiancée Laura, and he drops a bombshell on Jane about his past that has her stunned. But more than this, an editor friend named Holly tells Jane that she's giving her a new client -- hot new star Goddess, who wants to write a book. Jane accepts, but discovers that Goddess doesn't exactly live up to her name. When there's another death soon after, Jane wants to know what's going on. She also begins to wonder if the two might be connected. But how?
It's when she starts thinking about things she knows, and some things that are practically dropped into her lap, she comes to a devastating conclusion about the killer. Unfortunately, it may be too late for Jane, unless she can save herself somehow...
This is the second book in the series and I must say that I quite enjoyed it as much as the first. Mr. Marshall is indeed a talented writer, and keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering where the story is going to go next.
Jane, finding herself lonely and missing her late husband, tries to pull herself into her work, but things keep getting in the way. 'Things' being dead bodies. Unfortunately, she's once again involved in murder, and it escalates when something occurs to put her on her guard. I shall not say more about that, not wanting to ruin the book for others who have not read it.
If you have not, I recommend that you do. It is full of twists and unexpected happenings, and there is a subplot that is interesting, to say the least; and watching Jane put everything together is worth reading the book alone. Ah, it is these twists that one has to watch for; they are the gist and meat of the book, and looking for them has you come to the same conclusion as Jane, although not so soon as to think you have got it all.
In the end, when we discover the murderer, one never knows what goes on in the mind of a sociopath; nor what one will strive for at any cost. I look forward to the next in this series. Highly recommended.
More on Evan Marshall's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/m/evan-marshall/
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