Belinda finds her employer near death. He tells her to run. Someone has been sent to kidnap her but he does not know why. Belinda heeds his advice and runs before the murderer comes back into the room. She hides but is found by Joshua Gage, a former spy for the Crown. Now that he has found her he believes she is neither a murderer nor a blackmailer which is why he was sent to find her. She is a private detective and together they join forces to find who wants her and why. What they find is a madman.

I loved this book. I liked the historical element of Egyptology to tie the story together. I also liked Joshua and Belinda being on different sides of the debate of logic and reason vs. paranormal activity or intuition. Joshua and Belinda work well together. She has pulled him out of his year-long fog after an assignment gone wrong. The villains are hiss-worthy. I liked Joshua's nephew who is like him. The story was so interesting it was hard to put the book down.

I will be reading more of this series.

Anna finds her employer dead with a warning written on the wall. She runs and changes her name to Irene turning up in Burning Cove, California. Becoming a gossip reporter, she is called by a woman who has some information on up-and-coming star Nick Tremayne. When she turns up at the meeting place she finds the woman dead. Now she is starting to put clues together but will she be right?

I enjoyed this story. I could not put it down. I liked Irene and her get the story at any cost philosophy. Along the way she runs afoul of the owner of the Burning Cove Hotel, Oliver Ward, former magician. He has his secrets also. His attraction to Irene causes him to break a few of his rules. The secondary characters are good. Some are pure evil. Some got what they deserved. And I was wrong on the whodunit part. I was shocked when the explanation came out.

I loved Irene and Oliver. The world building is excellent and I look forward to more in this series.

Reviewed for Wit and Sin

Amanda Quick perfectly balances flash and glam with secrets and murder in Close Up. I adore the rich, atmospheric world of the Burning Cove series and it was oh-so-easy to fall into Vivian and Nick’s story.

Vivian Brazier has the boldness of a Katharine Hepburn character. She left her family’s wealth behind in order to make it as a successful artist in the modern style. Vivian freelances as a crime scene photographer to pay the bills and struggles with casual sexism, the bias in favor of traditional art, and hiding her crime scene photography job so that she’s taken seriously as an artist. I enjoyed this so much that I could easily have read a book just on Vivian’s photography career. Vivian truly sees people when she photographs them and her slightly supernatural sight makes her great at what she does. It also puts her in the crosshairs of the “Dagger Killer” when she picks up on details at a crime scene that the police missed. Protection comes in the form of Nick Sundridge and his dog, Rex. Rex is quite the scene-stealer, but his owner can hold his own. Nick has a supernatural skill of his own that includes callback to Ms. Quick’s Arcane Society series. The handsome private investigator has lucid dreams that help him solve cases, though some would see the dreams as a curse. It will take both Nick and Vivian’s skills – plus the help of some Burning Cove series favorites – in order to catch a killer.

Close Up is heavy on the suspense and I enjoyed the twists and turns the story took. That doesn’t mean Ms. Quick neglected the romance; in fact, it works really well. Both Vivian and Nick have had rocky relationships in their past (Nick in particular) but it’s clear they are made for each other. They are understanding, nonjudgmental, and supportive of one another. They also have an easy chemistry that makes watching their love story unfold a delight.

Close Up is the fourth book in the Burning Cove series, but it can easily be read as a standalone. As with every book in this series, I love the world Ms. Quick has created. Glamour hiding a seedy underbelly is often a theme and it’s an enjoyable one. Lush, engaging, and with mysteries and a romance that satisfy, I thoroughly enjoyed Close Up and I cannot wait to return to Burning Cove.


FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This is definitely a re-read. I just never got around to posting a review for this book eons ago. Not much to say except I loved the heroine in this one (Victoria) and hero (Lucas). The two of them being thrown together due to Lucas needing an heiress and Victoria wanting adventure sets them on a fun collision course. Of course based on the time period there are a few times you want Lucas to get kicked hard someplace. He talks about his husbandly rights a freaking lot. And of course back then the husbands decided the wives allowance (if they decided to give them one). The love scenes are typical Quick, usually hero and heroine have their first time prior to marriage, they are fighting, another time in bed, and then there's a mystery to solve. This one has a mystery about who is sending Victoria threatening notes alluding to something dark in her past.

Ghost stories are a little tough to really scare me because I'm 99% sure I don't think they exist. When I was younger, Scary Stories to tell in the Dark was a sleepover staple, we'd read (ok, me) aloud trying to scare the bejebus out of each other.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was one I read somewhere in early teens and remember loving the setting, slight creep factor, and relationships.

Pet Sematary I probably read in mid-teens and while I didn't feel too scared being an animal lover drew out the emotions in me. 

The Lovely Bones seems to be a book that likes to divide people. It seems weird to say I enjoyed the story because of how freaking awful some things in it are but gawd, talk about a story that will emotionally wring you out. 

I think it was last year for Halloween Bingo I read The Haunting of Maddy Clare and I still remember that barn scene, hair on neck standing up.

And because I'm a punk, I added a romance that has a main character that likes to investigate the supernatural and a ghost, seemingly, comes to the rescue.

Shout-out to people doing today's prompt, adding some to my potential Bingo reading list :)