Girl Who Knew Too Much, The

The Girl Who Knew Too Much is a new novel by Amanda Quick. Ms. Quick takes us back to the 1930s. Anna Harris is checking on her employer, Helen Spencer and discovers her dead in her bedroom. On the wall written in blood is the word "run". Anna heads to her room and pulls out the box where she stored her savings. Inside she finds a letter, a brown notebook and money that she did not put in the box. The letter is from Helen advising her to disappear. Four months later, Irene Glassen (aka Anna Harris) is on assignment in Burning Cove, California for The Whispers, a Hollywood gossip magazine. Irene is at The Burning Cove Hotel in the pool area for a late-night meeting with Gloria Maitland. Gloria told Irene that she had some juicy gossip on Nick Tremayne, an actor whose star is on the rise. Unfortunately, someone arrived before Irene, and Gloria is now floating face down in the pool. Irene hears someone else in the room and quickly escapes. Oliver Ward, former magician who owns the hotel, agrees to work with Irene to get answers. Oliver will tolerate many things, but murder is not one of them. They pair up to solve the case, but Gloria is just one in a line of victims tied to Nick Tremayne. Tremayne's studio is not happy with Irene's interest in their star and puts the pressure on to get her stopped. Meanwhile, the man who killed Helen Spencer has been hunting for Anna for the last four months. He wants the notebook back and will delightfully eliminate any one in his path. Ward is intrigued with Irene from the moment he laid eyes on her and will protect her at all costs—if she will let him. Will they make it through the week alive or will someone be writing their obituary?

The Girl Who Knew Too Much grabbed my attention right away. This book is a departure from Amanda Quick's normal historical paranormal novels. I found The Girl Who Knew Too Much to be nicely written and engaging. I thought the author did a good job at capturing the era and locale. The mysteries are complex (especially the one involving the brown notebook). I thought the Nick Tremayne storyline to be more intriguing and many readers will not be able to figure out the identity of the killer. I did think that the author tried to cram too much into one book (there was just one thing after another). I give The Girl Who Knew Too Much 4 out of 5 stars. There is, of course, the requisite romance (every book I read seems to have a romantic entanglement) between the main characters (a burning attraction). The story has a good ending and the author wrapped up all the various storylines (I especially loved a certain secretary's ending). There are a couple of slow sections, but they are quickly gotten through. The Girl Who Knew Much is a good novel to read on a Saturday evening with a cool beverage.