It’s been years since I read one of Amanda Quick’s romantic mysteries, and I hadn’t read any set in Burning Cove, California in the 1930s. If The Bride Wore White is an example, I should have been reading these fast-paced novels all along.
“Intuition warned her for months to get out of the dream reading business.” Prudence Ryland, known as Madame Ariadne, is a psychic dream consultant. She ignored her intuition, and now she’s sitting across the table from a maniac who planned to kill her. She recognized his obsession. She manages to extricate herself from that situation, calling for an ambulance after she knocks him out. But, the death of the heir to a fortune makes headlines, and Prudence is forced to flee to southern California where she reinvents herself as a research librarian.
Someone is determined to use Prudence as a pawn, though. She wakes up in a hotel room next to a man who was stabbed to death, and she’s dressed as a bride. Although she sneaks out of the hotel, avoiding reporters and photographers, she knows she’s not going to be able to avoid the obsessed mother of the victim. Clara Dover had wanted Prudence to save her family line by marrying her heir. Now, with him dead, she knows Clara will blame her. After being fired, Prudence’s last resort is to meet with Luther Pell, a dangerous man in Burning Cove who has unusual connections, possibly to the mob, possibly to the government. But, he’s willing to assign her protection and a consultant in the form of Jack Wingate. Although Jack and Prudence clash immediately, Pell insists they’re the right combination to solve Prudence’s problems.
Call it psychic ability. Call it intuition. Jack and Prudence have skills that will be necessary as they tangle with the powerful Dover family. And, their emotions will be called into play as they tangle with each other, arguing at first until their disagreements turn into foreplay.
The Bride Wore White is an action-packed romantic mystery, jumpstarted from the first page. The adventure, romance and twists keep coming until the very last page in this compelling story. I’m going back to read the first of the Burning Cove books.
Amanda Quick’s website is https://jayneannkrentz.com/
The Bride Wore White by Amanda Quick. Berkley, 2023. ISBN 9780593337868 (hardcover), 320p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I read a galley from NetGalley to review for a journal, with no promise of a positive review.
Jackie said to tell you that she has read the first four so far (BRIDE is #7) and loves them. I’d say she has probably read over 100 books by Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick/Jayne Castle.
This is one author of “romance” that I read. (Another is Anne Cleeland.)
They have that distinction because they don’t fall into the tired romance tropes that predominate most of the stories.
Instead you get interesting charaters in fascination plots.
I read the previous book in the series, When She Dreams, in December. New series for me and I found it entertaining. Maybe I’ll be able to squeeze this one in before those June releases become available.