The Other Lady Vanishes by Amanda Quick ****

The OtherLady Vanishes by Amanda Quick is #2/4 in the Burning Cove series. Adelaide Blake is an heiress who has been committed to an insane asylum by Conrad Massey who intended to steal her fortune. Once incarcerated, Dr. Harold Ormsby and Dr. Ethan Gill use her as experimental Patient B to do research on a new drug (imagine LSD). She escapes and assumes a new identity (Adelaide Brockton) in Burning Cove, a fancy resort on the California coast in the late 1930s. Along with the attractive Jake Truett, she solves several murders while avoiding getting murdered herself. A mystery with women in most of the roles.

The secondary characters from the first novel reprise their roles and the protagonist makes a cameo appearance. You can read these two books in any order. Like the first book Hollywood and espionage are featured, along with synthetic drugs.

Vera Westlake is a rising Hollywood star who is inexplicably dating Dr. Calvin Paxton who sells a diet tonic. Madam Zolanda is an old friend of Vera who has not been able to break into movies but is doing well as Psychic to the Stars and part-time blackmailer. Her assistance is Thelma Leggett. Raina Kirk is a recently arrived private detective with a shadowy past. Since Raina and Adelaide are both recent arrivals to Burning Cove with hidden pasts, they become good friends. Florence Darley runs the Refresh Tearoom in Burning Cove where Adelaide took a job while in hiding. She is a waitress and formulator of specialty tea and tisane mixtures.

 Like the first book, this one also includes an entire sex chapter.

 If you like women as heroes and villains with a few supporting men for entertainment and comic relief, this is the mystery for you.

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