When it comes to hiring a private investigator in Adelina Beach, Maggie Lodge is not exactly awash in choices. Still, while Sam Sage might be a divorced, disgraced ex-cop, at least he isn't drunk at nine o'clock in the morning. After hiring Sam to find out who is blackmailing her current employer, syndicated advice columnist Aunt Cornelia, Maggie insists on taking an active role in the investigation. The blackmailer's trail soon takes the new "partners" to the Guilfoyle Institute of Dream Analysis in Burning Cove, California, where they discover a charismatic con man, his cool-as-a-cucumber wife-manager, a mad scientist obsessed with lucid dreaming, and a dead body. Quick (one of Jayne Ann Krentz's literary alter egos) deftly tips her fedora to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler in the latest superbly entertaining addition to her 1930s-set Burning Cove books. With its perfectly executed plot, snappy dialogue, and generous dash of dry wit, this is proof positive of why Quick's novels continue to be the platinum standard for stylish American historical romance kissed with a hint of sophisticated suspense and a dash of the supernatural.

In the aftermath of a marriage wrecked by betrayal, private eye Steen Colfax accepts a case from Maggie Lodge, who claims someone is impersonating her reclusive advice-columnist boss. Sparks ricochet uncertainly as a mysterious murder brings this odd couple one step closer to blackmail and a vengeful killer. Next in the "Burning Cove" series; from the author of 50 New York Times best sellers.

The assistant to a newspaper agony aunt hires a gumshoe to track down a blackmailer only to find they've waded into the thick of murder in 1930s California. In the latest in the Burning Cove series, set in a seaside resort town, nascent novelist and lucid dreamer Maggie Lodge seeks out PI Sam Sage so he can locate the person who's threatening her employer. A former cop who lost his job for arresting someone from a wealthy family, Sam is hoping to build his fledgling business and takes on Maggie's case despite his sense that the dame is hiding something. Soon after, he's pretending to be her research assistant as they follow a lead to a conference that claims to help people build their psychic powers. Are the conveners the ones who sent the blackmail note, or are they also being blackmailed while running a long con? When an attendee is found dead the first evening, just as Maggie encounters an unpleasant figure from her own past, Maggie and Sam must figure out if the case has gone from petty crime to murder or if it started with another homicide a few years ago. Complicating the situation is the presence of the dream researcher who is obsessed with Maggie's potential for lucid dreaming. Bodies pile up even as she and Sam embark on an intimate relationship in addition to their professional one. Quick calls on her favorite character types in her latest novel: There's the intrepid heroine and the cynical hero who thaws after the unpredictable partnership with her penetrates his personal barriers. The author's long-standing interest in paranormal phenomenon like ESP propels the plot toward the eventual discovery of the murderer. There aren't a lot of surprises for the regular Quick reader, but the metanarrative commentary about storytelling and genre plus the prewar West Coast glamour and noirlike incidents make for an updated gothic with some appeal. An untaxing period-piece mystery that softens the hard-boiled detective genre with romance. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.