Tightrope by Amanda Quick

This book written by Jayne Ann Krentz under her historical fiction name Amanda Quick is set in the late 1930s in her Burning Cove series where you don't have to have read the other books but you'll want to, especially The Other Lady Vanishes where you find out what really happened to Madam Zolanda whose house features primarily in the book and where it is said she jumped to her death.

Famed trapeze artist Amalie Vaughn almost meets her death when Marcus Harding, the rigger of the circus, but also one who was responsible for the deaths of other aerialists over the months and she is to be next, but she doesn't let him kill her. Instead, she kills him. However, she heard giggling in the audience meaning there was someone else out there connected to this.  Knowing no one would trust her in the air and having developed a slight fear of heights herself she and her Aunt Hazel decide to spend all the money Amalie has from her inheritance from her parents death to open up a bed and breakfast in Burning Cove and then pick Hidden Beach, the one where the psychic was murdered in to open up shop.

It also doesn't help that their first customer Dr. Norman Pickwell is murdered on stage by his robot Futuro.  This earns them the newspaper headline of Psychic Curse Hotel.  Now, who will want to stay there? Actor Vincent Hyde wants to for the ambiance. He plays in horror movies and is hoping his audition for a new one went well and he'll be cast for the leading part he so desperately needs for his flailing career.  Luther Pell's employee Matthias Jones also does who is working as a private investigator for Pell who has mob connections and runs Paradise Cove, the place to go dancing and be seen especially by celebrities and the press.  Mathias offers to help Amalie with security because someone may try to break in again to get into the doctor's rooms and search them looking for the key to the cipher machine that is missing that Pickwell was going to sell to Luther's people.  But he double-crossed them and was planning on selling to a higher bidder, meaning he also double-crossed someone else.  A former spy named Smith who wants to get back at the government who fired him from his job due to cutbacks and only hiring spies from Ivey League families.  No one knows what Smith looks like or who he is.  If he gets ahold of the whole cipher he will sell it America's enemies.

Amalie and Mathias find out from the hospital ambulance man that the robot is important because that is where the key is from.  On the way back to the hotel they get a flat right at the deadly turn in the road, but Matthias manages to control the car and pull over to the side of the road.  The two hide as someone stops to check if they are still around.

Of course, Matthias and Amalie feel a strong connection to one another but can they trust their feelings?  Matthias has a psychic ability to tell when someone is lying which makes life difficult for him because most people lie about things in that they tell a story about what happened during their day, for instance, and while telling a story we tell white lies.  It's hard to be with someone who knows when you're lying.  Only the problem is the closer he gets to someone the harder it is to tell if that person is lying unless that person is under duress.

Amalie will come under duress and need Matthias help to get out of it.  Will the Inn turn a profit?  Just who is working for Smith and who is Smith?  Will Amalie ever be rid of the watcher from her past who sat in the audience and watched as she killed Marcus but was there to watch her die?  Amalie is a tough character with a tender heart and she has good business sense.  Matthias is also tough but he's a nice guy who wants to open up an engineering shop and build things for a living.  Will the two of them end up together or will others keep them apart?  This is a great read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I give it five out of five stars.

Quotes

A mysterious tire blows out last night and a grenade blast today.  The next time we go on a date I’m going to bring my own gun.

-Amanda Quick (Tightrope p 159)

An actor doesn’t have friends. He has rivals and competitors. 

-Amanda Quick (Tightrope p 223)

Dreams are never crazy. Impractical, sometimes. But not crazy.

-Amanda Quick (Tightrope p 228)

Listed In Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tightrope-Burning-Cove-California-Book-ebook/dp/B07GD4WKRS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=B6HLG93GODLD&keywords=tightrope+amanda+quick&qid=1558973377&s=gateway&sprefix=tightrope%2Caps%2C184&sr=8-1