In 1930s California, a psychic hires an investigator to help her figure out who's trying to kill her. Prudence Ryland--that is, Madame Ariadne--is a dream interpreter who decides to leave San Francisco and move to the Los Angeles area to pursue her goal of opening a bookstore focused on paranormal literature. Just before she can depart, a client shows up determined to murder her. In quick succession, she escapes, moves to Southern California, becomes a research librarian, and is kidnapped from the stacks and framed for murder in a purported sex game gone wrong involving an expensive blood-spotted wedding gown, a knife, and a very dead heir to a fortune. And then, after her escape from this new situation, she's fired. What follows is her collaboration with consultant Jack Wingate in figuring out what's going on. Sparks fly, and Prudence and Jack end up falling for each other. The story focuses mostly on the long burn of the relationship-to-be, complete with smoldering looks and extensive conversations about the paranormal and the dividing line between intuition and psychic energy as the two seek to unravel the mystery that brought them together. After a very strong, engaging start, author Quick slows down the narrative, focusing almost entirely on telling the story through the conversations between Jack and Prudence and/or the secondary characters: A man with mob connections, a private investigator, businesswomen, heirs, servants, psychics, and librarians all play their parts. Though a bit repetitive, the story seems ready-made for adaptation as a play, television series, or movie. Mystery meets romance meets the paranormal in this glossy golden age of Hollywood thriller. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

As "Madame Ariadne," Prudence Ryland was warned by her intuition to get out of the dream-reading business. Now she's sitting across from a man who's determined to kill her. She manages to escape, knocking him out, then flees to Southern California, reinventing herself as a research librarian. Prudence learns that the man later died. Then she becomes a pawn in someone's violent plans. She's chloroformed, kidnapped, and left dressed in a bridal gown, next to a dead man in a ritzy hotel. Prudence recognizes the victim as Gilbert Dover, heir to Clara Dover who had tried to get the psychic to marry her son. Prudence's only recourse is to turn to a dangerous man for help. Luther Pell has connections, and he hires the enigmatic Jack Wingate to protect Prudence while they investigate the mystery. But Gilbert Dover's murder entangles Jack and Prudence with the frightening Dover family. Call it psychic ability or intuition, but the couple will need both to avoid death and treachery as they face one foe after another. VERDICT An action-packed mystery, suspenseful from page one, with intensity and plot twists that don't let up. The follow-up to When She Dreams is a compelling romantic mystery with psychic connections and sparkling dialogue.--Lesa Holstine

Quick's seventh Burning Cove romance (after When She Dreams) will please series fans eager to return to the glamorous golden age of Hollywood setting, even if this episode doesn't feel as fresh as earlier installments. Prudence Ryland has been making a reluctant living as psychic dream consultant Madame Ariadne, a job she inherited from her grandmother, but after a client tries to kill her, she hightails it out of San Francisco to Los Angeles. Content to start anew as a librarian in the newly formed paranormal department of the local college, Prudence is forced on the run again after escaping a kidnapping attempt. Since she's already acquainted with Luther Pell, who runs the local nightclub in the paranormal hub of Burning Cove, she turns to him for help. Luther connects her to the remarkably intuitive Jack Wingate, who's intrigued by her close calls and wants to use her experiences to inform the book he's writing on psychically interpreting crime scenes. Together, they hatch a plan to lure Prudence's enemy into the open--and, of course, they fall in love. The series formula is familiar by now, but Quick remains a master of sparkling dialogue that builds believable chemistry between her leads. This is good fun. Agent: Steve Axelrod, Axelrod Agency. (May)

After being branded as the Nightmare Psychic when one of her clients winds up dead, Prudence Ryland ditches her career as psychic dream consultant Madame Ariadne in favor of a more sedate job as an academic librarian at Adelina Beach College. However, when Prudence, through no fault of her own, becomes entangled in another murder and is now dubbed by the press the Killer Bride, she decides it is time to seek professional help. Jack Wingate has a reputation for being able to read crime scenes, and his analysis of the evidence around the murder of Gilbert Dover tells him Prudence is innocent. Now, to lure the real murderer out of hiding, reluctant partners-in-detection Prudence and Jack deduce that Madame Ariadne needs to make an appearance in Burning Cove. With her usual storytelling panache, Quick (When She Dreams, 2022) gracefully returns to the glamour-tinged, wit-infused world of her 1930s Burning Cove books with another spot-on story that flawlessly fuses danger, deception, and desire into the literary equivalent of catnip for both romance and mystery readers.