Amalie Vaughn thought she left danger behind her when she left her former life as a circus trapeze aerialist. That is until the first guest in her Hidden Beach Inn is murdered. Meanwhile, Mathias Jones is on a mission to find a stolen code machine. Will the death of Amalie's guest and his hunt for spies bring them together as fellow investigators and possibly lead to something more? These two must keep themselves on a tightrope of danger while hunting spies and killers.
Amanda Quick's Burning Cove series is a look into the past, around the time of the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. It's when Hollywood glamour was at a peak. Quick makes you feel like you're there, solving the mystery along with her well-rounded characters. As always, she keeps you guessing and I had no idea who the vengeful spy was or if Amalie and Mathias would be able to retrieve the code machine. I was riveted from the beginning of TIGHTROPE right to the very end. Quick's writing as always is a splendid mix of intrigue, suspense, and love. She always is able to find that "tightrope" of mysterious writing with a revelation at just the right moment.
An unconventional woman and a man shrouded in mystery walk a tightrope of desire as they race against a killer to find a top secret invention in this New York Times bestselling novel from Amanda Quick.
Former trapeze artist Amalie Vaughn moved to Burning Cove to reinvent herself, but things are not going well. After spending her entire inheritance on a mansion with the intention of turning it into a bed-and-breakfast, she learns too late that the villa is said to be cursed. When the first guest, Dr. Norman Pickwell, is murdered by his robot invention during a sold-out demonstration, rumors circulate that the curse is real.
In the chaotic aftermath of the spectacle, Amalie watches as a stranger from the audience disappears behind the curtain. When Matthias Jones reappears, he is slipping a gun into a concealed holster. It looks like the gossip that is swirling around him is true—Matthias evidently does have connections to the criminal underworld.
Matthias is on the trail of a groundbreaking prototype cipher machine. He suspects that Pickwell stole the device and planned to sell it. But now Pickwell is dead and the machine has vanished. When Matthias’s investigation leads him to Amalie’s front door, the attraction between them is intense, but she knows it is also dangerous. Amalie and Matthias must decide if they can trust each other and the passion that binds them, because time is running out.