It’s Book Review Thursday. Come back each week to get a peek inside what authors I love and what storylines inspire me.
Pepper Millhouse is an agent to the stars, and they adore her because of how hard she works for them. Her latest star, Amber Marx, has just won a major award, and seems poised for a breakout year.
But there are people in the industry who don’t appreciate the way Pepper operates. A couple of hours after the awards show, Pepper dies under mysterious circumstances in her hot tub…alone.
Carol Childs is a rookie reporter for KCHC, a divorcee with a teenage son, Charlie, and she has started a new relationship with a smoking hot FBI agent, Eric Langdon. She’s working hard at the station to prove she can be a good reporter. And she thinks she’s finally got her big break when her neighbor, Samantha Millhouse, bangs on her door early in the morning and breaks the news that her aunt, Pepper, is dead.
Sam’s relationship with her aunt wasn’t a good one, and Sam has made her feelings about her aunt crystal clear to anyone who will listen. Pepper managed to alienate almost everyone who knew her, including Sam’s twin sister, Sarah. In fact, the suspect list is so long, it seems unlikely the police will ever be able to solve her murder.
Kari, one of Carol’s co-workers, speculates on the air that perhaps someone is trying to kill off the top people at Pepper’s agency in a power play to take over. Two other agents died under mysterious circumstances just weeks before Pepper’s death. Kari seems to point the finger at Sam, and when the will reveals that Pepper left the agency to Sam, her sister makes it clear that she believes Sam is a murderer.
Carol doesn’t believe it, but her boss, Tyler, is reluctant to let her handle the story. He assigns her a story about waterless urinals on the UCLA campus. But when she gets there, Eric is already there because of a missing girl case. He introduces her to Misty Dawn, a psychic who led the police to the girl’s body.
When Sam is arrested for Pepper’s murder, Carol is shocked. The autopsy results reveal that Pepper was poisoned, and Carol begins to suspect Misty Dawn, who has a connection to Amber Marx. Sam is also charged with the murders of the other two agents from the agency, and then a young star with connections to the agency dies on a flight overseas. Is her friend Sam a serial killer, or is someone else trying to frame her?
The stakes become dangerously high when Charlie’s life is in danger, and Carol has to figure out the ending to this crazy, murderous script before someone else dies. But will she be able to toss out all the red herrings before she is taken off the air – permanently?
Nancy Cole Silverman delivers a delightful novel with plenty of twists and turns. Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, she throws a wrench into the works that makes you scratch your head in frustration. Carol is a good, strong woman with a wonderful supporting cast, and while I found Misty Dawn to be the wackiest woman in the world, I’m kind of hoping Silverman brings her back in the future. Shadow of Doubt is a well-written mystery with an ending that will leave you gasping in shock, and waiting to tune in for the next story.
Shadow of Doubt is available for purchase on Amazon and in bookstores everywhere!
Author Teresa Watson 