Synopses & Reviews
Denise Hamilton, whose phenomenal debut,
The Jasmine Trade, was an Edgar Award finalist that Michael Connelly hailed as gripping...intriguing...more than a good crime novel," brings back her tenacious heroine, Eve Diamond, in an electrifying new novel of suspense.
When a distraught father breaks past security to beg for her help, Los Angeles Times reporter Eve Diamond can't refuse. His daughter, caught up in the rough "squatter" lifestyle, is missing -- and Eve, sensing a scoop, wants to know why a privileged teen from Pasadena would hook up with the dregs of Hollywood. When the girl is found dead, Eve suspects there is more going on than the tragic death of a rebellious youth.
The search for answers will take Eve from the street world of drugs and sex to the upper echelon of L.A. society -- who don't appreciate her digging up their dirt. Even as Eve fights against the powers-that-be who want her off the story, she finds herself mixing business and pleasure when she's irresistibly drawn to the brooding son of a Mexican music titan. For it is in his world -- and in the intricate sugar skulls that mark the Mexican "Day of the Dead" -- that Eve may find the key to unmasking a killer....
Review
Library Journal (starred review)
Journalist Hamilton...has expertly crafted a tale of lust, greed, murder, and an appetite for power that transcends the deepest of racial, cultural, and class divides in the City of Angels.
Review
The Boston GlobeCaptures beautifully the go-here, go-there life of a suburban reporter on a big-city daily...Sugar Skull is a pleasing journey with a character who...feels remarkably real.
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Los Angeles TimesExhilarating...so absorbing you don't want to stop reading.
Review
Publishers WeeklyPassionate.
Review
Phoenix New TimesSuspenseful.
Review
Denver PostDenise Hamilton and Eve Diamond are the real deal.
Review
Kirkus ReviewsHamilton shows that she's every bit as ambitious in tackling big-city corruption as Sara Paretsky...few readers will be able to resist her V.I. Warshawski with a tape recorder and a California tan.
Review
Publishers Weekly[A] passionate new puzzle
Synopsis
An electrifying, urban thriller from the acclaimed author of the Edgar Award-nominated national bestseller The Jasmine Trade. When a privileged teen from Pasadena is found murdered in East Hollywood, Eve Diamond suspects there is more going on then the tragic death of a rebellious youth. Her search for answers leads her to the upper echelon of LA. society and into the Mexican music world--for it is here and in the sugar skulls that mark the Mexican "Day of the Dead" that Eve may find the key to unmasking a killer.
About the Author
Denise Hamilton is a Los Angeles-based writer-journalist whose work has appeared in the
Los Angeles Times, Wired, Cosmopolitan, Der Spiegel, and
New Times. During her ten years with the
Los Angeles Times, she worked as a suburban reporter, covering the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the breakup of the Soviet Union, and burgeoning youth movements in Japan. A Fulbright scholar, she taught in the former Yugoslavia during the Bosnian War. Her first Eve Diamond novel,
The Jasmine Trade, was a finalist for the Edgar, Anthony, Macavity, and Willa awards. Her new Eve Diamond novel,
Last Lullaby, will be available soon in hardcover from Scribner. She lives in a Los Angeles suburb with her husband and two young children.