Elle Harrison is back! She and her pals Jen, Becky, and Susan travel to Mexico where Jen has arranged cosmetic surgery, after which she will recover in a plush hotel suite. But more is going on at the hotel than tummy tucks. Soon after they arrive, Elle sees the woman in the suite next door fall from her sixth floor balcony. When the room is later occupied by another patient, Elle finds her brutally mutilated body on that same balcony. Police question Elle as the last person to see these women alive. Their doctor also takes an interest in Elle; a woman staying at the hotel asks Elle to help her fend off a creepy stalker; a veiled woman sneaks into Elle's suite at night, and her late husband, Charlie, reappears (or Elle imagines that he does) when Elle gets pushed under water in the ocean and nearly drowns. As dangers swirl and intensify, Elle is forced to face her unresolved issues with Charlie, even as she races to find the connections between killings before more patients-including Jen-can be murdered. And before she herself becomes prey.
Industry Reviews
"The second Elle Harrison mystery (following The Trouble with Charlie, 2013) finds Elle and her pals in Mexico to keep friend Jen company as she recovers from cosmetic surgery. Elle's free because she's still on leave from her job as a schoolteacher following the murder of her estranged husband (not guilty, by the way). The girls' getaway takes a dark turn when patients keep dying in plain sight of poor Elle. Speaking of sight, a psychic confirms Elle's sneaking suspicion that she has the second one. When her friends tell her she's "spacing out," Elle knows she's really seeing ghosts. Visions of her unfaithful ex are just one of the reasons she's leery of Jen's suave surgeon. That and the fact that the surgeon has an incapacitated wife stashed somewhere and could be murdering his patients. Elle's friends are fairly one note (ill-tempered Jen is particularly unlikable), and the supernatural element isn't that well integrated into the story. But there's a great pacing to the book, and the dishy plastic-surgery details are just perfect for poolside reading." --Booklist
"A Mexican resort, Nuevo Vallarta, provides the setting for Jones's engaging second Elle Harrison novel (after 2013's The Trouble with Charlie). Elle and several of her friends are staying at a luxury hotel, where one of her companions, Jen, struggles with the realities of plastic surgery and another, Becky, is distracted by unexpected romance. Meanwhile, Elle tries but fails to save the woman in the neighboring suite from plummeting to her death. The next occupant of the same room proves no luckier, as an unseen assailant carves her to ribbons. Haunted by images of her murdered husband, Charlie, and caught up in her own romance, unreliable narrator Elle has no idea who the killer may be, and unless she can unravel the confusing tangle of events swirling around her, she may meet her own bloody end. Readers will want to see more of the endearing Elle." --Publishers Weekly
