Sugar Skull

Sugar Skull

by Denise Hamilton (Author)

Synopsis

Intrepid LA crime reporter Eve Diamond is back on the scene in this stylish, urban mystery. The body count this weekend is twenty-eight - and rising fast. Across the city, people are killing each other in gruesome ways. And Eve Diamond is writing it all down - in her routine roundup story for the LOS ANGELES TIMES. Then a distraught man bursts into the newsroom complaining about the police's apathy over the disappearance of his runaway daughter. To complicate matters, Eve is assigned to cover a potentially huge story involving a mayoral candidate and his Italian wife, Venus - whose body was discovered floating naked in her pool. Who killed Venus? And what is the significance of the sugar skulls - little confections for the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday - that Eve keeps seeing everywhere? As Eve unravels the mystery, she finds herself plunging into an overpowering love affair with Silvio Aguilar, the brooding scion of a music-industry titan. Against the backdrop of the mayoral election and the hallucinatory Day of the Dead celebrations, Eve tries to understand how vice, greed and the drive for power can transcend even the most entrenched of class divides.With her own life ultimately on the line, she must beat incredible odds to stave off devastation - and derail the murder conviction of the wrong person.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Edition: First edition
Publisher: Orion
Published: 02 Sep 2004

ISBN 10: 0752860577
ISBN 13: 9780752860572
Book Overview: THE JASMINE TRADE, Hamilton's first novel, will be published by Orion as part of the New Blood Promotion Denise Hamilton writes sharp, pacey crime novels that cut through the dark heart of Los Angeles THE JASMINE TRADE was shortlisted for both the Edgar and Macavity Best First Novel Awards 'THE JASMINE TRADE is more than a good crime story. Denise Hamilton delivers a gripping narrative with a busload of intriguing characters. And all the while she unflinchingly points her flashlight into one of the dark corners of our world. Read it and learn.' MICHAEL CONNELLY 'Hamilton's sharp eye, tough mind and open heart give this novel its credibility, emotion and compassion. Revealing and unsettling.' Jefferson Parker

Media Reviews
'Despite being only Denise Hamilton's second novel, it's as cleverly plotted and complex as the work of a thriller veteran. Like the best of Michael Connelly, Los Angeles isn't just a setting - it's a central character.' DAILY RECORD 'Sugar Skull is a significant advance on The Jasmine Trade. Her heroine, the ambitious journalist Eve Diamond, has developed into a very real and likeable personality, whose determination to get a good story has not yet hardened her to the emotions of those into whose lives she intrudes. ... an intriguing thriller from a writer who looks set to fulfil her early promise.' -- Susanna Yager SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Author Bio
Denise Hamilton has published work in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wired and Cosmopolitan. She lives in Los Angeles.