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    Tightrope
    Tightrope
    Tightrope
    Audiobook9 hours

    Tightrope

    Written by Amanda Quick

    Narrated by Nina Alvamar

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    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 before it's too late. 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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMay 7, 2019
    ISBN9781980027560
    Tightrope
    Author

    Amanda Quick

    Amanda Quick is the pseudonym for Jayne Ann Krentz, the author, under various pen names, of more than fifty New York Times bestsellers; there are more than 35 million copies of her books in print. She lives in Seattle.

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    Reviews for Tightrope

    4/5

    81 ratings9 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Circus folks and psychics, what more do you want? I enjoyed it. I hope to hear more about the Hidden Beach hotel in future. I don't think it was quite as strong as Close Up, but I did read out of order, which may have made a difference.
    • 4/5
      Amalie Vaughn was nearly the victim of a serial killer, but her survival put an end to her career as a Trapeze artist. She's moved to burning cove, spending the last of her money on a mansion with the intention of turning it into a bed-and-breakfast. Lotal stories say that this house is cursed, after all the previous owner committed suicide. Now her first guest is Dr Norman Pickwell and during a show (featuring his home-made robot) he's killed by his invention. Matthias Jones is investigating because there's a link to a cipher machine and messy spy stuff. When Amalie aand Matthias meet sparks fly and the relationship will take them into intersting places. Matthias' links to gangster activities may lead them places they don't want to go, but the serial killer's legacy is lurking in the background.It was a fun read, a little bit of the paranormal lurked in Matthias' ability to lie-detect but it wasn't a lot in the story, this was more romantic thriller than paranormal.
    • 3/5
      Tightrope is a good book that from the prologue through the end keeps its pace. The characters and situations are all believable. There is a lot of dialogue which is stiff. The topics of circus performers, spies, suspected people with Mafia connections, murders, and some romance all are important parts of this book. Because the book just stopped short of a few more pages of writing it received a solid three stars for this review.
    • 3/5
      Light, historical romance about a former trapeze artist and a mobster who are caught in the wake of a murder surrounding an enigma machine. Set in the 30s, Amalie Vaughn has retired from circus life after an attempt has been made on her life. She settles in the town of Burning Cove with her aunt, and witnesses a murder of the guest at their B&B by his robot. When a mob connected stranger comes to investigate, and stays at her inn, sparks fly between them. They become involved personally and professionally in trying to solve the series of murders and the case of the missing enigma machine. #Tightrope #AmandaQuick
    • 3/5
      I was a little disappointed in this book..The earlier installments felt a little fresher than some of the books that Krentz has produced lately. This one was a little flatter and the characters felt like they were fleshed out very well. For a change, the main murderer wasn't immediately recognizable, although there was more than one guilty party.
    • 5/5
      This book written by Jayne Ann Krentz under her historical fiction name Amanda Quick is set in the late 1930s in her Burning Cove series where you don't have to have read the other books but you'll want to, especially The Other Lady Vanishes where you find out what really happened to Madam Zolanda whose house features primarily in the book and where it is said she jumped to her death.Famed trapeze artist Amalie Vaughn almost meets her death when Marcus Harding, the rigger of the circus, but also one who was responsible for the deaths of other aerialists over the months and she is to be next, but she doesn't let him kill her. Instead, she kills him. However, she heard giggling in the audience meaning there was someone else out there connected to this. Knowing no one would trust her in the air and having developed a slight fear of heights herself she and her Aunt Hazel decide to spend all the money Amalie has from her inheritance from her parents death to open up a bed and breakfast in Burning Cove and then pick Hidden Beach, the one where the psychic was murdered in to open up shop.It also doesn't help that their first customer Dr. Norman Pickwell is murdered on stage by his robot Futuro. This earns them the newspaper headline of Psychic Curse Hotel. Now, who will want to stay there? Actor Vincent Hyde wants to for the ambiance. He plays in horror movies and is hoping his audition for a new one went well and he'll be cast for the leading part he so desperately needs for his flailing career. Luther Pell's employee Matthias Jones also does who is working as a private investigator for Pell who has mob connections and runs Paradise Cove, the place to go dancing and be seen especially by celebrities and the press. Mathias offers to help Amalie with security because someone may try to break in again to get into the doctor's rooms and search them looking for the key to the cipher machine that is missing that Pickwell was going to sell to Luther's people. But he double-crossed them and was planning on selling to a higher bidder, meaning he also double-crossed someone else. A former spy named Smith who wants to get back at the government who fired him from his job due to cutbacks and only hiring spies from Ivey League families. No one knows what Smith looks like or who he is. If he gets ahold of the whole cipher he will sell it America's enemies.Amalie and Mathias find out from the hospital ambulance man that the robot is important because that is where the key is from. On the way back to the hotel they get a flat right at the deadly turn in the road, but Matthias manages to control the car and pull over to the side of the road. The two hide as someone stops to check if they are still around.Of course, Matthias and Amalie feel a strong connection to one another but can they trust their feelings? Matthias has a psychic ability to tell when someone is lying which makes life difficult for him because most people lie about things in that they tell a story about what happened during their day, for instance, and while telling a story we tell white lies. It's hard to be with someone who knows when you're lying. Only the problem is the closer he gets to someone the harder it is to tell if that person is lying unless that person is under duress.Amalie will come under duress and need Matthias help to get out of it. Will the Inn turn a profit? Just who is working for Smith and who is Smith? Will Amalie ever be rid of the watcher from her past who sat in the audience and watched as she killed Marcus but was there to watch her die? Amalie is a tough character with a tender heart and she has good business sense. Matthias is also tough but he's a nice guy who wants to open up an engineering shop and build things for a living. Will the two of them end up together or will others keep them apart? This is a great read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I give it five out of five stars.QuotesA mysterious tire blows out last night and a grenade blast today. The next time we go on a date I’m going to bring my own gun.-Amanda Quick (Tightrope p 159)An actor doesn’t have friends. He has rivals and competitors. -Amanda Quick (Tightrope p 223)Dreams are never crazy. Impractical, sometimes. But not crazy.-Amanda Quick (Tightrope p 228)
    • 4/5
      Tightrope is the third installment in Amanda Quick's Burning Cove series, set in the quaint town of Burning Cove, a California coastal hideaway. From the start, the reader is galvanized to the pages. A puppeteer set on the course to murder lurks behind the scenes of traveling circuses. Another puppeteer arranges the deaths of scientists. What do all these puppeteers have in common? They are all related to the Mob. This single aspect of the story makes it clear to readers that tale is set in America's Post-Prohibition Era of the 1930's.Amalie Vaughn came from a family of flying trapeze artists. She quit the profession after a crazed man almost murdered her. Quick's storytelling in this scene is riveting, enticing the reader to go on reading, trying to understand why the would-be-murderer is on a mission to kill Amalie and has killed other trapeze artists. After leaving the traveling circus, Amalie settles in Burning Cove where she purchases a beautiful mansion with the intension of using it as a glamorous bed-and-breakfast for the rich and famous who seek a respite in the cozy town.Her first guest is a famous inventor, who is murdered, fueling the speculation that the mansion is cursed. Matthias Jones enters the story, a man supposedly connected to the Mob and is asking a lot of questions but not giving any answers. The two join forces and enter into an investigation fraught with spies, crazed murdering fiends, and a romance that blossom between the pair.Amanda Quick's novels are enjoyable for the author's instinct to embellish a romance with suspenseful twists and unexpected turns. Not that real life reflects this type of intrigue and drama but as a reader these aspects work to intensify the main characters passionate romance, as it does in Tightrope.
    • 5/5
      Amalie Vaughn has come to Burning Cove to open a bed and breakfast with her aunt. She got a terrific deal on a furnished mansion only to find out, after she bought, it that it had a bad reputation because a noted psychic had committed suicide there by jumping off the roof. She was a former trapeze artist who survived a murder attempt but rumor has it that she killed her attempted murderer as some part of a twisted love triangle.Amalie has only one boarder now. Inventor Dr. Norman Pickwell is presenting his latest invention before a packed audience when his robot shoots him to death. This is certainly not going to help the reputation of Amalie's new B & B. The death also attracts the attention of engineer Matthias Jones who thinks there is more to this than a robot gone amuck.Matthias wants to discover whatever secret Dr. Pickwell was keeping and Amalie wants to save the reputation of the business she has invested her future in. As they investigate and find out about a secret cipher machine, a spy out for revenge, and a fading movie star who wants to get back into the spotlight, the two fall in love. Matthias has a hard time accepting that Amalie can ever accept him. He has a psychic gift that lets him know when anyone is lying which tends to make most people uncomfortable. Amalie tells him, quite correctly, that his gift doesn't even make the top ten of things that scare her. After all, she is used to performing on the high trapeze without a net and she escaped a man who wanted to murder her. This was an entertaining story filled with quirky characters and situations. I enjoyed the story even though I had tapped the wrong person as the villain.
    • 4/5
      Quick's third 1930s-set romantic suspense is a good, fast read. Amalie Vaughn was a star trapeze artist, until a serial killer rigger tried to kill her. After that incident, the circus where she worked went broke, and Amalie and her aunt moved to Burning Cove, California to open a B&B. Killer robots, aging movie stars trying to make a comeback, and espionage complicate their lives, as does reputed mob enforcer Matthias Jones. Matthias is a human lie detector (scion of the Arcane Society's Sylvester Jones), which complicates his own life immensely. He is in Burning Cove to investigate the espionage and related matters.Appealing characters, well-done suspense, and a burgeoning romance. Recommended.