‘The Hurricane Blonde’ by Halley Sutton.

Published by Allison and Busby.
8 August 2023. 
ISBN:-978-0-7490-3062-9 (PB)

Salma Lowe works as a guide in Hollywood, taking tourists on the Dead Girls tour.  This includes the Jacaranda House where, in the 1990s, she had discovered the body of her sister Tawney (the ‘Hurricane Blonde’ of the title). Tawney had been murdered, but the killer has not been caught.  As the younger daughter of the well-known Hollywood couple David Lowe and Vivienne Powell, Salma knows the pressures and benefits of having film-star parents.  However, in her teenage years she had found it difficult to cope with her life in the public eye and, over the past twenty years, has struggled to lose her reputation for drink and drugs.

On one of her tours Salma discovers another dead woman at the Jacaranda House, and in very similar circumstances.  Ankine, the second dead woman, had been cast as Tawney in a film being made by Cal Turner, Tawney’s fiancé at the time of her death.  When Cal casts another young woman, Melany, to replace Ankine, Salma is concerned for her safety and is drawn back into the glamourous, fiercely competitive, film world.  She believes that Cal murdered Tawney and Ankine and sets out to prove this.

The story is told in the present time and flashbacks, as the main characters and their histories are gradually revealed.  Though set in the present and reflecting the rumours and revelations of recent years, the story has a feel for the 1950s and 60s, the time during which Salma’s parents were particularly famous.  Indeed, the idea of a retrospective for her father, Dave, leads to a number of discoveries.  The revelations of past crimes, relationships and attitudes make it difficult to like many of the characters, but they are well-written and not all bad.  The dilemma of unpleasant people making brilliant films is touched on;  the misogyny, past and present, is detailed as is the willingness of people to do dangerous or bad things to promote their careers.  The revelations of the book’s last pages have been woven into the story.  The reader is left to make their own decisions about Salma and her future, but she is no longer the bereaved and broken young girl and has options to consider.
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Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood
Other books by this author:  The Lady Upstairs

Halley Sutton is a writer and editor who lives in Los Angeles. She is a Pitch Wars mentor and holds a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of California Santa Cruz, and a master's degree in writing from Otis College of Art and Design. The Lady Upstairs was her debut novel.

Jo Hesslewood.  Crime fiction has been my favourite reading material since as a teenager I first spotted Agatha Christie on the library bookshelves.  For twenty-five years the commute to and from London provided plenty of reading time.  I am fortunate to live in Cambridge, where my local crime fiction book club, Crimecrackers, meets at Heffers Bookshop .  I enjoy attending crime fiction events and currently organise events for the Margery Allingham Society.