Friday, January 17, 2014

Undercover In High Heels - Review

Secret affairs, hunky gardeners, and housewives desperate enough to bare it all... welcome to Magnolia Lane, TV's hottest new prime time show. A place where L.A. shoe designer Maddie Springer should be in fashion heaven. That is until the body of a rising young starlet is found dead on the show's set. Now it's up to Maddie to sift through a leading lady with a secret, an actor on the verge of a nervous breakdown, a sexy cyber scandal, and one tabloid reporter who'll stop at nothing to get the story of the century. Not to mention Maddie's hot-cold relationship with the case's familiar lead detective, Jack Ramirez. In a world where secrets, lies, and deception can earn you an Oscar, Maddie plays the role of a lifetime to catch Hollywood's hottest killer. But if she doesn't watch her step, Maddie's fifteen minutes of fame just may be her last.

About the Author
Gemma Halliday, author of the High Heels Mysteries, has received numerous awards, including a Golden Heart, a National Readers Choice award and three RITA nominations, as well as hitting both the New York Times and the USA Today bestseller list. She currently lives in San Francisco Bay Area where she is hard at work on several new projects including more books in the Maddie Springer Stories.



The 'High Heels Mysteries' have turned out to be an obsession of late. While ‘Spying in High Heels’ introduced me to the intoxication, ‘Killer in High Heels’ turned me into an addict, and now, having done with ‘Undercover in High Heels’, the third book in the series, I find it difficult not to consider myself as a fanatic reader of this series.

Gemma Halliday does what she knows best, weaving mysteries, murders, shootouts, but with a dash of humor, so much that it leaves an intriguing sense of satisfaction and longing within the heart of the reader in you. Top it all with the brilliant hot and cold romance between the two lead characters, Jack Ramirez and Maddie Springer, and you have an enticing cocktail that you can’t afford to miss.

‘Undercover in High Heels’ takes the readers on the sets of Magnolia Lane, the hottest new prime time show on TV, and instantly gets you hooked to the Hollywood-style environment. Episodes are shot and you witness the entire shooting process with a thrill of a teenager, the descriptions so perfect that they make you feel standing right on the sets. However, season episodes are not the only things that are shot here. There is a lady with the gun, hell bent on shooting Maddie whenever she sees her, as well as a murderer haunting the sets of Magnolia Lane. Maddie’s curiosity does lead her to the maze, as always, where she eventually gets stuck among these menaces. How she copes with it, and comes out safe, unraveling the mysteries, form the crux of this brilliantly designed plot.

The more you read the books in this series, the higher are your probability of falling in love with Maddie. She is that uncertain, confused, girl next door, who can’t stop herself in quenching her thirst to find solution to mysteries, and in the process, invites the wrath of Detective Jack Ramirez, her fantasy. Her expressions, and her efforts to get back in the good book of Ramirez will surely through you in a fit of giggles, and at the end of the day, you will just hope with smile that all things turn good for this lady. The love between the two progresses a notch higher in this book, and we love the romance and the sparkling tensions of love between them.

However, like the other books in this series, one can’t write about ‘Undercover in High Heels’ without mentioning Dana, the ever vivacious, chirpy and always on the lookout for guys, Maddie’s best friend. Dana’s dialogues and her ‘ohmigods’ make the book all the more fun, and you instantly wish you had a friend like Dana in real life. She is a real crazy character, and just too lovable.

The other characters provide the support that’s needed, and make this book a great read in whole. Seriously, if you want to read a murder mystery, and laugh at the same time, this book is tailor made for you. I don’t know how Gemma brings out humor in the gravest of situations, but I am glad she does, and that’s what makes this book a real beauty.

‘Undercover in High Heels’, as expected, does go undercover, and steal my mind and heart.


Title: Undercover In High Heels
Author: Gemma Halliday
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
Publication Year: 2013
Language: English
Binding: Paperback
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
No. of Pages: 260
Price: ₹ 299
My Rating: 4/5




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