#1490. Exposed – A Circle of the Red Lily Novel by Anna J. Stewart

Now this is an interesting mix of characters:

Riley Temple – freelance photographer/paparazzi . . . Owner of the Temple House (an apartment building where studios used to house contract actors, mostly women) . . . Lives with Moxie (great aunt, once a major player in the old studio system of Hollywood) . . . houses a colorful mix of women . . . In old downtown LA.

Detective Quinn Burton. 4^th generation cop . . . 10y as a homicide detective . . .  couple in his bloodline had risen to become Chief so the pressure is on for him to decide on his career path . . . partnered with newbie Wallace (not ‘Wally’).

Riley not only follows leads for to get photos of celebs, but she also has a hobby of finding old undeveloped film from repossessed storage lockers or pawn shops. Develops/prints them just because she finds it interesting. She gets this one roll from a pawn shop. Within minutes of leaving the shop, the owner and a homeless man who squats in the shop’s parking lot are found severely beaten or killed. She learns about this after tracking a starlet to a quiet hideaway. After rushing back to the pawnshop, someone tries to ransack her car while cops are working the scene.

Detective Burton is curious, obviously, but she quickly figures out that the rolls of film are in demand and says nothing. She returns home, develops/prints some of the photos only to discover that the photos are some sort of a snuff scene showing images of a woman bound, gagged, raped, and finally murdered. The rush is on to identify the victim and learn more about the circumstances of her death.

Burton knows Riley is hiding something and stays close. In the process of trying to pry bits of info out of Riley, we come to see that both Riley and Quinn are attracted to each other. The book becomes mostly a murder mystery with a trace of romance novel thrown in.

I’ll stop there. To say more would trigger a cascade of spoilers and we wouldn’t want that, would we. Suffice it to say, both stories are woven together tightly. I’m not a romance novel type, but I’m OK with this story line primarily because Riley and Quinn are just so dang likeable.

Doing a bit sleuthing myself, I learned that Stewart has 20 (20!) romance novels to her credit and in this book, her first foray into cop/crime themes (I assume. Haven’t looked at her other books), she has stretched well beyond her comfort zone. The romance part is entirely believable. The murder mystery and police procedural are deftly portrayed. I was entirely invested into both stories.

And here’s the only spoiler . . . This is but a prologue into a larger investigation about cults, murder, coverups, politics, and Hollywood. Lots of places for Riley/Quinn to explore in all that. And that’s story line I’ll want to follow.

Thanks to the good folks at NetGalley for making this book available. Just published 11/15/22. 

ECD