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Darker By Degree (Maddie Pryce Mystery Series) [Kindle Edition]

Keri Knutson
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

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Book Description

A missing girl. A mysterious break-in. A brutal murder. Struggling actress Maddie Pryce is looking for her big break and a way out of her day job at a crumbling movie palace from Hollywood's heyday, but finds herself at the center of a series of seemingly unrelated crimes. Soon she’s tangled up with a persistent detective, a driven director, a playboy producer, and an unstable ingenue. Can Maddie unravel the clues before her next role is as a serial killer’s victim?


~~~~~~~~~~

If it wasn't for a steady supply of criminals, actress Maddie Pryce's razor-sharp wit might be West Hollywood's most dangerous weapon. Whether meeting up with junkie burglars or snide corporate theater owners, sadistic murderers or snarky homicide detectives, she manages to hold her own.

The situations are intense, the descriptions vivid, the action vibrant, and the twisting plots are always driven by headstrong, curious Maddie. Detective Kyle Oberman says, "An angry Maddie is like letting loose a bouncy ball in the housewares aisle."

As Maddie moves impulsively through everything from vandalism to serial killings, she manages to keep her instincts honed, calling to bear something her mother noticed in her, even as a young child. "My mother used to tell the story of my first swim lesson, when I walked right past the instructor and the water-wings in her outstretched arms and jumped right in to the deep end of the pool. She called it the look-before-you-leap syndrome."

That's Maddie . She'll have you on the edge of your seat while she comes up with the most resourceful way to extract herself from a killer, then have no concept of how to deal with a romantic entanglement. She'll draw beautiful pictures of Southern California, then uncover the dark underbelly of crime. You may feel at times like you're in the great Golden Age of Hollywood until Maddie opens her mouth, then you know for sure where you are. Just one more way Maddie has of putting people in their place.

This book is equivalent to a 300 page paperback.


Product Details

  • File Size: 362 KB
  • Print Length: 205 pages
  • Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
  • Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B0059IWOVG
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • X-Ray: Enabled
  • Lending: Enabled
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #392,942 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Customer Reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
(9)
3.9 out of 5 stars
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Great promise for a new series. Worth a read! June 18, 2012
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book reminds me of an early Sue Grafton or Marcia Muller mystery. All the right elements are there--a good lead character, an interesting setting, a complex and a nicely crafted plot. Knutson and Branham are good writers, too. I was immediately pulled into this languid, almost melancholy Los Angeles where Maddie Pryce hovers on the edge of fame, overshadowed by her brilliant actress mother.

I would give this book four stars for the sheer promise and skill the author shows, but although the elements are there, they don't quite fit together yet. The authors don't quite make the case, for me, for why Maddie does some of the dangerous things she does. The ending seems too drawn out, the relationship between Maddie and her new boyfriend, the police detective on the case, doesn't seem to have the edges it should have when two people are at odds over murder.

Grafton's A is for Alibi and Muller's Edwin of the Iron Shoes have the same kinds of problems and those two are among my favorite mystery writers. Don't let the 3 stars I'm giving this book keep you from reading it. It's exciting to see a new mystery series start out with this much promise. I'll read the next Maddie Pryce book, too, and look forward to what the authors are doing with the character five or six books from now.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Maddie Is Fun To Read December 1, 2011
Format:Kindle Edition
'Maddie is fun to read' is the core of my reaction to this book. It's a good book in general. The plot is nice and twisty, the descriptions are vivid, and the tension is sharp and believable. But what I reacted to was Maddie Price. For a nervous Everygirl, she has a streak of bulldog determination in her, and it makes every page a pleasure. Not to mention she deserves a black belt in Unlikely Weapons. The damage she does with thermoses, screwdrivers, and other random objects in this book is terrifying. You do not want to put Maddie's back to the wall, because she will kill you with it.

If it sounds like Maddie is more fun the more trouble she gets into, she is! And she's pretty fun to start with.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Good Start to a Series-- Don't Give Up the Day Job July 20, 2011
By Sires
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Maddie Pryce has a career as am actor, but not a lot of work. In fact her day to day bills are paid by her job as an usher in an elegant but crumbling old art deco theatre showing vintage movies.

One night after a triple bill of 30's and 40's classic horror, she finds one of her coworkers murdered. Another coworker makes himself scarce when the cops try to interview him about the homicide. One detective in particular, Kyle Oberman, takes a more than casual interest in Maddie, as it seems that she has managed to become the object of a stalker who is looking for a missing porn actress and thinks Maddie might know something about the missing woman.

With a dose of action, some good dialogue and Maddie's entertaining views on Hollywood, this mystery is well worth reading. I read it on my iphone and didn't notice any major formatting problems. In fact I would not have been surprised to pull this one off a library shelf in hard cover.

Recommended.
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