Review: Evil in All its Disguises by Hilary Davidson

A Mysterious Review of …

Evil in All its Disguises by Hilary Davidson. A Lily Moore Mystery.

Review summary: This is a suspenseful mystery, one in which the reader is in as much doubt about what's going on as travel writer Lily Moore is. An intriguing aspect of the story is the history of Acapulco as a playground for the stars of Hollywood's Golden Era. It makes for an interesting backdrop to the quandary Lily finds herself in. (Click here for text of full review.)

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Evil in All its Disguises
Hilary Davidson
A Lily Moore Mystery
Forge Books (March 2013)

Publisher synopsis: When travel writer Lily Moore joins a group of journalists for an all-expenses-paid press junket to Acapulco, Mexico, she expects sun, sand, and margaritas. Instead, she finds that the Mexican city, once the playground of Hollywood stars, is a place of faded glamour and rising crime. Even the luxurious Hotel Cerón, isolated from the rest of the town, seems disturbing to her, with its grand, empty rooms, ever-watchful staff, and armed guards patrolling the grounds.

Lily isn't the only one who suspects something rotten under the hotel's opulent facade. Skye McDermott, another journalist on the trip, asks Lily for help with an article she's working on about fraud and corruption in the hotel industry. Skye claims she's eager to write a piece of real journalism rather than the fluff she's known for. But she also lets slip that she's deeply upset at a lover who jilted her, and she plans to exact her revenge by exposing his company's illegal activities.

After Skye disappears suddenly, Lily suspects that her friend is in grave danger. But the hotel's staff insists that everything is fine and refuses to contact the police. Only after Lily tries — and fails — to leave the Hotel Cerón does she discover the truth: the journalists are prisoners in a gilded cage.

Too late, Lily realizes that she has been maneuvered into the role of bait in a vicious, vengeful plot. Faced with unthinkable choices, Lily must summon all her strength to survive, confront the past she's still running from, and save other lives.