Hollywood - a lure for all with its secrets, shames, highest of highs and lowest of lows.

Salma Lowe is a Hollywood nepo baby, benefiting from her family's fame and connections. Her family is basically royalty in the LA social circle. However, she personally has fallen from grace over the years and is known as Sloppy Salma, due to a history of alcohol, drugs, and rehab. She currently lives in a small 1 bed apartment and is a guide for the Stars Six Feet Under tour. Her life is consumed by the tragic deaths of Hollywood starlets, specifically her own sister, aka the "Hurricane Blonde". One day on the tour though she discovers a (recently) dead body in the very property her own sister died in. Salma spirals and becomes consumed with uncovering who is behind the death, connecting the dots and assuming it ties to her own sister's death many years before.

This book, and others that explore the sinister underbelly of Hollywood, are fascinating thrillers, full of twists and turns. This one is made even more interesting is that we have a modern-day filming of the "Hurricane Blonde"'s life, including her death... being directed by the ex-fiancé. So strange! Automatically makes him a high-level suspect.

Highly recommend this for somebody looking for a quick poolside thriller read this summer!

I need everyone to head on over to my bookstagram (@thrillbythepage_)

I started this mind bending blow out about 7 hours ago and I read this book from start to finish in one sitting without moving .

The cover completely sold me. I loved the bright colors and the mystery of not being able to figure out what the book was about just by looking at the cover. Now, after I concluded, I understand It completely .

I loved the whole Hollywood setting (I’m a sucker for the lives of the rich and famous) . Everything Halley Sutton narrated, glittered across the pages with such ease .

Jam packed with suspense, twists and a power house gut punch that you will not see coming . This is a book you dont want to miss!

Teaser :

A former child starlet is plunged back into the dangerous glitter of Hollywood after discovering a young actress’s body in this scorching thriller about the deadly sides of both fame and family.

Hollywood is a sickness. Few people understand this better than Salma Lowe, progeny of Hollywood royalty and a former child-star turned guide of the Stars Six Feet Under tour bus. Salma spends her days leading tourists around the star-studded avenues of Hollywood, pointing out where actresses have met spectacular or untimely ends. Salma knows better than anyone that a tragic death is the surest path to stardom. Her own sister, Tawney, dubbed the “Hurricane Blonde” for her off-camera antics, was murdered in the mid-'90s, and the case remains unsolved. Salma herself has sworn off acting and just hopes to stay out of trouble…until a real dead body is discovered on her tour, on the property where her sister once lived.

Salma soon realizes something uncanny: It’s not just that this woman is dead at her sister’s address—she also looks just like her. When the police investigation goes nowhere, Salma has no choice but to plunge herself back into the world she left behind to search for her sister’s killer…who may have just struck again. But the search for the truth will take her deep into the rot of Hollywood past and present, into her family’s own long-buried and terrible secrets.

An absolutely haunting story. The Hurricane Blonde examines grief, guilt, and how uncontrollable greed and an obsession with one’s legacy can lead to tragic and unforgivable consequences.

Thank you to NetGalley, Halley Sutton and Penguin Group Putnam, G.P. Putnam’s Sons for an arc of The Hurricane Blonde in exchange for an honest review. This review is wholly my own & may not be reproduced.

Salma’s sister Tawney was murdered in the 90’s. Tawney was an actress whose behavior got her dubbed “Hurricane Blonde.” Salma is the daughter of Hollywood actors and a former child star herself. Now, she just wants to keep a low profile doing her job as a tour guide showing the places where previous stars met their end. Everything is going normal until she discovers a real dead body on one of her tours. It’s very disturbing to Salma because the body is found at the building that her sister used to leave and she also looks like her sister and was wearing her signature hair clip. The police don’t see interested enough to dig into it, so that leave Salma to figure it out on her own and how this might be connected to her sister’s death all those years ago.

Hollywood is not all that it’s cracked up to be (just ask Jeanette McCurdy!). And we get a behind the scenes glimpse of how wicked it really can be in this gem of a novel by Halley Sutton.

This story involves revenge and family secrets and I loved our MC. The pacing was perfect and the storytelling was superb. The ending left me a little perplexed, but I think this was a fabulous book and definitely worth picking up a copy when it releases on August 8, 2023.

4/5 Stars

Wow! This book really takes you into the sordid underbelly of Hollywood. This book follows Salma Lowe, daughter of the uber famous Hollywood power couple, Vivienne Powell and Dave Lowe, in the aftermath of her sister Tawney’s tragic unsolved murder.

“Sloppy Salma” takes her sister’s murder especially hard. As she was the one who discovered her body. Years later she runs haunted tours of the sites of all of Hollywoods unsolved murders, including her sister’s, The Hurricane Blonde. When she discovers another body years later in the same location as her sisters, she starts to spiral. Suspecting her sister’s ex-fiancé and hot-shot Hollywood Director of both murders, at what lengths will Salma go to finally uncover the mystery of these murders?

I enjoyed the deep dive into the nasty side of Hollywood and found it particularly relevant to women’s plight and what some pay for the price of fame.

The ending posed a lot of questions, and although I wish it wasn’t so ambiguous, I understand why it was.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read and I will look out for more from this author.

Thank you to Net Galley and Penguin Group Putnam for an ARC of The Hurricane Blonde in exchange for my unbiased review.

Salmas past catches up with her when a second death occurs in the same place her sister was murdered. I loved getting to see the behind the scenes of Hollywood fame. Thanks NetGalley and Penguin Group for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Salmas sister, movie star Tawney Lowe AKA The Hurricane Blonde was murdered at the Jacaranda House. 20 years later Salma is giving ghost tours. She finds another dead body there that looks like her sister. Salma goes on a mad rampage after the man she believes killed both women. Destructive family secrets are revealed. This was a great read with shocking twists.
Thanks NetGalley and Penguin Group for this ARC that will be released August 8, 2023!

from the very first chapter, i knew this would be for me. fast paced and well written. thanks netgalley & the publisher for the ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book I love books set I. The entertainment industry and Hollywood it had great characters and was very good, and was very good and detailed at the movies and good mystery Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book

Halley Sutton immerses you into all that is Hollywood. With glimpses of the old Hollywood nostalgia, and the fame and glamour that came along with being a movie royalty family, as well as some of the secrets and tragedies that are bound to follow. This riveting book tells the story of Salma Lowe, the youngest daughter of Oscar winner, Dave Lowe and Vivienne Powell Lowe, Hollywood royalty. In 1997 budding young starlet, Tawney Lowe, was murdered in her home, poolside, and Salma, her 15 year old sister, is the one to discover her body. Tawney's murder remains unsolved, and has become infamously known as The Hurricane Blonde. Twenty years, and 13 years of sobriety later, Salma still deals with the aftermath of her sister's murder, especially after discovering another body found drowned in the Jacaranda house, Tawney's house, the same place where she discovered Tawney's lifeless and strangled body. Salma feels unsteady and unsure of her emotions. Why is there another body found at Jacaranda house? Why is this happening again? Does this have anything to do with Tawney? Who did this? Who killed Tawney?

Sutton's characterizations are brilliant and really sets the scene for you to become entranced by the pull and the lure of Hollywood with all the iconic references throughout. Sutton delves into the film industry from all angles, and the perspectives of key players; actors, directors, producers, wannabes, former stars, set and production crews, journalists, paparazzo, and everyone with a cell phone. A true inside look into the industry, and an unbelievable spiralling of Salma as she becomes obsessed with finding who killed her sister, The Hurricane Blonde.