I don’t remember why I started reading Fatal Secrets by Mary Stone. I guess it was recommended on my kindle and I just took a chance. The cover lists a “Bella Cross” as a co-author, but whoever that is, she doesn’t have a an author’s credit, officially.

Fatal Secrets has a young heroine named Sky Stryker who is a writer. She goes to New York to write, but she also connects with a cousin who is a successful fashion model in New York. Great!

Not long after Sky and her cousin meet, Sky’s cousin is murdered. The book then follows Sky as she learns about the fashion industry and seeks to find her cousin’s murderer. I have always wondered what it would be like to be 5’7″ and weigh 115 pounds and after reading the book and learning about the fashion industry as portrayed in Fatal Secrets I’m glad I haven’t seen 115 pounds since age 8.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the book–lots of characters and even a bad guy who always wore a mask and who was known as “M.” We find out as the story evolves that “M” will give his fashion models extra work for the opportunity to earn a great deal of money. As part of her research, Sky begins her own modeling career.

So I’m reading along and wondering. I see that I’ve read 92 percent of the book and yet, the mystery hasn’t been solved. And then….I’m at the end of the book and am told to go on to Book Two. I was shocked and a bit disappointed, but did as I was told.

Turns out, the second book is called Fatal Lies and gets much more complex in terms of solutions to this mystery. And it turns out that this author actually published all of the rest of the books in this nine-book series in the past year. The other books are: Fatal Beauty (July 2024); Fatal Massacre (August 2024); Fatal Act (September 2024); Fatal Terror (November 2024); Fatal Turn (December 2024); Fatal Wound (February 2025); and Fatal Perfection (July 2025).

If you like a female sleuth and gossip about the fashion industry, and if you like easy reading (no need to look up the meanings of big words), I recommend Fatal Secrets and Fatal Lies. The weather in Las Vegas is going to remain hot for a while and books like these help to pass the time…..