Femme Faux Fatale

I just want to say this book so was much fun to read. I love the old noir movies so I really appreciated the characters in this story who like either the movies or the books. There is so much action and danger in the story but it wasn't heavy. Riley can't seem to do anything but get himself in trouble. There are twists and turns around every corner. But while Cain is conflicted about the whole adventure he still decides to trust Riley which was a great point to the story. And maybe they have "the beginning of a beautiful friendship". And of course now I want to re-watch the Maltese Falcon too.

Independent reviewer for Divine Magazine, I was gifted my copy of this book.

Cain is hired by Ms Astor to find her husband, along with a Rodin statuette. But things don't add up to Cain, and he visits the club she works at to talk to her some more. Lily Lavender is on stage, and she pushes all kinds of buttons that Cain never knew he needed pushing. Riley, the man behind Lily, has a similar reaction to Cain. But Riley is keeping secrets, secrets that have gotten two people killed and Cain needs to know, if they are to get out of this alive.

I really rather enjoyed this!

It's got instant and powerful attraction, it's got steam and passion, it's got a nutty woman, it's got so many levels of secrets! It's deadly too.

Told from both Cain and Riley's point of view, in the third, so we get each and every reaction from both men. Reactions to each other, to the situation around them, to Riley's cross dressing and to Cain very unexpected reaction to that.

Loved Cain's reaction to Riley's cross dressing. It's clear Riley has been treated badly in the past because of that, but Cain is like, AND??? It's part of who Riley is, and Cain just takes it as it is, as Riley is. Cain does, admittedly, rather like Riley in his ladies knickers and stockings, so that helped!

There is a rather long winded conversation between Riley and Cain about pulp fiction and noir films (I think!) bit I got lost with that, mostly because I have no clue what they were talking about, so I glanced over that bit!

I did like the twist as to what was really in the statuettes, and where that led the plot, and just what Ms Astor had, rather that what she THOUGHT she had.

Not quite a one sitting read, but I did stay til after midnight to finish it, when I had a 6am get up!

I've read one other by Ms Laine, I'd like to read some more. She has a way of grabbing you and pulling you in.

4 solid stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**

Femme Faux Fatale by Susan Laine is the seventieth book in the Dreamspun Desires series. I knew that I wanted to read this book when I read the blurb and it said men in silk stockings. I love a good cross-dressing book and add in all of the twists and turns of a murder mystery, and I was entertained from the start of the book to the end. And there were quite a few twists that I didn’t see coming. The book had a 1940’s feel to it. I kept picturing a Humphrey Bogart movie as I was reading this book. Fans of Noir films and old black and white PI movies will greatly enjoy this book.

Cain Noble is a hardboiled Los Angeles PI who’s hired by the wealthy and gorgeous Camille Astor to find her husband and a priceless work of art, both of which have disappeared. He has a no-nonsense attitude and drinks a little more than is good for him which fits with how private investigators were portrayed during that time period, so the author did a great job of fleshing out and developing his character. I liked him a lot. I liked watching him try to figure out what was going on, especially when he kept getting turned on by what he thought was a woman. I liked when he finally figured that one out. I really enjoyed the chemistry between Cain and Riley, aka Lily Lavender, the cross-dressing burlesque starlet.

My favorite character is Riley. He’s so sensual and has such an old Hollywood feel to him when he’s cross-dressing. I also loved the support that he gets from his dad who knows that he’s a cross-dressing burlesque dancer. I also loved the support that he gets from Cain to dress however he wants at any time whether it is as a man or a woman or a cross of the two. But Riley is hiding a lot of secrets that could really help Cain figure out what happened to Mr. Astor and the priceless work of art.

Cain and Riley will have their work cut out for them when they are faced with the hidden decadence and lethal dangers of the Hollywood hills because they haven’t even scratched the surface of an elaborate scheme more twisted than anyone could ever have imagined.

I recommend this book to anybody that likes to read murder mysteries with a PI and a cross-dressing burlesque dancer, if you do then this book is just what you are looking for.