The Skull Beneath the Skin (Cordelia Gray #2) by PD James

It was the setup that convinced me to buy this one: Private detective Cordelia Gray is hired by the husband of aging actress Clarissa Lisle, who has been receiving death threats in the form of literary quotations. It doesn’t seem particularly sinister, but Clarissa has an important performance coming up and the notes are affecting her career, so her husband calls Cordelia in to find out who is leaving the notes. To do this, Cordelia pretends to be Clarissa’s secretary and accompanies her to Courcy Island, where Clarissa is scheduled to perform in a production of The Duchess of Malfi, held in the theater of the castle on the island. Also on the island: Clarissa’s cousin, a theater critic who has a history with the actress, her stepson from a previous marriage, and their host and owner of the castle.

Cracks by Sheila Kohler

I knew what I was getting into with this one, I really did.

Like most people who have reviewed this book, I decided to seek this out because I had just watched the movie version and wanted to know how the two compared. Going into this book, I knew that the movie had taken several huge steps away from Kohler’s original story, and based on that knowledge I was pretty sure I wouldn’t love the book as much as I loved the movie. And I was positive that the book version of Miss G couldn’t come close to Eva Green’s charismatic, psychotic portrayal. But “Psychotic Schoolgirls Who Maybe Murdered Somebody” is one of my favorite literary genres, so in I plunged.