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Publication Order of High Heels Mysteries Books
Publication Order of High Heels Mysteries Short Stories/Novellas
Publication Order of High Heels Mysteries Collections
Publication Order of Hollywood Headlines Books
Publication Order of Hartley Featherstone Books
with Jennifer FischettoPublication Order of Anna Smith & Nick Dade Thrillers Books
Publication Order of Jamie Bond Books
with Jennifer FischettoPublication Order of Marty Hudson Mystery Books
with Kelly ReyPublication Order of Tahoe Tessie Books
Publication Order of Wine & Dine Mysteries Books
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
Publication Order of Cookbooks
In her teenage years famous novelist Gemma Halliday was dreaming of becoming either a rock star or Marilyn Monroe. Her professional path however didn’t go exactly in this direction, at least initially. Gemma’s career was very interesting as she worked in a number of different sectors doing various jobs. At different points of her life she was taking part in movies, imported teddy bears, worked as a department store administrator, a preschool teacher, spend some time as a temporary-tattoo artist, and even a 900-number psychic. She just couldn’t stay at the same job for much longer as none of them seemed to fit her personality, needs and qualities as she explains, but this brought her a great deal of experience and various points of views.
Gemma really had a hard time finding something that is interesting to her, until a happy coincidence made her read a romance book she got for free from some promotion. She was bitterly disappointed and describes the novel as “very bad” and in fact Gemma felt she could do better than that. After a bit of though she really decided to give a try and become a romance writer herself. After finishing six manuscripts without selling any of them Gemma’s style started to evolve more towards a mix of romance, fashion and mystery and this brought her success as she managed to sell her seventh manuscript which lead to a successful career in the genre.
The author admits that she is finding inspiration everywhere in her daily life. Gemma claims that many of the characters in her books are carrying many exaggerated traits of her family, friends and even ex-boyfriends, who should probably avoid reading her books as the author jokes. Also many of the dialogues and actions in her books were inspired by random events and things Gemma heard in the grocery store, on the radio, at Starbucks.
Gemma Halliday currently lives in the San Francisco bay area with her boyfriend and fellow vampire novels writer Jackson Stein with whom she has three children. Her favorite hobbies are watching reality TV shows, eating pizza, and shoe shopping. As you can imagine from her books Gemma is mad about fashion in general.
The list of Gemma Halliday’s awards is really impressive and includes a Golden Heart award, two National Reader’s Choice awards and three RITA nominations. Her books have reached both the USA Today and New York Times Bestseller lists as also Kindle’s top charts
Her debut novel is called “Spying In High Heels” which is also the first book of the famous “High Heels” series and it was first released in 2006. The story takes place in Los Angelis from Sherman Oaks porn studios to swank Beverly Hills salons.
The main character is a female called Maddie Springer and she is a shoe designer with a life built around fashion. One day her boyfriend Richard suddenly goes missing alongside $20 million of his company’s funds which makes him a suspect of a pretty large theft. Maddie is eager to find him for two crucial reasons – she wants to prove he is innocent, but more importantly her period is late and he might be a father of her child soon.
Maddie calls her best friend and side kick Dana Dashel, who is an energetic fitness instructor and actress and the girls start investigating Richard’s disappearance. As you can expect from a mystery novel soon the first body appears. Maddie and Dana discover the freshly shot corpse of Richard’s boss and from now on things really start to get messy.
That’s when extremely sexy and manly LAPD detective Jack Ramirez joins the show and starts to investigate the murder. He tries to convince Maggie and Dana to let him handle the whole situation and stay home until he solves the case. As you could expect, this does not happen and the girls discover some important clues that could help them find the murderer. Two long blond hairs and the imprint of a stiletto heel raise their suspicions and lead to the idea that the killer is actually a woman. The two main suspects in Maggie and Dana’s list are receptionist and fashion designer addict Jasmine and a wild porn-star Bunny who has a lot of debts. From there the action unfolds to wild rides on LA’s freeways, some failed weddings and a number of events mixed with a lot of humor. Everything ends in a dramatic fashion which should surely satisfy all the chick lit and mystery fans out there.
The novel was very successful among the public and announced the arrival of Gemma Halliday to the world of romance and mystery novels with a bang. She was nominated for a RITA award in The Best First Book category and also won the Golden Heart award. “Spying In High Heels” was also chosen by USA Network as a series for the 2007-2008 television season.
The second book of the series followed shortly after and is called “Killer In High Heels”. We again meet Maddie who is trying to find her father this time. The last thing she knows about him is that he went to Las Vegas with a showgirl named Lola.
When daddy leaves a cry for help to her answering machine that ends with a loud bang, Maddie decides it is time to find him. She calls her loyal friend Dana Dashel who is always ready for a new adventure and both go to Sin City in order to investigate. There they meet the LAPD detective Jack Ramirez who is doing a little Vegas trip himself. The trio rushes in the middle of an exciting adventure covered in blood and mystery. With the help of Jack the girls find Maddie’s dad and get involved with a number of aging drag queens, an organized crime organization that is smuggling fake Prada pumps, and a vicious killer. The gang needs to stop him somehow with odds hardly on their side until the exciting finale.
After the success of her first two novels, Gemma Halliday continued with writing a number of more books in the “High Heels Mysteries” series describing the adventures of Maddie Springer and Dana Dashel. She also created other famous romance and mystery series such as the “Hollywood Headlines Mysteries”, the” Jamie Bond Mysteries”, the “Tahoe Tessie Mysteries”, as well as some other works.
Book Series In Order » Authors » Gemma Halliday
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Love your books, all series. When is your next High heels book coming out?