Hidden Treasures

Pinx Video Mysteries, Book 2

By: Marshall Thornton

Narrated by: Jack Meloche

It’s about a dress. A valuable blue sequined dress worn by a famed actress in a film from the 1940s. For some reason, everyone thinks video store owner Noah Valentine has it. Which might not be a big deal, except that it’s connected to the murder of a prominent Hollywood costumer.

In the second of the Pinx Video Mysteries, Noah attempts to solve the mystery of the dress. To do so, he must confront a legendary film icon Wilma Wanderly, hunky police detective Javier O’Shea, the dowager queen of Watts, and a couple of bitter ex-friends.

©2018 Marshall Thornton (P)2020 Marshall Thornton

Very entertaining!

I love this series! The narrator is wonderful and the storyline keeps your attention to the very end. The romantic line is also very good. It is probably the only MM series with very little sex but with much feeling.

A delight to see this series available in audio!

What a pure unadulterated delight to revisit the main character Noah Valentine and his amateur sleuth friends through the Pinx Video Mysteries series Book 2, Hidden Treasures. Marshall Thornton demonstrates a unique literary style in allowing the reader to experience the impact of a past relationship on the main character's present life. Realism exists with this impact representing a combination of the good, the bad, and the horrendously ugly. With each book, we learn more and more about the man Noah Valentine loved who died five years earlier. On this adventure, a pair of gowns worn by stars in a 1940s movie is being searched out and people are getting killed! Oh, yes! Our main character is right there in the middle of it all! The story is so wonderfully unique and totally unpredictable. I enjoyed every second of the audiobook that is beautifully narrated by Jack Meloche.

Is it made of real Girl Scouts?

I can’t tell you how much I love being spoiled as a listener. And by spoiled I mean getting multiple releases of a beloved series in just a few months. And here we are, a few short months after the release of Night Drop, this book also made its way into audio and I couldn’t be happier. I’ve read each book as it was published and I feel this is one of these series that really grows on you. Even sneaks up on you until one day you realise you’ve become just a tiiny bit obsessed.

In Hidden Treasures we get to know Noah better, we see him opening up and slowly start engaging with his friends in a way that he hasn’t for a long time. It was nice to see him take those steps forward, opening up. But of course with his luck, his friends also dragged him into another murder mystery, this time of a Hollywood costumer with ties to his former lover. A former lover who supposedly also had a valuable dress in his possession. A dress that more than a few people would sell their souls to get their hands on. Too bad that Noah knew nothing about said dress…

These books aren’t about romance, sure it’s there in the background with his friends, but not really for Noah. He’s not ready, even if he might be interested in a certain someone. After everything that happened with his ex, and the consequences he was still coming to terms with I completely understands him, I can’t even begin to imagine the emotional toll it would take to be betrayed in that kind of way by someone who supposedly loved you.

So romance is out. But what we do get an abundance of is friendships, with a dash of murder mystery wrapped in some family drama. This series makes me nostalgic for a few reasons; I do remember watching the Addams Family as a kid on VHS – still have that copy as a matter of fact and might just dig it up to take a trip down memory lane. (I never did manage that last time I read this book)

Another thing that I really miss is the way of life back then. It was slower and for the most part you dealt with the here and now. You were present, lounged around for hours and hours, talking and what not. There were no social media, the constant updates or having to be “on” all the time. I can honestly say that I miss it a bit. Jack Meloche narrated this book very nicely. I loved every minute spent listening to it and I think he captured the essence of the time and place as well as the characters.

I’m head over heels for this series and I can’t wait for more books – of any kind. Highly recommended.

A copy of this book was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes.

Great Hollywood Mystery

“So, like, what are you guys? Gay Charlie’s Angels?” “No, we’re just far too nosey for our own good,”

Noah and his friends are entangled in a murder mystery again, this time all about a dress from an old movie. A seemingly very important dress.

There are good twists and turns and interesting characters that pop up that make it really engaging, especially if you have an interest in old hollywood.

This book has a slightly more serious internal tone than the first one as it goes into the struggles of our main character’s daily life maintaining HIV while also keeping it a secret from his best friends & family. But that doesn’t make it any less worthwhile a read. And there are still great moments of humor.
He also has to confront old friends from his past life and his now deceased lover (not literally, this is not a ghost story.) It’s good to see Noah opening up more.

The varied characters are really what make this book shine, along with the writing and good scene setting of early 90s LA, but it must be said the narrator again does a great job in his reading. It’s a perfect match.