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SUGAR SKULL is the second book in the Eve Diamond series by Denise Hamilton. Eve is a journalist working for the LA Times, based in the San Gabriel valley, and her life and work revolves around the multicultural community that has settled there. This time the focus is on the Mexican-American community as it gears up for the extravagant celebrations to mark the Day of the Dead. Working in the office one day, Eve is practically accosted by a distraught intruder, Vince Chevalier, whose daughter Isabel is missing. The police are not being very helpful but he is insistent that he knows where his daughter is, and wants a reporter to come with him to get her. Isabel is one of a group of affluent teenagers who like to slum it with street kids, and Vince believes that she can be found at a nearby squat. Sensing an interesting story, Eve goes along, and amongst the horror of crucified animals and human detritus, uncovers a murder. Eve's search for clues to the murder takes her to the sumptuous home of mayoral candidate Carter Langdon III, where she stumbles into a formal reception being hosted by his wife, the beautiful and charismatic Venus DellaViglia Langdon. Eve is really seeking their son, but can't help taking a look around -- something that comes in very useful when she is later assigned to report on the drowning of Venus in the pool. As she knows the lie of the land, she is able to get a sneaky look at the crime scene, which raises some very interesting questions. The investigation of both these stories must at times take second place to the feature Eve is asked to write about the Mexican music scene, which is now a very lucrative business. There is a venue nearby which puts on sell-out 'rocanrol' concerts and as Eve delves into the music she also finds herself strongly attracted to the arena's manager, Silvio Aguilar. As we discovered in THE JASMINE TRADE, events in Eve's youth means she empathises with and cares about the teenage generation, but her big heart sometimes makes her act rather naively, and live to rue the day. She has her flaws and her setbacks, but her work drives her on as she relentlessly pursues an exclusive in the face of opposition from her colleagues and the local political machine. Denise Hamilton is a journalist herself, and this may explain why I feel I'm really learning something about LA when I read one of her novels. The mystery plots are well constructed and interesting, but it is the cultural backdrop that provides the strongest element of her novels for me. We see life in the squats, in transvestite river encampments, and in the mansions on the hill; they seem like different worlds yet they can't help but overlap. For me, it is the changing ethnic communities that are most compelling. You can hear the music, and taste the food, and you won't forget the characters there.
Reviewed by Bridget Bolton, July 2004
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