Killer in Crinolines (A Consignment Shop Mystery, #2)

by Duffy Brown

It’s August in Savannah, Georgia—hardly the season for a traditional Southern wedding with hoopskirts and crinolines. One could die from the heat—or from a cake knife in the back...

Reagan Summerside should be devoting all her energy to her consignment shop the Prissy Fox. But when her dear friend Chantilly Parker is arrested for murder, Reagan vows to clear her name. The victim is Simon Ambrose, who’s found lying in his own wedding cake with a knife in his back.

Chantilly has motive (Simon broke her heart to marry wealthy Waynetta Waverly) and opportunity (crashing the wedding in her UPS delivery truck). And she has cake on her face, and the stolen bridesmaid dress the killer wore is in her truck. But Chantilly would never wear crinoline to kill a man!

With the help of her flamboyant auntie, KiKi, and vexing but attractive attorney Walker Boone, Reagan is determined to save her friend—before she’s forced to turn in her brown uniform for an orange jumpsuit…

• ISBN10: 0425252159
• ISBN13: 9780425252154
• Publish Date: 7 May 2013
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 19 March 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: Berkley Publishing Corporation,U.S.
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780425252154

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

A much better book than the first in this series. Fun, quirky characters and a much more plausible reason for investigating: clearing her friend of murder charges. I love the inclusion of the 17th street gang and I hope they become permanent cast members - they're a hoot! Cloud computing and HMO plans... lol. Very little of the ex-husband in this book, but his appearances are as stupid and asinine as ever and I really don't understand why the author feels he's necessary to the story line at all. I liked the scene at the pizza place, but him coming by to threaten her about selling her house? What the hell is the point?

Kudos to the author though, for a plot most excellently crafted. I was as much a spectator at the denouement as I could be and certainly didn't see the end coming at all.

As is usual anymore with books, I saw quite a few editing errors - the kind where someone relies on spell check and not on an eagle-eyed proof-reader. But Ms. Brown's book gets the award for most humorous editing error for this description of the hotter-than-hades-every-woman-wants-him lawyer and possible love interest, Walker Boone:

"He was a head taller than me with perpetual scruff, buzz-length back hair, black eyes, a hard lean body...." (pg. 30, 2nd para..)

At least, I certainly hope that's an error.... ;)