Well, what do you know? McKinlay is back and writing like she used to!
This is the writing I remember: great characters, London setting, really good mystery plotting and NO stupid love triangles, but what earns this book an extra 1/2 star over the last one is that Scarlett stops harping on about her stupid moratorium of no dating for one year. She's still sticking with it, but by the end of the book it's all in name only. I'll bet McKinlay will be stubborn enough to write at least one more book that has this resolution keeping Scarlett and Harrison apart, but at least we don't have to listen to Scarlett going ON about it. The UK to US 'translation' thing is much more seamless this time around too; much more subtle and natural.
I think my only niggle about the entire book was one of the final scenes, where the killer is revealed. It's very fast paced, exciting, edge of your seat stuff, but it lost its credibility about halfway through; the killer is long past the point of no return - there's no coming out of the situation looking innocent, but the charade continues on nonetheless. Once Scarlett left the building, everything else felt excessive and over-the-top. Still, it was a damn sight better than a lot of the plotting McKinlay's done in recent books and it was a fun ride.
The story ends on a very sweet, but not sappy, scene and I feel like my faith in this author has been restored somewhat. I'll happily look for her 5th hat shop book and hope for more like this.