Iced Chiffon (Consignment Shop #1) by Duffy Brown!

Reagan's messy divorce has left her with nothing but a run-down Victorian and a bunch of designer clothes. Strapped for cash, Reagan makes use of the two things she has left, turning the first floor of her home into a consignment shop and filling it with the remnants of her rich-wife wardrobe.

Thanks to his cunning lawyer, Walker Boone, her ex got everything else, including the Lexus--not to mention a young blonde cupcake. When Reagan finds the blonde dead in the Lexus, she's determined to beat Boone to finding the murderer. As it turns out, the gossip fiends flooding Reagan's shop can give her a lot more than just their unwanted clothes--they have information more precious than a vintage Louis Vuitton...

Type: Cozy Mystery

Heat: 1 out of 5. Not even a little bit but it's got some potential!

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

"They only make so many of those crab cakes, and I've been thinking about them all day long."
"What about the cheesecake?"
"Been thinking about that, too."
"How's the foot?"
"It'll be much better once I have crab cakes and cheesecake in me. Notice how all good things have the word cake in them--except fruitcake. Even Paula Deen doesn't do fruitcake."

With "no-count, low-rent, conniving, scum-sucking lawyers", an abundance of pineapple doorknockers, dead "Cupcakes" showing up in trunks, dogs named Bruce Willis, gangsters and little old ladies gossiping it up over coffins, drag queens, a slew of potential suspects and an auntie with a Cher obsession Iced Chiffon is a real Southern treat that had me smiling and guessing at whodunit until the very end. 


I had a lot of fun with this one. It's a little silly now and again and Reagan has a knack for getting herself in some real interesting.... situations but I absolutely loved that. She's one of those heroines where pretty much everything is going wrong in her life but damn if she doesn't have a great spirit and do everything she can to make things right in her world. 

And she's definitely going to need that fighting spirit when her ex's new chippy "Cupcake" winds up dead in his trunk and she just might lose her house having to cover his lawyer fees (personally I'd let the cheating bugger fry but Reagan's a little nicer than me). But that all means with the help of her kinda wacky auntie (who I really enjoyed) she's gonna have to deal with the scum sucking lawyer that worked for her ex during the divorce! 

Enter one Walker Boone, aforementioned scum-sucking lawyer, possible ex-gangster and a hunk of man candy that has all the women of Savannah in a swoon. Now, let me just say I have a thing for those grumbly, kinda mysterious heroes that you maybe want to pinch the ever living hell outta them but really you can't help but love em and smile even when they're acting like an ass. Gah. Boone was awesome. He's basically Reagan's nemesis and the man that drives her to wanting to hit someone but the two have a great chemistry and omg, I know it's a cozy mystery and won't be steamy, but damn if I don't want to see them together. It would be something else. And really Boone is just a good guy in disguise. He does some thing that really made me want to squeeze him tight and love on him. He's one that might piss you off but when you need them they've totally got your back. 

"You want something." 

Boone sat on the steps next to the pile of bills. "Like I said, you're not stupid." He did a little shrug. "Except when you married Hollis and signed the prenup, and now you won't let me handle Hollis's case. Those things are all pretty stupid." Boone leaned forward, his forearms on his knees. If he wasn't such a rat, he'd be marginally handsome. I took another look. Nope, forget handsome--all rat.

There's a lot of humor in Iced Chiffon as Reagan works her way through the list of "Cupcake" whacking suspects. There's a lot of Southern sayings and gossiping good time and some nice little twists along the way too. I can't wait for May to get here and the release of the next in the series, Killer in Crinolines, arrives. I'm already ready for my next Walker Boone fix.

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Duffy Brown loves anything with a mystery. While others girls dreamed of dating Brad Pitt, Duffy longed to take Sherlock Holmes to the prom. She has two cats, Spooky and Dr. Watson, and conjures up who-done-it stories of her very own for Berkley Prime Crime. Iced Chiffon, out October, 2012, is the first book in the Consignment: Murder series. Duffy writes romance as Dianne Castell and is a USA Today bestselling author.

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