Duffy Brown – Killer in Crinolines

The second book in the Consignment Shop Mystery series, published May 7, 2013.
Genre: cozy mystery
Cover: lovely



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...


When the groom seems to have arrived at his own wedding without a bow tie, Reagan Summerside gets called to deliver one at the fancy wedding pronto. Of course she is not a guest there, ever since her divorce from the smarmy realtor she is no longer persona grata in Savannah’s society. Reagan is trying to make ends meet with her new consignment shop, selling other peoples clothes and stuff, and restoring her old Victorian House. In the evenings, she gives ghost tours to tourists.

Unfortunately, the groom is nowhere to be found, the wedding planner is getting desperate as this wedding will certainly ruin her good name. So Reagan agrees to go find him, but when she does, she is not happy. Simon is lying face down in his own wedding cake, with the cake knife stuck in his back! What a waste of a great cake! The bride doesn’t seem to be all that upset with the grooms demise either, was there trouble in paradise already?
But when Reagan’s best friend is arrested for the murder of Simon, Reagan has no choice but to find the real killer. And when diving into Simon’s past, she finds out more than she could have anticipated. Simon was not a choir boy, he had a habit of seducing women for their money and moving on to greener pastures … So there is no lack of victims or suspects.

With some help from Walker Boone and her aunt KiKi, Reagan will keep searching for the truth, to keep her friend out of trouble. Even going as far as to do her job as an UPS package driver for her … which is more dangerous than it seems.


I really enjoyed this fun cozy mystery. The characters are certainly eccentric and what I imagine old fashioned southern. Now, I confess, I did not guess the killer at all. I had my mind set on someone else completely. And I do love it when I am wrong, which means the author did a great job.

Reagan is determined to help her friend, and even when she is almost alligator bait, she doesn’t give up. Her sleazy ex husband doesn’t make live any easier either, when he wants to sell her beloved Cherry House from underneath her, for a hefty fee of course. I do love her Aunt KiKi, who reluctantly helps Reagan with whatever scheme she hatches up. There is such a close connection between them, I love it.

If you want a fun cozy mystery series, you really should try this one. I recommend it.

9 stars.

© 2013 Reviews by Aurian