Purses and Poison (Haley Randolph Mysteries
by Dorothy Howell
Published by Kensington Books
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Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann
Second in Howell’s hilarious mystery series, Purses and Poison finds handbag junkie Haley Randolph working at Holt’s Department Store in Santa Clarita, near Los Angeles, part time as a salesclerk, and also is taking two college courses. Daughter of a wealthy beauty queen, Haley is keeping her job secret from her family.
At Holt’s employee luncheon and fashion show, Haley decides to help out a sick server. She dons the uniform and then notices that her boyfriend’s ex-lover, model Claudia Gray, is coaching the teenage models, so Haley quickly grabs a blonde wig. No one notices her when she serves, and after taking off her ‘costume,’ she discovers Gray dead in the store’s employee rest room.
No one is supposed to be in the store, except the team taking inventory. Now she has to explain where she was the whole time, and the police are looking for the missing server! She has dealt with the police before, and they do not trust her. I cannot imagine why–her initial tall tales are compounded by ever more convoluted fabrications. For example, her reason for not being at the luncheon was that she thought she heard some cats in the store room, and was searching for them, and the fallout from that whopper is unending.
Her boyfriend, Ty Cameron, the Holt’s Department Store heir, is not answering her calls, and seems to be paying more attention to Holt’s marketing chief Sarah Covington than Haley. When Haley discovers that Claudia was poisoned with an edible fruit bouquet from her mother’s company, Edible Elegance, she realizes she will have to investigate–and she starts by finding the missing server. Nothing is going right. The manager of Edible Elegance acts strangely, then goes missing; and then the missing server is killed by a car. What is going on? Did Claudia really have a stalker, like her sister Rebecca claims? You will love Purses and Poison if you like Janet Evanovich, Sarah Strohmeyer, or Jennifer Crusie. Howell’s characters and plots are hysterically funny. I never would have imagined working in a large department store could be so humorous.
Armchair Interviews says: Fun and funny read all will enjoy.
Author’s Web site: http://www.DorothyHowellNovels.com