Demise in Denim by Duffy Brown

First Line: The convertible top was down, a crescent moon hung low over the marshlands, and the night sky was filled with a bazillion stars as I drove Walker Boone's precious red '57 Chevy toward Tybee Post.

You know it has to be a desperate situation for Walker Boone to let Reagan Summerside drive his beloved classic car-- and it is. Boone is on the run from the law, since the law is convinced Boone killed Conway Adkins. 

Reagan knows that Boone is no killer, so she has to set out to prove it before the police find the man whose kisses make her toes curl in her flip-flops. Trouble is, Adkins was probably the most hated man in Savannah, and the list of suspects Reagan must go through is a long one. At least she's got the help of her Aunt KiKi and her friends, and she's going to need it. Someone wants Walker Boone to take the fall for Adkins' death. Everyone knows three things about Reagan: (1) she's nosy, (2) she's incapable of letting the police do their job, and (3) she's sweet on Boone. The killer knows Reagan will have to be taken out of the equation.

I've enjoyed Duffy Brown's Consignment Shop cozy series set in Savannah, Georgia, and Demise in Denim is the best of the bunch. Brown's humor and characterizations absolutely sparkle and remind me of what I used to enjoy so much about Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum books (without that never-ending romantic triangle). 

Reagan Summerside is a good-hearted, funny, yet rather bumbling amateur sleuth, and when she starts snooping with her Auntie KiKi (a former roadie for Cher), or one of her friends Mercedes (house cleaner and makeup artist for a local funeral home) or Chantilly (former UPS driver, now cook for a catering company), you just know there's going to be trouble-- usually the kind that makes you laugh.

I have friends who love to read yet-- for some unknown reason-- have an aversion to Southern accents, and I can report that Brown is skilled in giving readers the flavor of Southern speech without a y'all in sight. I'm not quite sure how she manages to do that, but it is very well done.

Even though I did recognize the guilty party almost immediately, that didn't matter because I was enjoying the characters so much. By book's end, all the loose ends were neatly tied up, and I closed Demise in Denim with a smile on my face. This is a very enjoyable series that I recommend to all cozy lovers.

Demise in Denim by Duffy Brown

ISBN: 9780425274705 

Berkley Prime Crime © 2015

Mass Market Paperback, 293 pages

Cozy Mystery, #4 Consignment Shop Mystery

Rating: B+

Source: the publisher

 

Pearls and Poison by Duffy Brown

First Line: "People are going to hate me if I do this," I said to Auntie KiKi.

Reagan Summerside would much rather work in her consignment shop, the Prissy Fox; she's got bills to pay. Instead, she finds herself being roped into campaign duties since her mother is running for city alderman. However, when her mother's opponent is murdered and Gloria Summerside is Suspect #1, Reagan puts aside both campaign and consignments and appoints herself the lead investigator in this murder case. She's got her mamma's name to clear.

The further Duffy Brown's Consignment Shop series goes, the more I like it. The setting and the characters are really coming into their own. Brown blazes a mysterious trail indeed, and lays enough red herrings along the way that even Reagan's hot dog-centric mutt, Bruce Willis, would be led astray.

The cast of characters is a strong one, all the way from sassy and stubborn Reagan to her nemesis (and romantic interest) Walker Boone to two elderly sisters who are professional mourners... all the way to Reagan's strait-laced mother (who's a judge known as Guillotine Gloria) and flaky Aunt KiKi, who was a roadie for Cher. These characters are growing and changing, and in each book we learn things about them that alters our perceptions.

There's also plenty of delightful Southern sass and humor, and as Reagan follows leads, we're treated to plenty of the beautiful city of Savannah, Georgia, along the way. Come to think of it, I must be getting hooked on this series because I worry about Reagan not being able to pay her bills. Not only that, I'm thinking that she really should get herself a less conspicuous handbag if she's going to take it along on her investigations! You can't go wrong when you spend an afternoon or two with Reagan and the gang.

Pearls and Poison by Duffy Brown

ISBN:  9780425252482

Berkley Prime Crime © 2014

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Cozy Mystery, #3 Consignment Shop mystery

Rating: B+

Source: the author 

Killer in Crinolines by Duffy Brown

First Line: Magnolia Plantation wasn't really a Southern plantation, the guests milling about the wide verandahs and lush green lawn weren't really extras from Gone with the Wind, and that wasn't Scarlett O'Hara descending the curved staircase but my auntie KiKi in a green flouncy dress with enough crinolines to cover all of Savannah.

Reagan Summerside should be devoting her time to her consignment shop, The Prissy Fox. Instead, she's raced to Magnolia Plantation on an errand of mercy, delivering a black bow tie so the wedding can get started. Since Reagan's luck is no better than mine, she manages to trip over a dead body. The groom has had a fatal encounter with a cake knife and now lies draped over his own wedding cake.

Unfortunately Reagan's best friend, UPS driver Chantilly Parker, is the prime suspect, since the groom jilted her to wed rich Waynetta Waverly. Chantilly even had plans to crash the wedding in her UPS truck. But even though Chantilly has both motive, means and attitude, Reagan knows her friend didn't commit murder and sets out to prove it. Little does she know that she's going to have two shadows throughout her sleuthing: her eccentric Auntie KiKi and Walker Boone, the lawyer Reagan loves to hate.

I enjoyed the first book in this series, Iced Chiffon, and I'm happy to say that the seeds author Duffy Brown planted in that first book have flowered beautifully in this second installment. The plot is filled with red herrings and humor, and I have to admit that I was enjoying myself so much that I forgot to put the clues together until just before the reveal. But the plot isn't the best part of Killer in Crinolines.

No, the prize for that would definitely go to Duffy Brown's cast of characters. From Reagan Summerside, a woman who can get more miles out of a huge yellow Target purse than anyone else I know, to her auntie KiKi, former roadie for Cher, dance instructor, and head gossip tweeter on the local kudzu vine, to Reagan's emotional best friend Chantilly, and on down to a pair of professional mourners, this is one group of characters to fall in love with and to laugh with. I think I had a big smile on my face almost the entire time I was reading.

Duffy Brown also has a light touch. This book is Pure-D Southern with a capital S without drowning in the vernacular speech that can turn some readers away. If you're looking for a cozy series that's light and fun, one with sparks of romance, a cast of characters you want to sit and gossip on the front porch with, and enough humor to keep you smiling for days, I have a recommendation for you: Duffy Brown's Consignment Shop mysteries!
 

Killer in Crinolines by Duffy Brown

ISBN: 9780425252154

Berkley Prime Crime © 2013

Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages

Cozy Mystery, #2 Consignment Shop mystery

Rating: B+

Source: the author

Iced Chiffon by Duffy Brown

First Line: I poured out the last of the pinot and lifted my glass as I gazed around the dining-room table.

Reagan Summerside should never have signed that pre-nuptial  agreement. With the help of a slick lawyer, her ex-husband has taken off with everything that wasn't nailed down, leaving her with lots of bills to pay in an old house she's restoring in the Victorian district of Savannah, Georgia. In order to pay one or two of those bills, Reagan's reduced to selling her designer clothes, which starts her well on the way to opening her very own consignment shop on the first floor of her home.

The Lexus wasn't the only thing her ex took with him: Janelle, the blonde cupcake, went with Hollis straight to his condo. But when Janelle's body is found in the truck of the aforementioned car, Reagan's forced to work overtime on finding the killer. If she doesn't do everything she can to reduce Hollis's lawyer fees, Hollis will sell Cherry House right out from under her to pay that handsome shyster, Walker Boone.

Reagan's got just the sort of contacts to help her, too. Her Aunt KiKi (a former roadie for Cher) lives next-door. KiKi spends a lot of her time giving dance lessons to all sorts of people, so she's right in the thick of all the best gossip. Just in case KiKi misses a morsel or three, Reagan can also rely on AnnieFritz and Elsie Abbott, two retired schoolteachers who hire themselves out on the Q.T. as professional mourners. If that weren't enough, UPS delivery person Chantilly Parker not only helps Reagan with her consignment business by tweeting about it, she also picks up useful information on her rounds in that big brown truck.

If you can't tell by now, I really enjoyed the cast of characters in this book. And although the y'alls are few and far between in Iced Chiffon (which will please some readers I know), Duffy Brown made me smile more than once by her occasional use of Southern colloquialisms. One all by its lonesome is still making me grin because it's one I grew up hearing, and I use it to this day. ("How are you?" "Fine as frog hair!" -- guaranteed to glue a puzzled look on the face of anyone who's not familiar with it.)

I'm undoubtedly dating myself, but the sparks flying between Reagan and the lawyer, Walker Boone, made me think of Maddie and David in "Moonlighting." (Catch some scenes on YouTube or watch it on Netflix.) But even though there is chemistry there, romance never takes center stage over the characters or the mystery. In fact, I was having so much fun keeping tabs on the main characters that I almost forgot to be on the lookout for the killer.

Setting, mystery, characters... and just enough information about running a consignment shop to pique my interest. I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store next for Reagan and all her friends down in Savannah.

Iced Chiffon by Duffy Brown

ISBN: 9780425251607

Berkley Prime Crime © 2012

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Cozy Mystery, #1 Consignment Shop Mystery

Rating: B

Source: Purchased from The Poisoned Pen.