When I was in first grade, my mom made me a black cat costume for Halloween. It
involved sewing a hood with cat ears and a tail onto one of my black leotards
from dance class and a cat mask with a thin piece of elastic that ran went
around the back of my head. I loved that costume. If memory serves, I wanted to
wear the costume post-Halloween, because everybody wants to be a cat. Right?
Since then there were gypsies and hobos and Indians. In college there was
Marilyn Monroe, Cher, and the 80s-specific year I dressed as my Swatch Watch. I
enjoy coming up with costume ideas as much as I enjoy wearing them which brings
up a lot of questions about my identity.
Iβve discovered that, when it comes to costumes, people fall into two camps:
those who love them and those who donβt. There isnβt a lot of gray area. Being
the former, Iβve wondered about the latter. Is it the trouble of putting
together a specific look? Or have they only experienced uncomfortable costumes?
Is the silliness of dressing as someone else off-putting? Or did they just not
care about getting candy on Halloween?
When I first started writing the Costume Shop mysteries, I knew one of the three
books would center around Halloween. Even in a town where residents throw
costume parties for every occasion, Halloween would be a special event. For all
of the characters who dress up for poker games and birthdays and annual
festivals, there are those who think costumes are odd. But in Proper City,
everybody dresses up for Halloween. Thatβs just how it is!
Costume Shop
#2
Halloween brings more tricks than treats for costume shop owner Margo
Tamblyn in the second in a new cozy series from the national bestselling author
of the Material Witness Mysteries.
Halloween conjures up big business for Margo Tamblynβs costume shop, Disguise
DeLimit, but this year, the holiday comes knocking with serious trouble. Venture
capitalist Paul Haverford plans to rezone historic downtown into a glitzy
commercial area which would push out local business. Margo is set on saving her
familyβs store, especially after a nasty run-in with the chain-store tycoon, but
after Haverfordβs body is discovered during a spooky party at the derelict
Alexandria Hotel, Margo finds herself dressed as the policeβs prime suspect.
Anxious to clear her name, Margo begins hunting down anyone who might have
wanted Haverford dead. Between all of his malicious maneuverings, the murdered
mogul had buckets of people anxious to see him gone. Now, Margo will have to use
every trick in the book to find a cloaked killerβbefore someone else winds up
wearing a death shroud...
Mystery Cozy [Berkley Prime Crime, On Sale: October 4, 2016, Mass
Market Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780425278291 / eISBN: 9780698183445]
After two decades working for a top luxury retailer, Diane Vallere
traded fashion accessories for accessories to murder. CRUSHED VELVET, the second
book in the nationally bestselling and Lefty-Nominated Material Witness Cozy
Mystery Series, comes out August 4. Diane is the current president of Sisters in
Crime Los Angeles and was co-chair of the 2015 California Crime Writers
Conference. She also writes the Madison Night and Style & Error Mystery Series.
Diane started her own detective agency at age ten and has maintained a passion
for shoes, clues, and clothes ever since.
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