Harlow Jane Cassidy has been living in her hometown of Bliss, Texas, for over a year, and things are starting to fall in place. She's got a guy she likes (who really likes her back) and her dressmaking business is becoming successful. Harlow is making all of the dresses for her mother's upcoming wedding, and a major magazine is doing a spread on designers that will feature Harlow.

As all of this is happening, one of Harlow\'s friends from design school shows up in Bliss. Harlow isn't sure why Orphie has a sudden need to visit, but she's happy to play host, especially to such a talented designer. Upon Orphie's arrival however, Orphie shows Harlow a design book that she stole from a fellow designer a long time ago. This designer, Maximilian, has a reputation in the fashion community for his less-than-stellar personality, which Orphie knows is no justification for theft.

The two other designers being featured in the magazine spread happen to be Maximilian and Midori. Since the magazine wants to do the shoot in Harlow's studio, she and Orphie begin to think of how they can get the book back to Maximilian with minimum fuss while still allowing Orphie to confess to what she did. Their plan gets derailed, however, when Maximilian dies before the shoot gets underway.

At first glance, it appears that the Maximilian's death is an untimely natural death, but further investigation reveals that he was murdered. Why would someone kill him and why now? Because his death took place in her studio, Harlow has extra motivation to figure out who killed Maximilian and why. As she digs into his life, though, she finds out that his professional life wasn't as picture perfect as he had led some to believe and there are as many suspects as there are inspirations for designs. But who had the opportunity to kill him?

As someone who has read every book in this series, I'm enjoying the evolution in each relationship. I appreciate that Harlow is learning more about her charm and is helping others cope with their newly- discoveredcharm. The mystery was well-written and nuanced, ripe with suspects and motivation. As usual, Harlow's wit and intelligence shone as much as her design talent, which is something I always love about this series. The only thing that is starting to get tiring, though, is the recurring theme of Harlow being overly sensitive about people discovering her charm. Any allusion to "magic" results in Harlow instantly wondering whether someone has guessed that she is charmed, which is ridiculous when she has a true talent and it's only natural that people will refer to her gifts in some way.

Overall, A CUSTOM-FIT CRIME is a great next instalment, and, as always, it left me anxiously awaiting the next book in the series!