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!
After a year of hard work in her Texas hometown, Harlow
Jane Cassidy’s dreams are finally within reach—if she can
just get it all done in time…
Harlow’s
designs will be featured in a big magazine spread, but she
only has a few days to finalize her collection. Plus she’s
busy helping to plan her mother’s upcoming wedding, playing
host to her old friend Orphie, and avoiding a competitive
Dallas designer set on stealing Harlow’s ideas. Harlow’s
making it all work—until someone breaks into Buttons &
Bows and the rival designer is found dead.
But
when a near miss makes it clear that Orphie could be the
next victim, Harlow will have to untangle the threads of
evidence if she wants to save her friend, her mother’s
wedding, and her business from becoming fashion road kill...
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