Berkley Prime Crime
Featuring: Polyester Monroe
304 pages ISBN: 0425270599 EAN: 9780425270592 Kindle: B01839Q47C Mass Market Paperback / e-Book Add to Wish List
In SILK STALKINGS, her third Material
Witness mystery,
Diane Vallere wraps us in the characters we've grown to
love in books one and two (SUEDE TO REST and CRUSHED VELVET,
respectively) while celebrating a major cultural
facet of the town of San Ladrón, the yearly Miss Tangorli
Beauty Pageant. When the sponsor of the pageant, Harvey
Halliwell dies only days before the pageant begins it
rocks the town to its foundation, creating a lovely stew
of intrigue.
We are certainly not lacking in suspects this go around,
and red herrings or not, the efforts of Polyester Monroe
uncover loads of hidden motives while she does her best
to fulfill her commitment to a dead man. She has a life
many of us would love, reopening a fabric store left to
her by her great aunt and uncle while readjusting to life
back in the small town where she grew up. A hint of
romance threads through the book, but the mystery remains
front and center, and more of the past of characters like
Charlie and Poly's store-owning neighbors are revealed
this time around.
I loved this entry in the series. I enjoyed the first two
books plenty, but something about SILK STALKINGS drew me
in even more completely. The culmination of the action
was tense, exciting and extremely satisfying, and the
final page left me wearing a gentle smile. I also enjoyed
the sewing pattern she added that ties in with the story.
I will definitely be first in line to buy book four when
it is released.
In the meantime, I have discovered she has a series I've
yet to read, the Costume
Shop mysteries. And I can always
go back and read the series that introduced me to her
work, the Madison Night series (especially
wonderful for
fans of Doris Day), or the Samantha Kidd series.
It's all
good!
Fabric shop owner Polyester Monroe can get tangled up in textiles, but it’s murder that really throws her for a loop in the latest mystery from the national bestselling author of Crushed Velvet. The time has come for San Ladrón, California’s annual Miss Tangorli beauty pageant, and Poly has agreed to use Material Girl’s inventory of shimmery silks to create embellished gowns fit for a crown. But when millionaire Harvey Halliwell—the man who revived the city’s citrus trade with his imported tangorli tree—is found dead days before the pageant contestants are announced, something sour takes over the town. To make matters worse, her friend, mechanic Charlie Brooks, is soon caught up in the crime, having been seen in the company of the case’s prime suspect. Now Poly’s on a mission to squeeze out the truth. But as she searches for a pattern, the killer seems intent on cutting up the evidence...