Iced Chiffon (A Consignment Shop Mystery #1) by Duffy Brown

Iced Chiffon by Duffy Brown

Series: A Consignment Shop Mystery #1

Pages: 304 

Edition: Kindle

Publisher: Berkley / October 2, 2012

Price: $7.99 on Amazon

Reading Challenges: Where Are You Reading? (Georgia), Women Authors Challenge

★★★★★★★★★☆

Iced Chiffon, the first book in the new Consignment Shop Mystery series by Duffy Brown, totally blew me out of the water! I mean, I tend to set the bar pretty low for cozy mysteries, but this was a genuinely good book – inside or outside the genre. Being as such, I figured a full review was in order.

The beginning paragraph gripped me like an alcoholic to a bottle of vodka:

“I poured out the last of the pinot and lifted my glass as I gazed around the dining-room table. ‘Good-bye Louis, Donna, Diane, and Ralph.’ A vintage Armani cocktail dress and Kate Spade pantsuit were draped over the table, sad and abandoned. ‘To Friends. We’ve been through luncheons together, dinners, weddings, and funerals. You made me feel good when I was PMS-ing and bloated or put on five pounds from a Godiva bender…’”

Quickly, you find out it’s 9 a.m. and the main character and narrator, Reagan, a recent divorcee is drowning her sorrows while she sells off all the designer clothes and accessories to keep the lights on in her old half-fixed up Victorian. While she managed to get the house in the divorce, her realtor ex-husband, thanks to a pre-nup, got everything else. Including his 20-something new bimbo that Reagan and her aunt Kiki refer to as “Cupcake.”

Reagan’s barely able to keep her head above water as it is – hello, she’s basically opening a thrift store in her living room – Cupcake turns up dead and the police are pointing the finger at Regan’s ex, Hollis. Although Hollis is a jerk, Reagan knows he’s innocent and, when he threatens to sell her home to pay his defense attorney, Reagan knows she better find the real killer before the case goes to trial.

The story is set in Savannah, Georgia in a tight-knit community of well-to-do’s and Southern Ladies. Now, I’m not from the South (nor have I ever been there) so it may be totally inaccurate, but I loved the way Brown portrayed the town and its characters. I loved the way she gave brief little history lessons when mentioning the parks (named after iconic Southerners who fought in The War). With a lot of books, the location is merely a passing thought (they could really take place anywhere without much difference), but this book was definitely “Savannah.”

I loved all the character. Reagan, really, she was the best. She was strong, funny, smart and resourceful. For someone who was selling their clothes just to keep the electricity and water on in her house, I never felt bad for her and I realize that’s because she never felt bad for herself. And, despite having a rich aunt living right across the street and a mother who is a judge (don’t read too much into that politically – she may be named after a Republican president, but she notes that she did vote for Kerry, much to the chagrin of her mother), Reagan refused to accept handouts

Crazy Aunt Kiki – a dance instructor who once toured with Cher and loves her martinis – was also pretty full of awesome. She was always around to offer some insightful words (mostly quotes from Cher – whether they applied to the situation or not). Sometimes she hung back a little on what I would consider old-fashioned Southern values, not wanting to make waves, but that made sense for her character’s age and station in society. And, despite what she was raised to do, she doesn’t follow all the rules of being a lady. Especially when she suspects her friend’s husband of fooling around. Hell hath no fury…

There were so many minor characters that at times it was hard to keep them straight. Still, I enjoyed all of them immensely. Almost all of them were written with such flair and richness that I couldn’t help wanting to know more about them and their stories. The thing that almost all the characters have in common – other than their location – is that they’re all hiding something (although it’s not always what you think) and they all have reasons for wanting Cupcake dead.

Of course, I can’t forget to mention Hollis’s attorney, Walker Boone. Now that’s a male love interest that actually interested me. Actually, he was never a love interest exactly – I don’t think there’s any love between them, at least not that they were willing to admit – but you know where it’s going. He was incredibly smart and surprisingly patient with Reagan’s relentless quest for the killer. His calm, calculated demeanor really balances Reagan’s act-first-think-later attitude.

I will say, I did guess the killer right off the bat – but it was just a hunch and, truthfully, I didn’t know if I was right or not up until the very end. It really could’ve been anybody (they were all so suspicious), but I liked which character Brown chose to take the fall and I think the motive was pretty ingenious, too.

I had a brief moment of panic when I finished this book and didn’t see a second book in the series. THANKFULLY, it is coming soon! Killer in Crinolines (Consignment Shop Mystery #2) comes out on May 7!