Review: Killer in Crinolines by Duffy Brown

Blurb: It’s August in Savannah, Georgia—hardly the season for a traditional Southern wedding with hoopskirts and crinolines. One could die from the heat—or from a cake knife in the back...

Reagan Summerside should be devoting all her energy to her consignment shop the Prissy Fox. But when her dear friend Chantilly Parker is arrested for murder, Reagan vows to clear her name. The victim is Simon Ambrose, who’s found lying in his own wedding cake with a knife in his back.

Chantilly has motive (Simon broke her heart to marry wealthy Waynetta Waverly) and opportunity (crashing the wedding in her UPS delivery truck). And she has cake on her face, and the stolen bridesmaid dress the killer wore is in her truck. But Chantilly would never wear crinoline to kill a man!

With the help of her flamboyant auntie, KiKi, and vexing but attractive attorney Walker Boone, Reagan is determined to save her friend—before she’s forced to turn in her brown uniform for an orange jumpsuit…

DISCLOSURE: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The fact that I received this book for free did not influence my opinions.

My Review: What is it about Southern cozies that are so darn much fun??? This is the first line from Killer in Crinolines: "Magnolia Plantation wasn't really a Southern plantation, the guests milling about the wide verandahs and lush green lawn weren't really extras from Gone with the Wind, and that wasn't Scarlett O'Hara descending the curved staircase but my auntie KiKi in a green flouncy dress with enough crinolines to cover all of Savannah." The antics that Reagan, Aunt Kiki, and BFF Chantilly get into remind me of Lucy and Ethel's hilarious adventures. Poor Reagan...from driving a UPS truck into a swamp with a resident alligator to dumpster diving with the creepy crawlies, this book had me in stitches from page one. The humor just flows effortlessly.

Oh, and there's a page turner of a mystery here too! Who stuck a cake knife in Simon Ambrose's back at his very own wedding? Between his complicated love life and loan sharking, the suspect list is as long as a Savannah summer, but Chantilly takes the rap because she was the latest lady done wrong who has already crashed the wedding in her UPS truck, eaten some of the cake, and the stolen bridesmaid dress worn by the killer is found in her truck. What's a good southern lady like Reagan to do but start making package deliveries to help Chantilly keep her job and do a little sleuthing on the side?

August in Savannah...quite beautiful, I'm sure. But with the heat, humidity, and bugs, I'm perfectly content reading about it through the pages of this wonderful book. I'm a Northern girl to the bone, but I love my Southern fiction with their strong friendships, zany relatives, and food that's to die for.

SOURCE: Review copy courtesy of the publisher.