Murder Wears a Little Black Dress–review

This was the first book in the brand new Resale Boutique series by Debra Sennefelder. I’m not much into fashions or clothing, so I wasn’t sure if I’d like this series as much as I like her Food Blogger series, but I really loved this book and I can’t wait for the next one! There were so many fun characters, and I can definitely see why all the people I know on line who love cozy mysteries are crazy about this book.

The picture I found makes me think of what the shop might have looked like when Granny Martha was running it.

I received an ARC of this book from Kensington, the publisher, via NetGalley and voluntarily read and reviewed it. I was happy to find out on release day that long ago I had preordered it as well. (Sometimes I forget what I’ve preordered!) My opinions are my own.

My Goodreads review:

Murder Wears a Little Black Dress by Debra Sennefelder

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was another book that I wished didn’t have to end. Although I’m happy that once the showdown happened and the killer was arrested, the book didn’t end there. The actual ending chapter was so heartwarming in many ways! The book was well-written and plotted with a cool twist at the end.

Kelly Quinn had lost her job as an assistant buyer for a NYC store, but her Granny had willed her the consignment shop she owned, which Kelly was going to revamp into a stylish resale boutique. Pepper, her granny’s best friend and employee was skeptical about all these changes Kelly wanted to make and wasn’t shy about giving her opinion. After a local psychic had a vision of a murder while wearing a dress that was consigned, Kelly couldn’t leave it alone and started investigating here and there. When Kelly ended up being a possible suspect in two different murders, she knew she had to step up her snooping game. The killer didn’t like that at all and had Kelly next in their radar.

I really liked the variety of quirky characters in this book. My one favorite character was Pepper, who was more like a mom to Kelly, since she used tough love to show Kelly the error of her ways. Pepper was the mom of Gabe, a local police officer that Kelly’s bestie, Liv, had a crush on. I didn’t care much for Uncle Ralph or his third wife, Summer, but hey every good cozy has to have some sort of ongoing conflict right? We get to root for Kelly that way. Her cousin Frankie was a hoot and so was Gabe–Gabe had been like a brother to Kelly when they were growing up.

I liked the side story of Kelly’s friend Ariel who had been her sister’s bestie in high school, but due to an accident that Kelly feels responsible for, Ariel ended up in a wheelchair. She was absolutely awesome and ranks with Pepper as my other favorite character. I mean, who knew that a friend in a motorized wheelchair could come in handy like she did at one point in the book. You’ll have to read and find out what happened, but I thought the showdown was pretty epic. The last chapter really summed everything up well, had a couple of small tissue moments (good ones though) and Kelly may just have a guy to date!

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