Handbags and Homicide

Handbags and Homicide
Author: Dorothy Howell
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2009-03-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0755354788

HANDBAGS AND HOMICIDE, set in L.A.'s Garment District, is the first book in an exciting new series featuring the hilarious and irresisitible Haley Randolph. When Haley says she’d ‘kill for’ the latest fashions, she doesn’t actually mean it. Of course, she’d quite happily stamp on feet, pull hair and elbow rivals out of the way to get to a new designer bag. But when her boss at Holt’s department store is discovered dead in the store room fingers are pointed firmly at her! If Haley’s going to escape jail (not to mention the orange prison jumpsuits) she must find the murderer and prove her innocence. At least the hunky Ty Cameron seems to be on her side...

Handbags and Homicide

Handbags and Homicide
Author: Dorothy Howell
Publisher: Kensington Books
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2009-06-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0758243243

A designer-bag addict investigates death at a department store in this mystery with “lots of humor and style” from a USA Today-bestselling author (Booklist). Haley Randolph is always ready to go to any lengths to get the latest Louis Vuitton. Unfortunately for Haley, her life goes from glam to grim when her passion for fashion outlasts her credit cards, and she's forced to work at Holt's--a mid-market department store. Looking for a bit of shopping inspiration, Haley sneaks into the stock room to get a first glimpse of Holt's one-of-a-kind selection of handbag styles. But instead of the newest Vuitton, Haley discovers her boss is the ultimate fashion victim. According to the security tapes, Haley was the only person in the stockroom before, during, and after the murder. With everyone in the store eyeing her like last season's Marc Jacobs, Haley turns to the hunky Ty Cameron, who heads up the store's loss prevention unit, to help her investigate the murder. Now her knowledge of hot trends will take her from the sales floor to the boardroom to the gritty streets of L.A.'s Garment District as she searches for a killer with impeccable fashion taste. . . "A winning debut. . .a cool cliffhanger will leave readers eager for Haley's next adventure." --Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Fashionistas take note: Dorothy Howell's delightful Handbags and Homicide dangles shopping to die for and a murder in store in a breezy debut mystery as sure to please as a Notorious handbag." --Carolyn Hart, author of Death Walked In

Purses and Poison

Purses and Poison
Author: Dorothy Howell
Publisher: Kensington Books
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2009-07-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0758251394

When Haley arrives at Holt's employee luncheon and fashion show, she spots a sick server and helps out by putting on a uniform and waiting tables. The luncheon is a hit, with catered food from Edible Elegance--her mother's latest business--until top fashion model Claudia Gray is found dead in the ladies room. Too bad for Haley that Claudia, ex-girlfriend of Haley's current sort-of boyfriend, was poisoned and the police are looking for a missing server. Can Haley uncover the truth before she becomes a victim?

Shoulder Bags and Shootings

Shoulder Bags and Shootings
Author: Dorothy Howell
Publisher: Kensington Books
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2010
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0758223781

After she discovers the body of her arch-nemesis in her trunk, Haley Randolph must track a killer, while also trying to get her hands on the new to-die-for Sinful-brand handbag. By the best-selling author of Purses and Poison.

Handbags & Homicide

Handbags & Homicide
Author: Anne Marie Stoddard
Publisher: Gemma Halliday Publishing
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2018-07-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1947110543

From USA Today bestselling author Anne Marie Stoddard comes another fabulously fashionable mystery in paradise... Kaley Kalua is ecstatic when her best friend announces that she’s getting married and bringing the pre-wedding celebration to Aloha Lagoon! As the maid of honor, Kaley can't wait to see her bride-to-be bestie, Emma—that is, until Emma shows up on the island with a few unwelcome faces in her wedding party, including Kaley’s cheating ex-husband, Bryan, one of his former mistresses, and his new girlfriend! To make matters worse, Kaley’s current relationship with the resort's hot lifeguard is on the rocks, and her brand new handbag goes missing after a wild night celebrating Emma’s bachelorette party. But things go from bad to downright deadly when Bryan’s girlfriend is found the next day, dead and buried in a shallow grave on the resort beach—along with Kaley’s missing bag! The police seem convinced that Kaley is involved in the woman’s untimely death. In order to prove her innocence and save Emma’s wedding weekend, Kaley must do a little investigating of her own. Did her arrogant ex-husband kill his own girlfriend? Or did the jealous other woman commit the crime? The deeper Kaley digs in her pursuit of the truth, the more secrets and lies she uncovers. It soon becomes clear that someone doesn’t want Kaley to air their dirty laundry. If she isn’t careful, she may not live to see her friend walk down the aisle. The Aloha Lagoon Mysteries: Ukulele Murder (book #1) Murder on the Aloha Express (book #2) Deadly Wipeout (book #3) Deadly Bubbles in the Wine (book #4) Mele Kalikimaka Murder (book #5) Death of the Big Kahuna (book #6) Ukulele Deadly (book #7) Bikinis & Bloodshed (book #8) Death of the Kona Man (book #9) Lethal Tide (book #10) Beachboy Murder (book #11) Handbags & Homicide (book #12) Tiaras & Terror (book #13) About Aloha Lagoon: There's trouble in paradise... Welcome to Aloha Lagoon, one of Hawaii's hidden treasures. A little bit of tropical paradise nestled along the coast of Kauai, this resort town boasts luxurious accommodation, friendly island atmosphere...and only a slightly higher than normal murder rate. While mysterious circumstances may be the norm on our corner of the island, we're certain that our staff and Lagoon natives will make your stay in Aloha Lagoon one you will never forget!

Primates of Park Avenue

Primates of Park Avenue
Author: Wednesday Martin
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2016-05-31
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1476762716

"Like an urban Dian Fossey, Wednesday Martin decodes the primate social behaviors of Upper East Side mothers in a brilliantly original and witty memoir about her adventures assimilating into that most secretive and elite tribe. After marrying a man from the Upper East Side and moving to the neighborhood, Wednesday Martin struggled to fit in. Drawing on her background in anthropology and primatology, she tried looking at her new world through that lens, and suddenly things fell into place. She understood the other mothers' snobbiness at school drop-off when she compared them to olive baboons. Her obsessional quest for a Hermes Birkin handbag made sense when she realized other females wielded them to establish dominance in their troop. And so she analyzed tribal migration patterns; display rituals; physical adornment, mutilation, and mating practices; extra-pair copulation; and more. Her conclusions are smart, thought-provoking, and hilariously unexpected. Every city has its Upper East Side, and in Wednesday's memoir, readers everywhere will recognize the strange cultural codes of powerful social hierarchies and the compelling desire to climb them. They will also see that Upper East Side mothers want the same things for their children that all mothers want--safety, happiness, and success--and not even sky-high penthouses and chauffeured SUVs can protect this ecologically released tribe from the universal experiences of anxiety and loss. When Wednesday's life turns upside down, she learns how deep the bonds of female friendship really are. Intelligent, funny, and heartfelt, Primates of Park Avenue lifts a veil on a secret, elite world within a world--the exotic, fascinating, and strangely familiar culture of privileged Manhattan motherhood"--

Pocketbooks and Pistols

Pocketbooks and Pistols
Author: D. Howell
Publisher: A Haley Randolph Mystery
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018-02
Genre: California, Southern
ISBN: 9780758295040

Haley Randolph isn't exactly a model sales clerk at Holt's Department Store. But when the corporate office acquires a high-end boutique chain and extends a juicy discount to employees, the fashionista will do anything--maybe even a little hard work--to keep the part-time gig and clinch a Mystique handbag, the season's absolute must-have, at a heart-stopping price. With the extra duties she's taking on, Haley's positioning herself to be Employee of the Month. But when Haley discovers former Holt's employee Asha McLean shot dead behind the store during orientation training, it turns out there's more to die for than hot designer deals. The ensuing negative publicity could force Holt's to close its doors permanently, sinking the surrounding shopping center--and Haley's job--into oblivion. Haley can't fathom why anyone would harm Asha--until she learns that her former coworker, who secretly lived in Sherman Oaks and owned a mint BMW, was seriously shady. Upon closer inspection, Asha's duplicitous lifestyle not only earned lots of cash, but plenty of mortal enemies. As authorities question her innocence and business wanes, Haley's desperate to sack the murderer and save Holt's in time. Otherwise, instead of rocking a Mystique, Haley might end up full of holes--or worse, locked away in a very unflattering shade of orange.--

Secrets in Death

Secrets in Death
Author: J. D. Robb
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2017-09-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1250123186

A new novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series: Lt. Eve Dallas must separate rumors from reality when a woman who traffics in other people’s secrets is silenced. The chic Manhattan nightspot Du Vin is not the kind of place Eve Dallas would usually patronize, and it’s not the kind of bar where a lot of blood gets spilled. But that’s exactly what happens one cold February evening. The mortally wounded woman is Larinda Mars, a self-described “social information reporter,” or as most people would call it, a professional gossip. As it turns out, she was keeping the most shocking stories quiet, for profitable use in her side business as a blackmailer. Setting her sights on rich, prominent marks, she’d find out what they most wanted to keep hidden and then bleed them dry. Now someone’s done the same to her, literally—with a knife to the brachial artery. Eve didn’t like Larinda Mars. But she likes murder even less. To find justice for this victim, she’ll have to plunge into the dirty little secrets of all the people Larinda Mars victimized herself. But along the way, she may be exposed to some information she really didn’t want to know...

Stranger to the Truth

Stranger to the Truth
Author: Lisa C. Hickman
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2013-10-21
Genre: Family & Relationships
ISBN: 1491813385

How does a privileged, eighteen year old end up in prison, convicted of one of the rarest of crimes--matricide? The literary nonfiction Stranger to the Truth explores the fatal intersection in the lives of Noura Jackson, her circle of dissolute Memphis friends, and the death of Nouras mother, Jennifer, on the eve of a popular outdoor festival. The brutal attack seemed to reflect personal and exponential rage. Tragedy stalked Noura. Her father was fatally shot when she was seventeen. A mystery never solved. A year later an auto accident claimed her best friend. Both mother and daughter were reeling from shock, grief, and confusion. The tension between them escalated until Nouras difficult teenage years yielded to something much darker. More than a whodunit, this fact-based account tells a spellbinding tale of impetuous youth and a single parent who too late assumes the role of disciplinarian, saying no to the demands of her daughter who will not listen. Weaving multiple points of view, back stories, and extensive research, Stranger to the Truth corrals a timely, complex story in an absorbing narrative. Praise for Stranger to the Truth In Stranger to the Truth, Ms. Hickman has taken a local tragedy and, with eloquence and empathy, given it universal application. The reader will find not only a gripping story, but also a moving exploration of the shadows that dwell within us all. --Howard Bahr, author of The Black Flower, The Year of Jubilo, and The Judas Field