Title: How to Frame a Fashionista (Resale Boutique #3)
Author: Debra Sennefelder
Published on: 1 December 2020
Genre: Cozy Mystery
My favorite author Debra Sennfelder is back with a new installment of my favorite series. Lotsa favorites here. 🙂
How to Frame a Fashionista by Debra Sennfelder is the third book in Resale Boutique Mystery series. Having read the first two books of this series, I was eagerly waiting to grab the third book.
Before I start with the review, I would like to say why this is my favorite series. I have read almost all of Debra’s works. She’s a versatile and multitalented author. A hint of quirk and humor is what makes Debra a master storyteller. Before starting her journey to authordom, Debra was a food blogger and has also worked in retail. Her expertise in these two areas are well reflected in her two cozy mystery series – Food Blogger Mysteries and Resale Boutique Mysteries.
Kelly Quinn runs a successful Resale Boutique shop at Lucky Cove. She inherited the shop from her late grandmother. The inheritance did not gel well with her uncle Ralph. He keeps pestering her to sell the building but Kelly refuses. Pepper, Kelly’s grandmother’s friend and a help at the shop, has finally gotten along well with Kelly. On the romance front, we have Kelly dating a lawyer named Mark. His sister is a detective; she dislikes Kelly’s “interference” in murder cases.
In How to Frame a Fashionista, we see Kelly waking up to find her roof leaking. Kelly cannot afford to replace the roof but that is the only option now. If not, her boutique might be ruined. Tawny Nicole, a fitness expert and a celebrity, asks Kelly to consign few of her clothes and accessories. On reaching Tawny’s house, Kelly comes face-to-face with her ex-boss Serena. Serena is Jason’s (Tawny’s husband) ex-wife.
Tawny asks Kelly to come over for a yoga session the next day. But when Kelly reaches the place, she finds Tawny dead and Serena standing beside the body. Serena is arrested for the crime. Serena learns of Kelly’s previous sleuthing adventures and asks Kelly to help prove her innocence.
Back in New York, Serena had fired Kelly in public. Kelly had to leave her job with head low in shame. A year later, here we are. Kelly and Serena meet again. Serena is your “my way or the highway” kinda person. Throughout this story, we see her bossing around Kelly. The ever-so-gentle Kelly cannot say no when her ex-boss asks for help.
We also see some turmoil in the heart department here. No spoilers here. 🙂 The mystery behind the murder was intriguing and kept me guessing till the end. Throughout the story, we readers are given a hint that maybe the killer would strike again. But what we do not know the ‘why and the ‘when’.
As the story proceeds, we see Kelly juggling between helping Serena, fixing the boutique’s leaky roof and much more. The identity of the killer was a surprise. The reason behind the murder was a huge shocker.
Excellent writing and characterization are the highlights of this book. Overall, How to Frame a Fashionista was an entertaining and completely engrossing cozy mystery.
Many thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest and unbiased opinion.
The Book Decoder 
You must be logged in to post a comment.