Shoes to Die for (Jaine Austen Series #4) » (~)

Freelance writer Jaine Austen is not your typical Los Angelino. She's not rich, she's not thin, and she's definitely not starstruck. She is a sarcastic, sometime-sleuth who's never met a carb she didn't like . . . or a mystery she couldn't solve...

If clothes make the man, then what do Jaine's elastic-waist pants and T-shirts make her? A fashion nightmare, according to her neighbor, Lance. She doesn't expect Lance--who works in the designer shoe department at Nieman Marcus--to understand...which is how she ends up visiting his favorite boutique, Passions. While the couture is definitely not for Jaine, the staff's gossip is. Tiny orange-haired clerk Becky starts complaining about her co-worker Giselle--a.k.a. "Frenchie"-- a brittle blonde who, when she's not making fun of customers behind their backs, adds extra-marital notches to her Chanel belt. Though Jaine doesn't land a new look, she does land a new job when Passions' owner gives her a chance to write their new magazine ads.

But when Jaine arrives the next morning to pitch her ideas, she finds Frenchie pitched over, stabbed in the neck by one of her own stilettos. Now all Jaine has to do is figure out who hated Frenchie the most, in a case of death by designer knock-off...

Publishers Weekly

When the owner of an upscale L.A. boutique catering to the slightly anorexic winds up dead with an imitation Jimmy Choo stiletto to the jugular, freelance writer Jaine Austen must prove sweet salesgirl Becky innocent of the crime by tracking down the real killer. Cozy fans will find Laura Levine's Shoes to Die For: A Jaine Austen Mystery, the fourth installment in the series (after 2004's Killer Blonde), the ideal beach read. Agent, Evan Marshall. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.