Swag Bags and Swindlers

October 19, 2015
Howell's amusing 11th Haley Randolph mystery (after Fanny Packs and Foul Play) finds Haley juggling two jobsâas an assistant events planner for L.A. Affairs, and as a part-time sales clerk for the "seriously crappy Holt's Department Store," where she remains for the health insurance. Hoping to leave Holt's by becoming a permanent staffer at L.A. Affairs, she volunteers to take over all the responsibilities for a colleague who has gone on maternity leave. Those duties come on top of her organizing a gala for the Hollywood Haven, a retirement home for entertainers. When she arrives at the home to finalize arrangements with its assistant director, Derrick Ellery, she finds him lying dead on his office floor, his shirt covered with blood. To further complicate matters, her ex-boyfriend, Ty Cameron, who used to be her boss at Holt's, is the prime suspect in another murder. Self-absorbed Haley isn't the easiest lead character to sympathize with, but Howell keeps the story quick-moving and lighthearted. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency.

August 1, 2015
A fashion-obsessed California girl is involved in yet another murder.Haley Randolph works two jobs. The first is at Holt's Department Store, a place she despises for its lack of high fashion. The second is as an assistant event planner with LA Affairs. When one of the other planners goes on maternity leave, Haley offers to take over all her duties in hopes that her initiative will lead to a coveted full-time position. In her usual ditzy fashion, she fails to ask what those duties are and continues blithely to work on her own event, a 50th anniversary gala for Hollywood Haven, a retirement home for anyone related to the movie industry. On a visit, she discovers the body of Derrick Ellery, the administrator she'd been working with, and decides that she must find out who killed him before the gala is cancelled because of his death. Derrick, it turns out, was disliked by pretty much everyone. He was a snoop who may have been taking advantage of some of the elderly and easily confused residents. Although Haley's broken up with Ty Cameron, the owner of Holt's, over his obsessive work ethic, she still loves him, and when a police pal tells her he's a suspect in a murder case, she decides to investigate that one too. Despite all her digging on the two murder cases, her real priority is finding the hot new Sassy satchel, a stunning handbag her BFF Marcie shows her online. A lightweight beach read for like-minded fashionistas convinced that since Howell's accidental detective has solved so many murders (Beach Bags and Burglaries, 2014, etc.), she can't be a dumb as she seems.

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