Swag Bags and Swindlers

Haley Randolph’s 25th birthday is just around the corner, and the full-time fashionista knows it might be time to edge into being an “adult.” All she has to do is ace the upcoming performance review for her hot L.A. event-planning gig, and she can finally quit her credit card-paying job at Holt’s Department Store. She just has to make sure absolutely nothing goes wrong with the big party she’s planning for a Hollywood retirement home...

It really should be a fun bash—Hollywood Haven is home to a spunky group of retired actors, screenwriters, musicians, dancers, and other entertainers who have been in the biz for their whole lives. But when Haley finds Derrick Ellery, the home’s assistant director, sprawled on his bloody office floor, she sees her hope of keeping her job—not to mention the dream of owning a Sassy, the season’s hottest handbag—vanishing before her eyes.

Quietly finding the killer is Haley’s only hope…but it turns out the list of suspects is longer than her last credit card statement. It seems Derrick made a lot of enemies and had somehow become wealthy far beyond what was possible with his salary—but how?

To make matters worse, Haley’s kind-of-ex-boyfriend Ty is now a suspect in a different murder, and she justknows he couldn’t have done it. Solving two murders while planning the perfect party—and always keeping her sights on a Sassy—won’t be easy…especially now that there’s more than one killer ready to select Haley’s final outfit!

Dorothy Howell was inspired to write her first Haley Randolph mystery, Handbags and Homicide, by her crazed obsession with designer purses. She lives in Southern California, where there is, thankfully, no rehab program for handbag addiction, and is hard at work on her next Haley Randolph mystery. Visit her website at DorothyHowellNovels.com.