Dolly Departed

Deb Baker certainly knows the doll world and her mysteries are humorous, entertaining and fun. This is the 3rd book in the series and each one continues to develop the characters and they are so real that you feel you know them personally! My mom, 5 sisters and I all love these books!

If I had a big house, I'd collect miniatures. My fantasy is to have a huge electric train layout running through my entire house. In every town or village where the train stopped, every building, every room, would be absolutely to scale, down to centerpieces on the tables and soap in the bathroom soap dishes. Most of my paychecks would end up in shops like Mini Maize, the Scottsdale, Arizona shop devoted to dollhouses and miniature room boxes. But buying something from Mini Maze could be a problem. The owner, Charlie Maize, has been murdered, and doll expert Gretchen Birch is off on her third adventure in the world of dolls and doll collecting. Charlie might have decorated glorious dollhouses, but she was much better at picking wall paper than surrounding herself with good people. One of her so-called friends was skimming money from the till, while her best friend (who custom-makes tiny dolls for the dollhouses), knows about a special order suggesting that Charlie herself was up to no good. Charlie's son is a druggie, living on the street, and one of her contract workers was brewing explosives in his basement: Charlie may have died before he finished the bomb meant for her. The answer to who did what to whom lies in a set of room boxes, found in ruins under Charlie's body. Only an experienced doll restorer like Gretchen has the skill to reconstruct the tiny pieces and solve a big crime. I love the quotes that start many of the chapters. They are from the fictitious book, "The World of Dolls," by Caroline Birch, Gretchen's mother, herself a premiere expert on all things doll-ish. They set the perfect tone for the chapter to come. I could do with fewer purse dogs: tiny dogs trained to ride, hide, and do their doggy-business inside purses. But this is strictly a personal opinion from a non-dog person. Other readers may find them as cute and charming as the author intended, and they do continue the theme of miniatures everywhere you look. This a solid traditional mystery, with a group of close-knit amateur sleuths; a set of mysterious room boxes, complete with tiny murder weapons, and enough plausible suspects so that I was sure, absolutely sure, I knew who-done-it, only to be proven wrong at the end. The romance between Gretchen and detective Matt Albright is nicely handled, and the book's ending marks a turning point in their relationship. I look forward to more books in this series. by Sharon Wildwind for Story Circle Book Reviews reviewing books by, for, and about women

A Scottsdale western parade is off to a rocky start for doll restoration artist Gretchen Birch when she's startled by a rude clown, must chase after her runaway teacup poodle, and discovers the body of dollhouse store owner Charlene "Charlie" Maize. Even creepier is that one of the miniature room boxes that Charlie designed contains a bloody axe that is left scattered across the floor of her store. As upset as she is by Charlie's sudden death by an allergic reaction, Gretchen would probably have left things alone had she not been specifically ordered away by the very interested (in Gretchen) detective Matt Albright. As handsome as he is though, Matt comes with a psychotic estranged wife, a busybody gossiping mother, and a paralyzing fear of dolls. So as much to annoy Matt as to discover who murdered her friend Gretchen and her Curves-workout crew investigate Charlie's life to uncover her drug addict son, an embezzling dollhouse builder, and a sister whom Charlie believed was murdered. Riding the wave of crafty/collecting mysteries, Baker stands out with her entertaining and very funny doll-centered cozy. Quirky and likable characters serve as the center for this series, and readers will read just to spend time with them as much as they will to learn about the mystery. While the solution to the murder is handed to Gretchen (but not to reader, who may have already spotted the culprit) a little too easily, it's the path to the answer that makes this novel so much fun. In what other mystery do the characters debrief and plan their investigation while changing workout stations at Curve? This is a fun cozy that doesn't rely on gimmicks to make it unique.