Fashion Victim

Dallas O?Connor, a top fashion stylist, who has just come from her trip in Paris, and ends up maxing out on clothes for her next assignment. She has to create the ?look? for a new girl band who is shooting their first music video. This all takes place on a private island in the Caribbean, in an exclusive, luxurious castle. ?Paradise? as Dallas calls it... or is it? When she first steps onto the grounds, she is greeted by the proprietor and a local priestess named Mama Garcia. This was a little disturbing, as she skips the ?hellos? to say,?Dat girl, she wear de face of Death.? But when it seems nothing could be better, who is going to care about some juju warning? -Not her. This all changes when she is up and running on the beach early in the morning, like normal. Except for this morning, she fines a dead body washed up on the beach, who she suspects is the musician friend who had left unexpectedly the day before. To make it worse, none of the girls believe her because when she brings them back to the place on the beach where she had seen the body: he vanished without a trace! All the girls just try to laugh it off and tell her that it was just a bad hangover from too much rum the night before. Soon after, one of the members of the band gets nearly poisoned to death and then, a body is found stabbed to death. Everything goes down hill from here as Dallas tries to figure out, who is behind all this. Who is trying to make her paradise into dreadful fear? As all of this is going on, Dallas keeps falling in and out of love with the a very handsome Latino chef named Oscar. He is the one who gets blamed at first, for poisoning one of the girls by eating one of the lunches he made. Denying it, Dallas believes him, along with the others that were accusing him. But the same question keeps popping up: who would want to harm the band members, or anyone else. This story is a great thriller if you like mysteries of which I am a fan. The reader goes from exciting events such as parties on the beach and sizing the girls? outfits so they fit just right, to finding a dead bodies and lots of suspicion. When events such as the ones I just mentioned happen in books, it makes the story more interesting. It makes the reader want to keep on reading, want to know how everything is going to turn out. Although I enjoyed the book, I didn?t always understand what was going on, due to the fact that sometimes, Green (the author) skips around in the text conversations. This causes me to get lost and not being able to tell who did what, the first time I read it. Despite this minor dislike, I would defiantly recommend this book to a mystery-reader, or anyone who really enjoys suspicion and intrigue.

If you know the fashion industry, you will love this. If you don't, you will have fun learning while solving a murder.If you like Chloe Green -- and I do -- then try the historicals by J. Suzanne Frank, Chloe's other pen name.

Murder has its place in fashion stylist (and Texan) Dallas O'Connor's third outing, but it's second to the frenetic pace, glitzy artifice and shady commercialism of the manufactured pop-music scene. Dallas, who casually drops designer names too haute to otherwise cross my radar, accepts a gig to create the look for a new all-girl band, put together by a record company contest. Dallas' first chore is an unlimited clothes-shopping spree in Paris before meeting the girls on the private Caribbean island where they are shooting their first music video. Green pulls out all the stops in describing this place, every room a palace of indulgence, a chef as handsome as he is talented, even "a stylist's fantasy" workshop. Except for its hidden door and a Mafia boss's trademark button.It should all be too much, but somehow it works in a froth of fascinating glamour. Dallas is a dab hand with cutting-edge clothes (even if one of the girls has ballooned to a shocking size 8, maybe even 10!), the characters posture and pose delightfully, the island food and drink will make your mouth water, to say nothing of the temperamental chef, and, oh, yes, there are mysterious anomalies, nagging questions, even secret passageways and sinister secrets. We know there's a murder because the body appears on page one, before the story backtracks to its Paris beginning, and that's enough to know. High style fun.

For stylist Dallas O'Connor, it's a perfect job--spending lots of money, dressing beautiful women, and a week on a Caribbean island with a way-handsome chef. Except, when she arrives, Mama Garcia accuses her of wearing the face of death. When Dallas finds a body on the beach, no one seems to care--or even to believe her when they finally follow her to the spot and find--nothing. There's something going on other than a music video shoot, but Dallas doesn't have a clue what it is--and she knows she'd better find out quickly if she wants to stay alive herself. Author Chloe Green delivers a spicy blend of mystery, fashion, and island cooking. Green's light touch works perfectly in this enjoyable romp. Dallas is an entertaining character, with a family and personal history that makes her yearn for what she cannot have. Love interest Oscar is also richly detailed with appropriate angst--and not a little danger. Fans of this series (each novel can be read independently) will definitely want to read this one. Chloe Green has matured as a writer and, in FASHION VICTIM, has hit her stride.

Fashion stylist Dallas O'Connor is in Paris when she gets a call from her agent with an assignment in Bimini in the Caribbean. If she accept the job, which is very high paying, she will be the stylist for a five women rock band, Fate of Paradise, who is going to cut their first video. Dallas accepts the plum job and she has unlimited funds to dress the girls and is delighted they are all going to be staying at a palace.When she arrives, the islanders tell her she is wearing Death on her face. She laughs it off, enjoying the rich food, the tropical beach and tries to ignore the sexy chef who wants to get to know her. What she can't ignore is the dead body she finds on the beach but when she convinces the members of the group to take a look the body is gone. As time passes, Dallas finds a clue that leads her to believe the others are lying to her but if they are, she doesn't have a clue why.The heroine of FASHION VICTIM is well known in her field and is not owned by the rich and famous who are her clients. She is adorable and endearing, someone the readers will like to get to know in further novels in the series. Chloe Green has constructed a who-done-it that is so complicated readers won't be able to guess what roles all the characters are really playing.Harriet Klausner