Lover Come Hack (A Madison Night Mystery #6)

Author:  Diane Vallere
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781635114171; 9781635114140
Henery Press Publishing
244 Pages
$24.96; $15.38; $6.99 Amazon
October 30, 3018

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After a falling out with a friend flips interior decorator Madison Night's world inside out, she's determined to revamp her life.  Jane Strong, fellow mid-century modern enthusiast, encourages Madison's entry in an upcoming design competition, but their rift makes collaboration no longer an option.

When Jane is found dead, Madison tops the suspect list.  And when anonymous computer hackings interfere with both the investigation and the competition, Jane's murder no longer seems random.

With a mess of a love life, an angry client, and a looming deadline on her contest entry, Madison turns to an unlikely ally to decode a motive before a crash becomes imminent.

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Madison Night is an interior decorator who owns Mad for Mod in Dallas, Texas.  She's getting ready to enter the VIP (Very Important Projects) competition for DIDI along with her friend Jane Strong.  But the morning they're due to submit their proposal, she receives a devastating email from Jane that tells her she's not as good as she thinks she is, and that the collaboration is off.  She tries to talk to Jane, but she won't speak with her.

So Madison races against time to submit a new proposal on her own - which means she'll have to spend several hours putting something together, and then find a building on her own (Jane owns the one they were going to use) to renovate.  In a hurry, she asks the security guard to sign her out of the building while she rushes to meet the deadline.  Later that day in the same building she uses the restroom and finds Jane in another stall, obviously sick.  Eventually finding help, it appears that it is too late for Jane and she passed away before the paramedics arrive.

Stunned, Madison returns home wondering how this could have happened.  But she hasn't got time to think about it, she needs to continue on with her project; yet when she tries to use her computer she discovers she's been hacked and when her assistant Effie can't fix the problem she calls the only person she knows who can - Donna Nast, a sort-of nemesis who used to date police captain Tex Allen.

Which brings us to the fact that Madison is soon turning 50, and torn between the two men in her life - contractor Hudson James and Tex.  She's asked both of them for six months of a man-free love life so that she can make up her mind which one she's interested in, and they've (reluctantly) agreed.

But soon it also becomes apparent that unexplained events take place, and it puts Madison front and center in the Main Suspect arena, and the lead detective on the case is singling her out for murder.  Can Madison find a building?  Will she make a decision between Hudson and Tex?  Is Donna helping her or hindering her?  And can Madison outwit a killer before she's either wrongfully convicted?  Or will she wind up just like Jane, out of the competition...and life itself?

I absolutely loved this book.  So much so I read it in one sitting.  Madison is a smart, independent woman who knows what she wants (except maybe when it comes to her love life) and can think on her feet in a crisis.  I love a protagonist who isn't pushy, invasive, nor idiotic enough to do stupid things.  Madison is a wonderful character.

While she's trying to figure out how to win the contest, she's bothered by Jane's death and soon becomes suspicious when she finds out not only her computer was hacked, but nearly everyone connected with the VIP contest.  Stranger still, the police department computers were hacked, and they're not even in the contest.  Watching Madison try and figure out what is happening and why is intriguing, and it makes for quite a fascinating tale.  (It helps that my husband is a computer specialist so I could follow the story quite easily).

The plot is well-written, the story delightful.  the author's descriptions of place are charming; and her characterizations of the people involved are believable and vibrant.  She has given us a narrative that is both complicated and full of suspense; it was indeed a pleasure to read.  When the killer is found out, it gives a sense of satisfaction; we can see the 'wheels turning' in Madison's head as she is putting everything together, and once again, this is not a woman that one should ever underestimate.

The motive for the murders was convincing; the ending amusing; and I can't think of a better way to have spent my evening than in reading this book.  It was worth every minute and I look forward to the next in the series.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Lover-Come-Madison-Night-Mystery/dp/1635114144/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2551771619

More on Diane Vallere's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/v/diane-vallere/

The Pajama Frame (A Madison Night Mystery Book 5)

Author:  Diane Vallere
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Trade Paperback; Audio CD; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781635113037; 9781635113006; 9781974902927
Henery Press Publishing
268 Pages
$31.95; $15.95; $29.99; $6.99 Amazon
February 27, 2018

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Nightie Night!  Interior decorator Madison Night is no stranger to the occasional odd inheritance.  But when an octogenarian friend dies and leaves her a pajama factory, the bounty is bittersweet.  Once a thriving business, Sweet Dreams closed decades ago after a tragic accident took the life of a young model.  Or was that simply a cover up?  Between her friend's death and her own stagnant life, Madison is tempted to hide under a blanket of willful ignorance.  But when family members and special interest groups lobby to expose the secrets of the factory, Madison gets caught in a tangle of secrets and lies and discovers that sometimes, the bed you make is not your own.

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Madison Night is a Dallas, Texas interior decorator with a twist: she looks like Doris Day, dresses like her, and even her company, Mad for Mod, specializes in decor harking back to the 50's and 60's.  Even though her boyfriend Hudson is miles away in Palm Springs, she thinks her life is almost perfect.  Thinks.  But Madison is in for some major surprises, and not all of them are going to be pleasant.

When she unexpectedly inherits a pajama factory that closed in the 50's due to an accidental death, she doesn't know why.  When she meets John Sweet in front of the factory, he tells her that his step-grandmother Alice left it to her in her will, along with the contents of her house.  He also said there's a sealed letter back at his office explaining everything.  When she arrives at the office before John, she meets Vernon Stanley, who's concerned because they're tax attorneys, not estate planners.  But once John arrives, Vernon insists on attending the proceedings just to make sure everything's on the up-and-up.  When Madison reads the letter later that day, Alice wrote that that there were rumors the death wasn't accidental, and that her husband was thought to have been involved; but since it was devastating to him, he closed the factory.

Yet what should have been an easy acquisition isn't, and Madison finds herself in a dilemma:  Even though the building has been sealed for many years, it seems people already know it has changed hands; so now the local historical society wants her to donate it and a group of protesters want to get inside to find evidence of murder, not an accidental death as everyone thought.

But there's more than that:  Inside a storage facility that once belonged to Alice, Madison finds a gun, and immediately calls Tex.  Then when she finally gets inside the factory another surprise awaits her in the form of a dead body.  You'd think this would be enough to send anyone reeling, but Madison has more revelations ahead:  Another body, another gun, and an actress who's tailing her nemesis Donna Nast in the hopes to win a part in a film based on an experience concerning herself and her boyfriend, who seems removed from everything she tells him about what's transpiring.

It all brings Madison to a place she's never had to face in her life, and it starts to unnerve her.  Yet if she can't put the pieces together soon, it won't make a difference because she won't be alive to figure it out anyway...

This is the fifth book in the series, and in my opinion, the best.  It doesn't take long before the narrative becomes intriguing, and once you're hooked, you want to know much like Madison where it all connects (as we know it must).  While each piece of the puzzle is put in front of you, finding the right correlation takes time.  It's a delicious mesh of clues that are scattered throughout, and once they start to come together, it creates a fascinating tale of lies and deceit that interweave seamlessly.

The characters have depth, the story plotted well; we are drawn into Madison's life as if we were truly a part of it, seeing things through her eyes.  The words flow from the page easily, and Ms. Vallere has a real talent for engaging her readers early on and keeping them interested throughout.

When the murder is found and it all comes together, it's satisfying, and yet shows us how cold-blooded people can be.  But finding a murderer isn't the end of the story, for Madison must also find herself and what she's been keeping in reserve.  Watching her change is quite compelling, as much so as the main plot, and even though change is always inevitable within us, with some it's more difficult to to realize.  The ending, though, leaves a glimpse of what might be and for myself, I find that quite an inviting thing to look forward to.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Pajama-Frame-Madison-Night-Mystery/dp/1635113008/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2288063745

More on Diane Vallere's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/v/diane-vallere/

The Decorator Who Knew Too Much (A Madison Night Mystery #4)

Author:  Diane Vallere
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Trade Paperback: Audio CD; Ebook
ISBN #:  9781635111989; 9781635111958; 9781520071893
Henery Press Publishing
264 Pages
$27.43; $15.93; $25.86; $6.99 Amazon
April 18, 2016

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When Interior Decorator Madison Night accepts an assignment in Palm Springs with handyman Hudson James, she expects designing days and romantic nights.  But after spotting a body in the river by the job site, she causes a rift in the team.  And in the strain of recurring nightmares and a growing dependency on sleeping pills, Madison seeks professional help to deal with her demons.  She learns more about the crime than she'd like thanks to girl talk with friends, pillow talk with Hudson, and smack talk with the local bad boys.  And after the victim is identified as the very doctor she's been advised to see, she wonders if what she knows can help catch a killer.  An unlikely ally helps navigate the murky waters before her knowledge destroys her, and this time, what she doesn't know might be the one thing that saves her life.

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Madison Night is an interior decorator who specializes in Mid-Century Modern; not only in her business, but in her clothing.  You see, she shares a birthday with Doris Day, and dresses pretty much the same as Doris did in all of her films.  In other words, she's retro.  She's so into Doris that she even named her dog Rock (as in Hudson).

When she's surprised with a two-week getaway in Palm Springs with (and by) her significant other, Hudson James, what she expects isn't even nearly as close to what she gets.  It first turns out that the vacation is going to be more or less working for Hudson's brother-in-law Jimmy, and they'll be staying with him and Hudson's sister Emma.  But when they're run off the road by a speeding SUV a couple of blocks away from Emma's home, it at first seems to be just another jerk who doesn't know how to drive.

But later that day when Madison decides to join Hudson at the job site, she sees something floating in the water, and is convinced it's a body.  So the local police show up and find nothing, thinking it's just her imagination running wild, and it doesn't help that she cost Jimmy an entire days' work, which doesn't make him a fan of hers.  But when the body eventually turns up farther down the river, it seems Madison was right all along, but that's only the beginning of the story.

After Madison is threatened and Jimmy and Hudson are attacked, things begin to escalate.  It turns out the dead man has a connection to Emma, the police, and others; Madison begins to realize that there's something very dangerous going on, and she'll need not only the help of the Palm Springs police, but her friend in Dallas, Captain Tex Allen, to help her find the truth.  And if she doesn't find out soon, her ticket back home might just be cancelled...

This is the fourth book in the Madison Night Mysteries, and a very good entry indeed.  I will say that there was plenty of intrigue, secrets, and a good enough plot to keep me guessing until the very end.  I will also add that while I enjoy Madison's quirks (dressing like Doris and really into the retro style), I didn't enjoy it as much as the others.  Why?  Because first, she's supposed to be on a 'getaway', but it turns out to be nothing more than a working vacation, and that's not a vacation (nor a getaway) at all.  And what kind of romantic getaway has a couple staying with in-laws (which was the original plan)?  I also wondered why she was there, since they hadn't even started building yet, and she's an Interior Decorator, so there didn't seem to be a use for her services.  Nobody decorates a rock quarry; they didn't even have any groundwork laid.  But these things aside, the book was an easy read, and one that was interesting enough to keep me reading in one session, which is a nice thing.

There were some heavy issues to deal with in this book - Madison's nightmares, Jimmy's irrational dislike of her, and others, but they made the story more interesting, in my view.   When the ending comes and we discover the reason why the man was killed it all comes together nicely and makes for a believable plot and a tightly wrapped murder, which is how it should be; and some secrets are better off not being shared at all.  Although I felt there was more to the story to tell, it was still put together well enough to keep me reading the next in the series.  Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Decorator-Knew-Madison-Night-Mystery/dp/1635111951/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2012157262

More on Diane Vallere's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/v/diane-vallere/

Silk Stalkings (A Material Witness Mystery)

Author:  Diane Vallere
Genre:  Mystery

Paperback; Ebook
ISBN# 9780425270592
Berkley Publishing
304 Pages
$7.99 Amazon
August 2, 2016

Five Stars

The time has come for San Ladron, California's annual Miss Tangorli beauty pageant, and Poly has agreed to use Material Girl's inventory of shimmery silks to create embellished gowns fit for a crown.  But when millionaire Harvey Halliwell - the man who revived the city's citrus trade with his imported tangorli tree - is found dead days before the pageant contestants are announced, something sour takes over the town.

To make matters worse, her friend, mechanic Charlie Brooks, is soon caught up in the crime, having been seen in the company of the case's prime suspect.  Now Poly's on a mission to squeeze out the truth.  But as she searches for a pattern, the killer seems intent on cutting up the evidence...

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Polyester Monroe lives in San Ladron, California and owns a fabric shop, Material Girl, that she inherited from her late aunt and uncle.  One evening while attending a local event, she is spending some time with her could-be-boyfriend, Vaughn McMichael, in the gardens of Waverly House, an historic inn owned by his mother, when she sees two men arguing across the way from them, one of them clad entirely in orange, right down to his hair.  Vaughn identifies him as Harvey Halliwell, the man behind the pageant and creator of the Tangorli, a cross between a tangerine, orange and lime.  When she sees Harvey fall down, the other hurries away.  She rushes over, sending Vaughn to call for help.  When he leaves, Harvey recovers, insists he's fine and departs before Vaughn returns.

The next day she is approached in her shop by Nolene Kelly, Harvey's employee and organizer of the beauty pageant.  She asks Poly to help out, guaranteeing a hefty fee.  It seems Nolene wants all the young ladies who have entered to have the same chance of winning, so she's asked Poly to help:  She wants her to sell each of them ten yards of silk, allow them to design their own gown, and Poly will have seamstresses sew the creations.  Not willing to turn down a lucrative assignment, she agrees.

But later that day when she is heading across the gardens, she finds Harvey's body - he's been stabbed with an orange-handed knife.    But who killed him?  When Poly starts talking to people, and they to her, she finds that there is no lack of suspects; in fact, the more information she gains, the more she discovers that there were any number of people who wouldn't be upset to see Harvey dead and gone.  But which one is the killer?

To add to the confusion, it seems the man who was arguing with Harvey the night before he died is the man who gave her friend Charlie a home for several years and treated her like his own daughter.  While his actions are suspicious, Charlie is adamant that he's no killer, and Poly needs to find out if Charlie's loyalties are misplaced or someone else would be happy to see him take the fall.

Silk Stalkings is delightful to read.  There is intrigue aplenty, and red herrings around every corner.  Just when you think one person might be the guilty party, someone else comes along.  Although there are plenty of people who could have wanted Harvey dead, there is only one killer (sorry, folks, this isn't Murder on the Orient Express) and Poly is having a difficult time figuring out who that is.

To add to it all, she's trying to figure out her relationship with Vaughn.  While the romance, as it were, is secondary to the murder (as it should be) it's still quite interesting to see how he reacts to certain situations she puts him in, and enjoyable enough to see how he handles it all.  I look forward to seeing more on this development in later books.

The plot is tangled in tightly with secrets being revealed along the way, and any one of them could have gotten Harvey killed.  But deciphering the truth isn't as easy as all that for Poly, and she finds that sometimes it's not the secrets that can get you killed, but the truths that were hiding in plain sight all along.

When we come to the end and the murderer is revealed, it's both satisfying and believable.  The characters are given depth and are convincing.  Ms. Vallere has given us a plot that entails a highly wrought elaborate plan that is inviting and also a pleasure to unravel.  This is the third book in the series, but enough information is given that it can be read as a stand alone.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Silk-Stalkings-Material-Witness-Mystery/dp/0425270599/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1756029446

More on Diane Vallere's books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/v/diane-vallere/                                                                       

Other People's Baggage: Three Interconnected Mystery Novellas

Author:  Kendel Lynn, Gigi Pandian, Diane Vallere
Genre:  Mystery

Hardcover; Paperback; Ebook
ISBN #:  9781940976860; 9781938383106
Henery Press
244 Pages
$31.95; $15.95; $2.99 Amazon
August 7, 2014

Five Stars

Baggage claim can be terminal when a computer glitch mislabels identical vintage suitcases.  This is what happened after three women with a knack for solving mysteries each grabbed the wrong bag. 

MIDNIGHT ICE by Diane Vallere, A Mad for Mod Mystery Novella (prequel to Pillow Stalk).  When interior decoration Madison Night crosses the country to distance herself from a recent breakup, she learns it's harder to escape her past than she thought, and diamonds are rarely a girl's best friend.

SWITCH BACK by Kendel Lynn, an Elliott Lisbon Mystery Novella (prequel to Board Stiff).  Ballantyne Foundation director Elliott Lisbon travels to Texas after inheriting an entire town, but when she learns the donor was murdered, she has to unlock the small town's big secrets or she'll never get out alive.

 FOOL'S GOLD by Gigi Pandian, a Jaya Jones Treasure Hunting Mystery (prequel to Artifact).  When a world-famous chess set is stolen from a locked room during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, historian Jaya Jones and her magician best friend must outwit actresses and alchemists to solve the baffling crime.

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What happens when three women who have never met each other discover they own the exact same suitcase?  And that they all have airline stopovers in Dallas, Texas?  Quite a bit as it turns out.  When Madison Night arrives in California she's on vacation recovering from a romantic breakup, which is hard enough.  But then she opens the suitcase and discovers that it's not hers, and it also leaves her with nothing to wear.  Just when she thinks it can't get any worse, she not only realizes the object of her recent breakup is at the same hotel, but she's inadvertently gotten involved in something that could put her in danger...

...meanwhile, when Elliott Lisbon arrives at her Texas destination, she finds that not only is the suitcase the wrong one, she's expected to attend a ball and is hoping that she can "borrow" something temporarily.  But there's no way these clothes will fit her - they're for a much shorter woman - and what she wore on the airplane won't do since the top has been wine-stained.  To add to matters, her friend Zibby, who is traveling with her, has asked her to help Zibby's friend Bea, who has been accused of the murder of her husband.  Sorting it all out while wearing a I 'heart' Texas t-shirt and dealing with hostile relatives of the deceased wasn't what she expected when she signed up for this rodeo...

...which leaves Jaya Jones, who is in Scotland with her friend Sanjay for the Endinburgh Fringe Festival when she finds she's received the wrong suitcase.  She also finds a true locked-room mystery, when her friend Daniella tells her that a valuable chess set has been stolen from her hotel suite, and only one of the four people staying in the suite could be guilty.  But is that true?  Enlisting illusionist Sanjay's help, Jaya knows she needs to find the truth before Daniella or one of her friends is accused of the crime...

As the title states, these are three interconnected mystery novellas.  Three quite lively and fun, and the connection between them is only the transposed suitcases.  But it is the perfect plot to begin with, and one that spawns three delightful stories of intrigue and deceit.  I love the main characters, and have from their books, but even in these short tales we are given quite a nice package in each, and the secondary characters are given enough teeth that they are enjoyable to read.  Since the stories are basically mini-books, I hesitate to give any more information on each, but take the time to read them.  If you don't know these women from their books, this is a good place to begin, as they are all prequels to their series; and if you have already read their books, I am sure you will enjoy visiting with them again.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Other-Peoples-Baggage-Interconnected-Novellas-ebook/dp/B00AF0Y8GC/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1698260865

More on Diane Vallere's books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/v/diane-vallere/

  Kendel Lynn's books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/l/kendel-lynn/

  Gigi Pandian's books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/p/gigi-pandian/