Review

Rita Jewell loves her job selecting outfits and accessories for the wealthy clients of Dolce’s Boutique in San Francisco. Rita’s boss Dolce Loren sends her to Miami Beach to pick up a pair of one-of-a-kind custom-made silver stilettos for a customer to wear to a prestigious charity event. The customer is MarySue Jensen, but when she comes to pick up the shoes, she doesn’t have the money to pay the large balance owed on the shoes. MarySue grabs the shoes out of Rita’s hands and flees from the store. Rita goes to MarySue’s home to try to get the shoes back, but ends up in the emergency room with a concussion and a sprained ankle, but no shoes! Rita learns MarySue was murdered sometime after the charity event and the beautiful shoes are missing. Detective Jack Wall suspects Rita and Dolce of doing whatever it takes to get the expensive shoes back – even murder!

Rita is a likeable, quirky character. Besides her love for fashion, she takes Kung Fu lessons and minored in Romanian so she could read about vampires. Rita has recently moved from Ohio to San Francisco and for the last six months, her social calendar has been empty. Now that she’s involved in a murder investigation, she has three very different men that seem to be interested in her:  Dr. Jonathan Rhodes, the ER doctor that treated her; Nick Petrescu, a Romanian gymnastics teacher; and the handsome Detective Wall. Reading about Rita choosing her outfits and preparing for her dates with each man is a fun part of the book. As a supporting character, sometimes Dolce is hard to figure out. However, she is a generous boss and good friend to Rita, at one point offering her a very substantial discount on an outfit and treating her to a makeover at an exclusive salon so Rita will look her best for a special date.

Readers more knowledgeable about designer fashions would better appreciate the many conversations about various designer labels than I did. However, the frequent references to fashion designer does makes sense in the context of Rita’s job as a fashion consultant and sales associate at an upscale boutique, and I recognized enough of the names to remain interested in the story.

There is one blatant plot inconsistency where the author contradicts herself regarding the circumstances as to how Rita got from MarySue’s house to the hospital. There is also a weird scene at MarySue’s funeral that I am not sure is supposed to be taken seriously or if it was written tongue-in-cheek. Basically Rita and Dolce question MarySue’s funeral attire as if they are at a society party and the woman had chosen the “offensive” outfit herself!

While the book isn’t perfect, I enjoyed it, flaws and all. Rita is an interesting character and it’s great to be introduced to San Francisco through her eyes. The book ends with a few recipes for food mentioned in the story, fashion tips, and even some dating rules, courtesy of Rita’s Aunt Grace. Shoe Done It is a fast-paced book and a great start to a promising series that will appeal to those who enjoy Elaine Viets or Dorothy Howell.

Reviewed by Christine