Review

For fans of:  Heather Blake

When dressmaker Harlow Jane Cassidy learns that she and her fall collection will be featured in D Magazine’s piece on up-and-coming designers, she’s over the moon. Granted, she has yet to finish her fall collection, and she’s kinda got her hands full planning her mother’s wedding to the local sheriff, outfitting the bridal party, and playing host to friend and former co-worker Orphie Cates, but she’s confident everything will work out.

Then rival designer and fellow D Magazine subject Michel Ralph Beaulieu keels over in Harlow’s home, and chaos ensues. The article is put on hold. The sheriff names Harlow as a suspect in the man’s death. And Harlow’s Mama is so outraged that her fiancé could think her daughter capable of murder that she ends the engagement. Can Harlow catch the real culprit and restore order to her little corner of the world, or will the reward for all her hard work be a trip to the county jail?

A Custom-Fit Crime is the fourth of Melissa Bourbon’s Magical Dressmaking Mysteries, and I’m happy to report that it’s every bit as engaging as its predecessors.  The pace is quick, the plot is whimsical, and the prose is dripping with wit and small-town Texas charm. Bourbon’s got a knack for writing place and beautifully renders Harlow’s farmhouse-slash-dressmaking shop as a welcoming space filled with warmth, light, magic, and love. And the passion with which she writes about sewing and design is contagious.

The book’s real strength, though, is its characters. Harlow is a smart, strong, winsome heroine for whom readers can’t help but root. Love interest Will Flores is the perfect blend of sexy cowboy, caring boyfriend, and loving single father.
Michel Ralph Beaulieu makes for the perfect murder victim; egotistical and condescending, you’ll root for his demise from the second you first meet him. I’m really enjoying series character Deputy Gavin McClaine’s transition from antagonist to reluctant ally. And Harlow’s green-thumbed Mama, goat-whispering Nana, and gleefully mischievous (and ghostly) Meemaw add the perfect dose of humor and heart to Bourbon’s tale.

If I had one complaint about A Custom-Fit Crime, it would be that the mystery is so complex as to occasionally strain credulity, but it’s that complexity that also keeps the reader guessing until the final chapter, so my quibble is a minor one.

At its heart, every book in Melissa Bourbon’s Magical Dressmaking Mystery series is about the importance of friends, family, and finding one’s place in the world, but none more so than this latest installment. A Custom-Fit Crime perfectly illustrates the idea that when it comes to being happy in life, what you’re doing is often less important than where and with whom you’re doing it.

Reviewed by Kat