Fashions Fade, Haunted Is Eternal

October 15, 2018
The murder of a fashion photographer and the appearance of a ghost from another era provide an excuse for a vintage-focused fashionista to resume her investigating hobby.Cookie Chanel wants to make every shot perfect at the Fashion and Style Halloween Issue photo shoot at her local cemetery in Sugar Creek, Georgia. After all, as the proprietor of specialty clothing store It's Vintage Y'All, Cookie has a reputation. So she tries to bring photographer Tyler Fields' visions to life, though she's distracted by the sudden appearance of a ghost. Not that Cookie is spooked or even surprised by a visit from the undead; after all, she considers Charlotte Meadows--a ghost, but a fellow fashionista--one of her closest friends. Before Cookie and Charlotte can get to know their newest ghostly companion, a 1920s gal named Minnie Lynn, the trio learns that Tyler has been killed before he could even get his final shots. And while Cookie wants to figure out whodunit, she doesn't have much to go on until she finds a stray cat adamant about getting to know her. She's certain the cat is possessed by Tyler's restless spirit--after all, isn't her own cat, Wind Song, half-possessed by her grandmother Pearl? In her pursuit of truth, Cookie's aided by her closest living friend, Heather Sweet, who's excited to discover that she too can now see the ghosts surrounding Cookie. Also on Cookie's side as she tries to track a murderer is her boyfriend, Detective Dylan Valentine, who does his best to keep Cookie out of trouble even though he can't stop her from getting into scrapes. With so much going on, it's hard to know which question most needs to be answered: the murderer's identity? the reason for Minnie's arrival? Tyler's future as a cat? the reader's ability to remember the characters?Chock full of ghosts, supernatural guardians, cats possessed by spirits, a handsome police officer boyfriend, and tips on surviving the afterlife and vintage shopping, the latest from Pressey (A Passion for Haunted Fashion, 2018, etc.) again jams in too much to develop any one element beyond the obvious.

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