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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dolled Up for Success, October 11, 2006
Baker's first mystery in this new series introduces a quirky set of characters in a fun cozy. Gretchen Birch's mother restores dolls for collectors. Her Aunt Nina trains small dogs to ride in purses. Gretchen herself is unemployed with a long-term boyfriend who's cheating on her. When her aunt calls, Gretchen hightails it off to Phoenix. It seems that Gretchen's mother, Caroline, has disappeared following a death on Camelback Mountain, and Caroline is wanted for questioning.
This mystery is filled with tension and suspense. Even so, Baker is able to introduce the reader to the world of doll collectiing, while moving the story along at a fast clip.
Readers looking for fun characters, fast-moving stories, or great descriptions of Arizona can't go wrong with this first cozy in a new series.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great new cozy series set around doll collecting, February 23, 2007
Gretchen Birch's mother, Caroline, is missing and suspected of murder. Gretchen's aunt Nina calls and convinces Gretchen she needs to come to Phoenix to help her find her mother and clear her name. Caroline is accused of murdering a homeless former doll collector found dead at the bottom of a cliff. Caroline is a part of the doll collecting community. She was seen fleeing the crime scene. And now she's missing and all the evidence points to her.
Gretchen and Nina know Caroline is innocent, but without being able to contact her, they aren't sure how to clear her name. They start digging into the dead woman's life and the doll collecting community. Can they clear Caroline's name without putting the killer on their trail?
This is the first in a new series. It is great. I can't wait to read the next one. Gretchen and Nina are wonderful characters. The theme doll collecting really added to the storyline. The Phoenix setting was great as well.
I highly recommend this book.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Diane Kasperski, January 25, 2007
This was a very good debut of a new mystery series. Gretchen Birch comes from a family of very lively women. All of them are crazy, wildly impulsive and very disorganized. Gretchen puts this down to a "renegade gene passed down through generations of Birch women".
Gretchen gets a call from her Aunt Nina in the wee hours of the morning telling her she has to come home to Phoenix because her Mom is missing. She even went so far as to book her a flight at 7am. Caroline Birch is a doll collector and belongs to the Phoenix Dollers. She often goes off to an auction or the hunt for an antique doll without telling anyone. Gretchen wasn't really worried but she couldn't say `no' to her Aunt.
Martha, a homeless drunk, use-to-be doll collector was murdered. That same day Caroline disappears. She takes a flight out of town. The police think she is running away. Why else would she take off right after the murder? At one time Martha owned one of the most prestigious, grandest, antique doll collections in the country. After she lost her home and all her belongings it was a mystery as to what happened to the collection. She hadn't sold it. Where was it?
While Gretchen is in Phoenix trying to figure out exactly what happened to Martha and where her mother could be, Caroline is off trying to find a doll and win it on an eBay auction. She wants to trap "The Inspector" who has already sold one of the dolls in Martha's collection. She knows that if she doesn't succeed she will die.
The clues are leading Gretchen to all kinds of suspects in the doll collecting community. In the meantime Matt Albright, a local detective is convinced that Caroline pushed Martha off the mountain. It's a race to see who will succeed - Caroline - Matt - Gretchen - the unknown Inspector?
The characters in Dolled Up for Murder are great. They range from the eccentric Aunt Nina to the homeless man Macho Nacho. The story line flows and keeps you turning pages throughout. I am looking forward to the next Doll Collectors/Birch Women mystery
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