Freelance writer Jaine Austen is not your typical Los Angelino. She's not rich, she's not thin, and she's definitely not starstruck. She is a sarcastic, sometime-sleuth who's never met a carb she didn't like...or a mystery she couldn't solve...If clothes make the man, then what do Jaine's elastic-waist pants and T-shirts make her? A fashion nightmare, according to her neighbour, Lance. She doesn't expect Lance - who works in the designer shoe department at Nieman Marcus - to understand...which is how she ends up visiting his favourite boutique, Passions. While the couture is definitely not for Jaine, the staff's gossip is. Tiny orange-haired clerk Becky starts complaining about her co-worker Giselle - a.k.a. "Frenchie" - a brittle blonde who, when she's not making fun of customers behind their backs, adds extra-marital notches to her Chanel belt. Though Jaine doesn't land a new look, she does land a new job when Passions' owner gives her a chance to write their new magazine ads. But when Jaine arrives the next morning to pitch her ideas, she finds Frenchie pitched over, stabbed in the neck by one of her own stilettos. Now all Jaine has to do is figure out who hated Frenchie the most, in a case of death by designer knock-off...
Laura Levine is a former sitcom writer (The Bob Newhart Show, Laverne & Shirley, The Love Boat, Three's Company, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman). As an advertising copywriter, she created Count Chocula and Frankenberry cereals for General Mills. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.
She and her husband live in Los Angeles.
Readers are welcome to contact her at Jaineausten@aol.com or on her website at www.lauralevinemysteries.com
