Customer Reviews

Shoes To Die For (Jaine Austen Mysteries)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was the second Jaine Austen mystery I have read. It was very witty. I enjoyed reading about Jaine's class and her student Mr. Goldman. He is such a funny and believable character. Reading her emails from her parents are also a hilarious subplot.

The mystery was solved eventually by Jaine in the nick of time. Although the culpret was not Jaine's first choice, she eventually figured it out.

This series is refreshing and cleverly written. You will enjoy it too!

Jaine Austen enters the world of fashion when her neighbor Lance decides to give her a make-over. Visiting his favorite high end fashion boutique, Jaine doesn't find any clothes, but does land a potential client for her writing business. Coming in early to pitch ideas one morning, Jaine finds the body of Frenchie with one of the woman's own stiletto heels stuck in her neck. To know Frenchie was to loath her, so the list of suspects in long. The police are zeroing in on a woman who wouldn't hurt a fly, literally. When Becky hires Jaine to find the real killer, Jaine drops all her current writing assignments (ok, she had none anyway) to pursue the clues. Meanwhile, her father has his heart set on the lead in a play at her parent's retirement village, one of her memoir writing students suffers a heart attack, and Kandi signs both herself and Jaine up for speed dating.

Fans of this series will love the latest entry. All the charm and sarcastic humor of the others is present. I smiled, giggle, and laughed my way through the entire book. The book is very well set up. By the time the murder takes place, you are aware of several suspects. And how can you not love such an inventive murder weapon? The ending felt a little rushed to me and definitely could have used a few more pages to better flesh things out.

This book will appeal to those who love light mysteries. If that's you, this series is in fashion.

This was a fun book; it had comedy, mystery, and a little bit of everything...even made me hate a few characters, which usually doesn't happen. It's a good, funny read, with lots of twists.

Jaine Austen - freelance writer extraordinaire - is the farthest thing from your typical Los Angeles beauty. Case in point - she's living paycheck to paycheck, celebrities mean nothing to her, she's semi-plus size, and she spends her days - and sometimes nights - working as an amateur sleuth, and coming across more and more carbs to inhale in the form of delicious foods. This time, however, Jaine's fabulous next-door neighbor, Lance, has decided that Jaine must finally throw away her elastic-waist pants, and opt for something more stylish. More trendy. Less trailer park - if you know what I mean. So he takes her to Passions - a hip boutique that stocks clothing that wouldn't even fit one of Jaine's thighs, let alone her entire waist. And, while a new wardrobe isn't discovered there, Jaine is lucky enough to get an interview as Passions' new magazine ad writer. But then the universe shifts, and, suddenly, kind Grace is no longer the owner of Passions, but has placed ownership into the hands of Giselle aka Frenchie - a nasty blonde who makes fun of customers and cheats on her husband left and right. Ordinarily, Jaine would avoid this woman like the plague, but she needs the money - so she takes the job. However, when she arrives at Passions the next morning to pitch her ideas, she finds Frenchie among the land of the dead - a stiletto Jimmy Choo sticking out of her neck. Now Jaine has decided to toss the ad campaign, and dive headfirst into a sea of dangerous fashionistas, in an attempt to find Frenchie's killer, and protect herself from being next on the list of victims.

In the superficial land of Los Angeles, Jaine is a diamond in the rough, whose elastic-waist pants separate her from all of the plastic Barbie dolls traipsing around Rodeo Drive. Her dry wit, and sarcastic comments leave readers cackling in delight, while the different mishaps and scrapes she manages to get herself into - and out of - keep you on edge from beginning to end. Laura Levine is, without a doubt, one of the most entertaining mystery writers on the market to date. Her combination of humor, mystery, semi-romance, and la-la land are delightful, and leave the reader dying to accompany Jaine through the streets of LA, as she navigates her way through murderers, speed dating, friends, and fashionistas. The perfect book for a day at the beach - or a day at home. No matter where you are, you'll be able to enjoy Jaine Austen's misadventures - both in the dating world, and the world of high crime.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

If you're in the market for a lighthearted and enjoyable read, you'll definitely find it in Laura Levine's latest Jaine Austen installment, "Shoes to Die For." It may not be the most perplexing and suspenseful thing you read this year, but I do think that it will rate as one of the more amusing ones.

Jaine's neighbour, Lance, is between boyfriends and feeling bored. The solution: to glamourise the fashion-challenged Jaine. And against her better judgement, Jaine agrees to allow Lance to "spiff" her up. A three thousand dollar Prada suit and an expensive haircut later, and Jaine is looking very polished and quite glamourous. But the best part is that because of Lance's boredom, Jaine just might have landed a very lucrative assignment writing an ad for Passions, Lance's favourite fashionable clothing boutique. But when Jaine arrives early one morning to pitch her ideas, she finds Passions most detested employee, Frenchie, dead, stabbed in the neck with one of her own stilettos. And when another Passions employee, Becky, whom Jaine rather likes, ends up on the police's suspect list, Jaine finds herself, once again, donning her detective hat in order to hunt for Frenchie's real murderer.

"Shoes to Die For" was a nice, uncomplicated and amusing read. The mystery wasn't the most complex or the most intriguing I'd ever read, but Laura Levine's light and breezy prose style made it quite the entertaining read. I, especially enjoyed the colourful and wacky (no other way to describe it) e-mail exchanges that Jaine had with both her parents. The only thing that annoyed after a while was the author's penchant for stating that Jaine had said or done something and then taking it back, and letting us know that Jaine hadn't really acted that way. While this was initially humorous, it lost its charm when it occurred every other page. All in all though, if you're looking for a bright breezy read, that's full of gentle sarcastic humour and loads of fun, you'll want to read "Shoes to Die For." A good 3 1/2 star read.

I like Ms. Levine's books a lot mostly due to the main character's ability to laugh at herself and the world around her. But some of the "quirks" do get tiresome - for instance, the references to the cat always licking herself in intimate places is funny enough the first time but gets old pretty quickly. And the "Ooops, I said it, no, I didn't" routine starts to grate after the ninth or tenth time. And always coming up with a cutsie name for the cat food begins to wear thin almost immediately. But the retirement home characters are funny, the communications with Jaine's mom and dad are funny and sentimental, and all around, these are easy to read, easy to follow mystery/comedies that are easy to enjoy. I recommend them.

Shoes to Die For.This is one of the funniest books I've read in ages. If you're feeling blah, tired or just plain bored, you owe it to yourself to read it. Laura Levine uses the same wit and creativity she used to write top sitcom series like The Newhart Show and Laverne and Shirley to cook up this funny, slightly raunchy page-turner that will have you up all night reading it. The sub-plot about Jaine's retired parents, and their emails is as involving and humorous as the main plot. I laughed so much, my cat came over to see what was happening!

The characters are well developed, the plot yanks you in, and food-challenged detective Jaine Austin's asides are so funny, you'll be giggling every time you pick the book up.

"Shoes to Die For" is the fourth book in Laura Levine's Jaine Austen mystery series. I have read the prior three, but you don't need to read them in sequence. Jaine Austen is a freelance writer of business slogans, resume's, and brochures. She is single and likes it, and lives in L.A. with her cat named Prozac. When she goes in a trendy boutique to see about an advertising job, someone is murdered in the shop that night. An employee, whom Jaine likes, is accused and asks Jaine's help to exonerate her. Characters are well done and hold your interest. The plot is good. Hardly a page goes by without a laugh, or at least a smile. This is a light, fast read that keeps you turning the pages 'til the end. Good climax. I enjoy Ms. Levine's wonderful sense of humor, but I thought in this book there could have been a little more. This is one series you can count on to entertain.

One of the things that makes Laura Levine my favorite among the newer crop of mystery writers is that her books not only have a happy ending, but a happy beginning: The person she bumps off always richly deserves it. This latest volume in Levine's Jaime Austen series is no exception, as the ever-beleaguered heroine's current nemesis discovers that the phrase "killer pair of shoes" can take on a whole new meaning, and the reader is drawn into a highly entertaining, witty whodunit.

Levine is a consistently lively, clever, and hilariously funny author, and I can unreservedly recommend this book to anyone looking for summer reading material--whether you are normally a fan of detective fiction or not.

I recommend, however, reading this book wearing flat-heeled slippers. Your designer stilettos will never look the same to you again.

I so enjoy this category of series mystery/comedy..Evanovich's Plum, Brown's and Brauns' cats (and dog), Cockey's Sewell to name a few. Austen's are a bit more to the comedy than the mystery but that's okay. I'll never hear "Set it and forget it!" without laughing out loud due to Austen's use of the phrase in an earlier book in the series.

However as another reviewer mentioned it becomes more than a bit annoying of the author's tendency for stating that Jaine had said or done something and then taking it back, and letting us know that Jaine hadn't really acted that way. Yes it was cute the first one or two times (she has used this technique in early books too) it gets old fast and while we are talking about it same goes for the old 'sales pitch' she uses have the reader buy those earlier books. She may be using it as filler since her books are pretty brief anyway.

But these all play a minor irritation to the overall book. Which is a fast, easy, and enjoyable read that will have you wanting more.