This was by far my favorite of the mystery series that I read over the summer and features LA shoe designer, Maddie Springer, as the protagonist. Gemma Halliday has managed to get the perfect mix of intrigue, humor, and romance in all four of the books in this series so far. What appeals to me most is that Maddie is so believable as someone who doesn’t really want to be investigating these things but gets pulled into it anyway. And she’s not great at it. If there’s anything I hate, it’s a main character who’s a Mary Sue. Maddie’s as far from that as you can get and, yes, she does remind me a bit of Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum despite the differences between them. Although, at least Stephanie figured out early on that she shouldn’t go around leaving her fingerprints at the crime scene. Book #4 and I’m still waiting for Maddie to learn that lesson. Of course, as with every book series I fall in love with, there’s a lovable bunch of secondary characters who I can’t wait to see again when the fifth book comes out in January.
