#Review / #Giveaway – Dressed to Confess by Diane Vallere – @BerkleyMystery

It’s time for the Sagebrush Festival in Proper City, Nevada. The theme this year is board games and Ebony has planned the perfect event. The headlining act is a “Blast from the Past”, the Domino Divas, a group that has not performed together for 50 years. Margo has been tasked with making their costumes and helps Ebony out by watching the final rehearsal and handling any dust ups between the Divas.

The festival opens with a standing room only crowd to see the Domino Divas but Margo is short one Diva. The mayor is livid as Margo heads to the Diva’s trailer/dressing room where she finds one very dead Diva. The festival is shutdown for the night so the police can launch their investigation but they quickly point the finger at Don Digby, her dad’s best friend. Seems he and the dead diva, Ronnie Cass had a relationship way back when and there was also a robbery that took place the last night the Diva’s performed and they believe he was involved as that as well. Margo doesn’t believe a word of it so she starts investigating both the murder and the robbery before Don is sent directly to jail, with no $200, no Get Out of Jail Free card, and no roll of the dice.

The board game theme of this story really appealed to me. There was a time when every game mentioned and a few more filled shelves in our family room. Now the kids are older and the games have been packed away for the next generation. I would love to go to the Sagebrush Festival and play them life size. It would be so much fun.

Sadly a murder mires down the happiness the festival should provide. The mayor had the “show must go on” attitude but the community wasn’t really ready for fun and games. Although it did enable Margo to interview people connected to the victim and find some really nice clues.

The plot developed at an excellent pace. The robbery subplot was nicely meshed with the murder mystery. I enjoyed learning more about the history of Proper City. It has become one of my favorite cozy settings.

All the characters we loved from previous books return. The Divas were an interesting group that became some of Margo’s prime suspects. The new publicist for the town was also introduced. An unusual man, everything was a promotion gimmick to him, every photo opportunity was taken, all posted to social media. He did get people to come out for the festival and then had to spin some of his plans after the murder occurred.

Margo creates costumes for not only the performers but 100 teddy bears too. She also created more for the Disguise De Limit’s store window and herself. I was just bowled over my her creativity. She is passionate about her business, she strives to make her family business a success, even if it means staying up all night. It makes be long for the days when I was sewing and creating costumes for my children.

Diane Vallere has a real winner with this series. Wonderful mysteries, colorful characters and a fantastic setting just a few miles from Las Vegas. With a little bit of humor and a touch of romance the story has everything I love about cozies mysteries. A perfect escape any time of year.