Gemma Halliday, Killer in High Heels

Killer in High Heels

Gemma Halliday

Making It (Dorchester), Mar 2007, $$6.99, 320pp.

ISBN: 050552712X

In Santa Monica, Tot Trots Children Shoe designer Maddie Springer is shocked when she listens to her voice messages. "Real Dad" left a message begging her to help him as he had read about her boob exploits in the paper (see SPYING IN HIGH HEELS). The message ends abruptly with what sounds like shots. Maddie has not see "Real Dad" since she was three and he ran off with a statuesque, red-headed show dancer named Lola.

With the help of her best friend Dana, they track her "Real Dad" to Vegas where they and Marco, the receptionist at the salon of her "Faux Dad," find him in trouble with Monaldo the mobster, who is selling knocked off Guccis to Maddie's chagrin. She feels the felon should be put away for life for peddling fake designer shoes. As she gets in trouble with drag queens at the Victoria Club and a murder, her fascinating Detective Jack Ramirez arrives like the cavalry to keep Maddie out of trouble with Monaldo and his heels.

Readers will agree with the heroine that society needs to change Murphy's Law to Maddie's Law as she seems to land in problem after problem. The storyline is a lighthearted mystery with a kinky twist that would please the Davies brothers. Though taser cell phone stun gun instead of stiletto stabs into silicon is the weapon of choice, readers of fun, escapist, amateur sleuth tales will enjoy the shoe sense of Maddie and her mates as they strip Vegas of all pretension starting with fake shoes.

Harriet Klausner