Shoe Done It

Accessories Mystery #1

by Grace Carroll

Rita Jewel has a dream job selling fabulous clothes and accessories to the socialites of San Francisco at Dolce's Boutique. But when a pair of heels becomes a clue in a murder, Rita finds herself engaged in a high- end crime of fashion.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Cozy, Fashion, Fiction, Mystery Thriller

266 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 4, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Melodie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Basically this book sucked! If you're a big time fashionista you might not be totally turned off by all the fashion name dropping. Other than that I can't imagine anyone actually loving this book!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first in the Accessories murder series. Rita Jewell works at a high-end boutique in San Francisco with her boss Dolce. She is sent to Miami to bring back an expensive pair of shoes for a client. But when the client (MarySue) comes to pick them up to wear to a benefit, she won't pay for them and instead grabs them from Rita and walks out. She is later murdered at the benefit and the shoes go missing. The rest of the book centers around finding the missing shoes, which must be the key to finding MarySue's killer.

I really like fashion and I loved Rita and Dolce. The plot moved quickly and Rita had a quirky and fun personality. A few of the elements are a bit out there and push the boundaries of believability, which is the reason it gets four starts. It's light-hearted, but still suspenseful. Very satisfying read.

[❂ Murder by Death · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Good characters, although the detective character seemed all over the place. Weak plot - the impetus for the murder seemed awfully weak to me. Too many instances where I felt the author was trying to sell me clothing, although I don't mind a bit of fashion speak (the Crimes of Fashion series being one of my favourites). Still there were enough likeable things about this book that I'll read the second one and decide from there whether to continue with the series or not.

[Annabel Sheron · Rating 2 out of 5]

The brand name dropping got old and the mystery seemed to take a back seat to the fashion!

[Debra Clewer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a well-written book. As a Cozy Mystery (the genre it was under in my local library), it falls well short of a good story. Hardly any plot twists, slow pace. It could have taken half the word count if the author hadn't spend so much time describing haute couture clothing that not only was she wearing but everyone else, including the local policeman and her doctor. Other characters were given a dressing down, as it were, for their lack of taste and dressing finesse. The pace was also slowed down by the author's constant description of food and restaurant dishes. Poor storyline and lacklustre characters, no tension. One character who was introduced as a supposedly 127-year-old vampire and the Romanian aunt of a future dating prospect added no relevance to the plot whatsoever. The addition of her cabbage recipe at the back of the book didn't make any sense, as she was not a major part of the plot in any way. It was also quite ridiculous that the protagonist climbed a ladder to look into the window of a 2-story house. The victim pushed her backwards on the ladder, and all she ended up with was a sprained ankle, which seemed to clear up miraculously fast, especially as she appeared to be popping painkillers about every 2 hours. I found it perplexing that there is no information available on the internet about this author, save for mentions of her books. Not sure why a reputable publisher would have put this one out.

[R.B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was entertaining but I can't say I understood much of it. A lot of fashion talk and designers names, the weather, history and tourist attractions of San Francisco as well as the food. The protagonist also dated three men at the same time for no reason, and there's a vampire character you're never quite sure if it's supposed to be a joke or not.

The characters are interesting, so maybe I'll keep reading just to see how they do, but as a mystery it was lacking.

It kept saying the shoes were silver then at the end it mentioned leather and diamonds, I thought they were literally solid silver shoes but apparently not and that was quite confusing.

[Theda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whatever the opposite of a ‘fashionista’ is, that’s me. But, I enjoyed this fashion-centric book, the descriptions of the clothes and shoes and accessories for both women and men (who usually get short shrift in this department). And the setting in San Francisco (one of my favorite cities) was a plus.

I had read this book years ago, and decided to re-read it as I remembered the venue and characters as interesting enough for me to want to read the rest of the series.

[Leah Hortin · Rating 2 out of 5]

So cheesy.

[Darcy Odden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun cozy mystery for those who are fashionistas.

[Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clothing, accessories, dating and murder, a great new, to me, series!

[Janel · Rating 3 out of 5]

First in An Accessories Series. I found all three books at a library book sale. Fun and easy read when traveling.

[Nancy H · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun mystery with lots of fashion involved. Someone has commissioned a very expensive pair of shoes, and Rita Jewel, a fashionista who works at Dolce's, a high fashion boutique, has to travel across the country from San Francisco to Miami to pick them up in person. She is nervous throughout the trip, but gets them safely back to the boutique, only to have them stolen at the moment she is to make the actual sale to the customer. When that customer is later murdered, after injuring Rita, both Rita and her boss are accused of the crime. Rita must dig through layers of intrigue and even some fashion faux pas to find out what really happened and who the murderer was.

[Allison Feigenbaum · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good book but not my favorite mystery I have read. It is about a young women who works for a clothing store and some SUPER EXPENSIVE shoes are stolen from them. The shoes later become a clue and the motive in the murder of the shoe thief. The two store workers become suspects in the murder but they are the ones who find the real killer.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rita Jewell loves her job selecting outfits and accessories for the wealthy clients of Dolce’s Boutique in San Francisco. Rita’s boss Dolce Loren sends her to Miami Beach to pick up a pair of one-of-a-kind custom-made silver stilettos for a customer to wear to a prestigious charity event. The customer is MarySue Jensen, but when she comes to pick up the shoes, she doesn’t have the money to pay the large balance owed on the shoes. MarySue grabs the shoes out of Rita’s hands and flees from the store. Rita goes to MarySue’s home to try to get the shoes back, but ends up in the emergency room with a concussion and a sprained ankle, but no shoes! Rita learns MarySue was murdered sometime after the charity event and the beautiful shoes are missing. Detective Jack Wall suspects Rita and Dolce of doing whatever it takes to get the expensive shoes back – even murder!

Rita is a likeable, quirky character. Besides her love for fashion, she takes Kung Fu lessons and minored in Romanian so she could read about vampires. Rita has recently moved from Ohio to San Francisco and for the last six months, her social calendar has been empty. Now that she’s involved in a murder investigation, she has three very different men that seem to be interested in her: Dr. Jonathan Rhodes, the ER doctor that treated her; Nick Petrescu, a Romanian gymnastics teacher; and the handsome Detective Wall. Reading about Rita choosing her outfits and preparing for her dates with each man is a fun part of the book. As a supporting character, sometimes Dolce is hard to figure out. However, she is a generous boss and good friend to Rita, at one point offering her a very substantial discount on an outfit and treating her to a makeover at an exclusive salon so Rita will look her best for a special date.

Readers more knowledgeable about designer fashions would better appreciate the many conversations about various designer labels than I did. However, the frequent references to fashion designer does makes sense in the context of Rita’s job as a fashion consultant and sales associate at an upscale boutique, and I recognized enough of the names to remain interested in the story.

There is one blatant plot inconsistency where the author contradicts herself regarding the circumstances as to how Rita got from MarySue’s house to the hospital. There is also a weird scene at MarySue’s funeral that I am not sure is supposed to be taken seriously or if it was written tongue-in-cheek. Basically Rita and Dolce question MarySue’s funeral attire as if they are at a society party and the woman had chosen the “offensive” outfit herself!

While the book isn’t perfect, I enjoyed it, flaws and all. Rita is an interesting character and it’s great to be introduced to San Francisco through her eyes. The book ends with a few recipes for food mentioned in the story, fashion tips, and even some dating rules, courtesy of Rita’s Aunt Grace. "Shoe Done It" is a fast-paced book and a great start to a promising series that will appeal to those who enjoy Elaine Viets or Dorothy Howell.

This review was originally written for The Season EZine. The book was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.

[Jazminn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series has potential, and I hope it gets better.

The book is about a sales associate and fashion consultant Rita that is trying to help her boss, Dolce, clear her name in a murder. The murder appears to be over a pair of shoes that Dolce sold to one of her clients MarySue. MarySue wanted the shoes, and didn't pay for them in full, which is why Dolce was named a suspect. When the sexy cop (Jack) comes in, Rita decides to help him solve the murder case, even though it's causing her all sorts of pain. A sprained ankle, a concussion, and threats to her life.

What I didn't like the book was the amount of rambling Rita did to herself. Her thought processes were too long and didn't need to be there. I rated it low since I had to sift through the rambling. It got to a point where you knew the rambles were coming and could skim over the entire paragraph. The rambles were about the clothes somebody was wearing, what she wanted to wear, or how she didn't like something. It was unnecessarily long and happened too frequently.

[Marty · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t know why I picked up this book. I don’t care about fashion and have no idea about designer names. Why I finished reading it is also a mystery. It’s not a bad story if you are not upset by people paying huge sums for clothing and accessories that they wear only once or twice. To me it is just misuse of money. It was interesting to see how Carroll worked various places around San Francisco into her story about a boutique clothing store catering to the rich society ladies of SF. Unfortunately, MarySue kept buying expensive items – especially an extremely expensive pair of silver shoes even though her husband told her they could no longer afford it. Also unfortunately, the shoes lead to her death.

[Dharia Scarab · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I don't normally write reviews unless I have something specific to say, here's the break down of how I rate my books...

1 star... This book was bad, so bad I may have given up and skipped to the end. I will avoid this author like the plague in the future.

2 stars... This book was not very good, and I won't be reading any more from the author.

3 stars... This book was ok, but I won't go out of my way to read more, But if I find another book by the author for under a dollar I'd pick it up.

4 stars... I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be on the look out to pick up more from the series/author.

5 stars... I loved this book! It has earned a permanent home in my collection and I'll be picking up the rest of the series and other books from the author ASAP.

[AngryGreyCat · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing in itself was fine, but the mystery or at least the villain was obvious (at least to me) and the sense of place seemed off. My main issue was that the characters weren’t really that likable. Grasping, shallow fashionistas, not really anyone I could relate to and I do like clothes and fashion. I enjoy other fashion based cozies, such as Meg London’s Sweet Nothing’s Lingerie series, Annette Blair’s Vintage Magic Series and the Ellen Byerrum’s Crime of Fashion series, so it was definitely not the theme was the issue.

I was looking forward to this one for a while so it was disappointing that it didn’t work for me.

[Leya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved that this story is set in San Francisco, one of my favorite cities. I'm not a huge fashion follower, I'm what people call comfortable. I love my jeans and tees! But I enjoyed how these characters are fashionista willing to do and get everything they think is fashion. The main character, Rita, I'm not sure about just yet, I'll have to read more of the series. The mystery itself had me guessing, one chapter was one person, next chapter was someone different and I was completely surprised on who it was.

[Jeannie and Louis Rigod · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have written three 'what did you think' messages here and feel none of them are positive. Thus, I'm going to just say, that 'Shoe Done It' was not my type of murder mystery. It lacked details of the crime, characters, motive, etc. In fact the only thing it was overly concerned with was name dropping of designer Fashion.

Just not for me.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit heavy on the fashion side and in the end the murder is solved in a couple of pages.
Not a high literature kind of book , but the kind of book that you read when you don't have the time or the inclination to read something difficult. Very easy reading for in a train or on a beach.

[swati · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every San Francisco fashionista should read this book. I loved all the references to high end fashion and the culture, neighborhoods and atmosphere of San Francisco. It is a light mystery well set in the city of SF.

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some potentially great characters in this story. I hope they flesh out. The mystery was ok though was easily solved though the motive ( not a great one and not fully explained) was own the lame side. I look forward to the next instalment.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was cute. I thought Rita was a bit much at times, but she and Dolce were fun together. I figured out the killer early on, but it's still fun to read what happens. I'm interested to see what happens with Rita and her trifecta of suitors.
 

[Misty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a good story. Too much name dropping and figured out the whodoneit fairly early on. Would still give the second book in the series a chance before deciding whether or not to give up on this series.

[Mary (Biblophile) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too much of nothing to waste your time on. Didn't even finish it.

[Annie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love silly mysteries in general. But this one just made me want to read a better silly mystery.

[Chris · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was boring. It took me a week to push my way through it. Maybe if you are fashion oriented, it would probably be interesting.

[StillReadingBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. I am not sure I would read another one in the series... well maybe if someone gave it to me but I wouldn't go through the trouble of reserving it.

[Steph S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fashion and mystery, I couldn't resist. Reminds me a bit of the Shopaholic series. A fun and fast read. I will be sure to check out more in this series!