The Brim Reaper

Samantha Kidd Mystery #3

by Diane Vallere

Former fashion buyer Samantha Kidd is in over her head!
With no job prospects on the horizon, former fashion buyer Samantha Kidd convinces boyfriend and shoe designer Nick Taylor to give her a job in his showroom, but when a collection of vintage Hollywood costumes comes to town, it brings a hat box full of hype. Close friend Eddie is in charge of the exhibit and calls on Samantha for help, but all too soon hype turns to homicide. Brimming with good intentions, she loops in the cops, but after one too many cloche calls, she's knee-deep in mystery. If she can tear the lid off the investigation, it might mean a feather in her fedora. And if she can't? She might get capped.


Books in the Humorous Samantha Kidd Mystery Series:
"Just Kidding" (short story)
#1 DESIGNER DIRTY LAUNDRY
#2 BUYER, BEWARE
#3 THE BRIM REAPER
#4 SOME LIKE IT HAUTE
#5 GRAND THEFT RETRO
#6 PEARLS GONE WILD (Dec 2016)


Perfect for the beach, the bath, the line outside of the fitting room...
(...or just kick off your heels and enjoy a Samantha Kidd mystery in your cozy clothes!)

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Cozy, Fashion, Chick Lit, Amateur Sleuth, Fiction

Kindle Edition

First published November 29, 2013

About the author

I use Goodreads to track my reading and TBR list. For that reason, my rating scale is less important. I don't force myself to finish books, and I don't rate books I DNF. Each year I choose my own BOTY from my have-read list.

AUTHOR BIO: Diane Vallere is the national bestselling author of several mystery series. She edited the Agatha Award-winning essay collection Promophobia: Taking the Mystery out of Promoting Crime Fiction. Diane majored in art history at the College of William and Mary and worked in luxury retailing before reigniting her love of fiction. She currently lives in Pennsylvania. Find out more at: www.dianevallere.com.

Amazon: http://bit.ly/DianeVallere
Facebook: https://bit.ly/3nGyOGZ:
Instagram: https://bit.ly/3aVXczm
YouTube: https://bit.ly/2RfiyAE

Reviews

[Mark Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perpetually unemployed Samantha Kidd has agreed to help her friend Eddie with a fashion exhibit at the local museum featuring vintage Hollywood costumes. However, when the shipments of hats at the center of the exhibit arrive, the boxes are empty. Then Samantha and Eddie find a dead body in the museum. After calling the police, Samantha fully intends to walk away from the case and focus on a job she’s taken working for her boyfriend, Nick, as he launches his own shoe design studio. However, she can’t just walk away. As her attention continues to be divided, will she be able to balance her new job and her relationship with finding a killer?

This is another delightful mystery. The plot is strong, with plenty of suspects, clues, and events to keep us engaged until Samantha finds the killer. I’m really like Samantha and the rest of the regular characters. The suspects aren’t quite as well developed, but that’s more due to lack of page time than anything else, and they are still strong enough to make us care about the outcome. There are a few minor timeline issues and typos; I wish the book had gotten the final edit it needed. While this isn’t a laugh a page mystery, there are some fun scenes and phrases that made me grin if not laugh out loud. Overall, this is another diverting mystery.

Read my full review at Carstairs Considers.

[Diane Vallere]

🎧Available in Audio!🎧
Narrated by Melissa Strom!

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[Emmalynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh Samantha is not smart, she’s not nice, she’s not anything except selfish. Her boyfriend gives her a job to help her out of her perpetual unemployment and what does she do, blows him off and doesn’t actually focus on the job he is paying her to do; she plays with his affections for her; toys with Dante, though I’m not sure why he is in the book, in fact she just needs to marry Eddie because he encourages her selfish behaviors towards others. Ughhh there’s a murder, Eddie is a suspect 🙄🙄 and Samantha got some reason believes she’s the ONLY ONE who can solve the mystery, not trained police. Nick just needs to dump her and move on.

[Kendel Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series, and Diane Vallere definitely delivered with her third chic and twisty mystery. It's whip-smart with plenty of style (both of the writerly and fashionable kind) from first page until last. Highly recommend!

[Ashley Cate · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Brim Reaper is the third book in the Style & Error Mystery series by Diane Vallere. This series is great for when you need a fun, humorous, light-hearted read. I’ve had a lot of stress in my life lately and this book was the perfect pick me up.

Samantha Kidd is helping her good friend Eddie out with a museum exhibit of vintage Hollywood hats when someone closely involved with the exhibit is found murdered. Samantha gets involved in the investigation when Eddie is implicated as a suspect. Samantha also has to deal with her ongoing job search, as well as her floundering relationship with shoe designer Nick Taylor. I have to say that I’m not a big Nick fan and hope that Samantha will end up with someone else eventually. He seems unhappy with her being her true, authentic self and that’s never a good sign when you’re in a relationship.

I thought the mystery was well done and when the reveal happened I was definitely surprised. I did think that everything was wrapped up well and made sense. I thought this was another great addition to the series and can’t wait to read more of the series as soon as possible.

[Jan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can't put my finger on it, but something was missing from this installment of the series and it just didn't work for me.

[Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this third book of the series, Samantha has bought her family home, but due to her involvement in solving murders, she has been unemployed for 11 months and finances are getting tight. She is helping her friend Eddie with a museum exhibit pro bono while helping her boyfriend Nick with his new store to make some money and enhance her resume. Meanwhile sexy and tempting Dante shows up. Murder happens at the museum.

This is a hard book for me to review, the story interested me enough to keep turning the pages, but I felt there were an incredible number of red herrings making the mystery overly complicated and that the characters never jelled or were poorly fleshed out.

I never felt connected to any of the characters because they didn't seem to connect. Samantha never really had any dialog or interaction actually on the written page for us to understand her relationship with the three men in her life: Nick, Dante and Eddy. She didn't seem like a foolish character, but her interaction with Nick didn't fit with her statements about how when she worked for him they couldn't date to maintain a professional relationship. She treated her job with him totally unprofessionally, flitting off to work on her murder solving while on the clock and actually expecting to be paid for a personal day, three days into the job (or was that supposed to be a joke?). The store opening was very critical to Nick and she blew it off after he did her a favor she desperately needed by hiring her.

I couldn't figure out what Dante was doing in the story. He apparently has answers about the murder for Samantha and provides a competitor for Nick in terms of Samantha's affections. I never felt the heat or temptation he provides and didn't see why he was playing with Samantha and not just answering her questions straight up.

Another issue I had was that Samantha never actually figures out who the killer is, although it's mentioned that she does. The killer has the opportunity to escape, yet the killer stays and reveals his/her identity to Samantha giving us the suspenseful ending which doesn't ring true.

We also have no clue what the police and Det. Loncar are doing throughout the story.

Like I mentioned, I was interested enough to keep reading and would consider reading another book in the series, but I wouldn't recommend this book to a friend. There's better out there.

[Tess · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Brim Reaper was written by Diane Vallere. Although this was the 3rd book in the series, and I have not read the first 2, I didn't have any trouble sorting people out right away. Some series are written so that you have to read them in order, I was glad to find one that wasn't.
I think that Ms Vallere has found her place in the cozy mystery home. I liked being taken behind the scenes in the retail business.

[Doward Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Samantha is now working for her boyfriend, Nick Taylor, who is also a shoe designer. When she gets a chance to help her friend, Eddie stage a display of vintage Hollywood costumes and hats, she is all in. When hats disappear and reappear, she and Eddie get sucked into another wild mystery. I can't get enough of these lovable but wacky characters as I delve into the world of fashion. The plots only continue to get better and better. Check out this series for some laughs and relaxing reading!

[Katarina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I enjoyed the clever mix of a young, breath-of-fresh-air fashionista with a writing that is reminiscent of old style mystery.

The book kept me engaged until the end, and offered a good story and good characters. I have not read the first 2 in the series, but you can jump right into this book without feeling like you're lost or missing something.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I know nothing of hats, this was still another fun cozy. The Who-done-it and why was totally believable.

[Virginia Kessen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy, breezy read but it felt more like a first draft than a finished book.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the third installment of the Samantha Kidd mysteries, Samantha is helping out her friend, Eddie Adams. Eddie is visual manager for the retailer, Tradava, and he is working on an exhibit of vintage movie costumes at the Ribbon Museum of Art. Christian Jhanes is the museum director and Thad Thomas is the assistant to the museum director. The store--What's on Your Mind-- has the largest client list of hat collectors in the country. The owner of the store--Dirk Engle-- is curating an exhibit with Tradava's name on it. Samantha and Eddie are making progress on the exhibit when they discover Engle's dead body with a fedora by his body! While working with Eddie on the exhibit, Samantha also becomes Nick's showroom assistant. Things remain shaky between them, because of her troubles with prioritizing and time management. This continues to be a fun series to read because of Samantha and the people in her life. There are many possible suspects in this murder and Samantha gives it her all until she figures it out.

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

When a faded movie star known for her vintage hats and fashions is the subject of an exhibit at the local museum, Samantha Kidd finds herself at the center of a murder investigation. The Brim Reaper is the third book in this series and brings back your favorite characters from the previous books including Samantha Kidd, whose investigative skills sometimes have you screaming NO SAMANTHA! What I love about this series is the nod to classic movies and the love Samantha has for them. Also the mention of Unzipped the amazing documentary about Isaac Mizrahi also made me smile. Diane knows her fashion, fashion history and it gives the reader so much more! You end up always rooting for Samantha. Now to continue with the series!

[Janet Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holywood History Meets Fashion Museum
This is a busy story. I think that a reader should read these books in order to fully keep track of all of the moving pieces. Our heroine is helping a friend set up a museum showing of a collection of Hollywood hats. Everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. It is an exciting story that does not give the reader time to catch a breath. I love a good, cozy mystery like this one, where the reader really does not know what is going on until the final denouement. I can't wait for the next book.

[Claudete Takahashi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Samantha still strugles with her personal and professional life and is decides to help her friend Eddie to put together a museum exibition of hats and clothes through times. The description of the scenery and people´s clothes are just perfect - you can see them ! The story has rythym and is entertaining. The copy of the book that I read had some typing errors and missing words that should be corrected but do not affect the understanding of the story. Very entertaining!

[Kiki Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read three books in this series so far, and they all have the same issue: although the mystery is decent, the books aren't that long, so the focus on Samantha's relationships with Nick and Dante take up way too much time. I don't care about either of them. Nick is barely a character, and Dante rubs shoulders with creepy.

[Minga Dotson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A whodunit tangled with a mystery, with hints of multiple sexual interests, none of which do more than tease.

No matter which way she turns Samantha gets involved with part of this mystery because there are so many tangled threads of connection leading everyone astray from who is really behind the murder and other actions.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy Diane Vallere's writing. She always keeps me interested. The characters were interesting and the story itself was interesting. A story all about fashion how could it not be interesting?

[Sandra Lopez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Samantha Kidd was helping out in a vintage costume display at the museum, which sounded interesting to me, at first. In reality, the story was pretty slow and repetitive. Unfortunately, it didn’t really progress from there.

[Kylie Prattley · Rating 5 out of 5]

always a great read.

[Ashley Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good read

I really appreciate the development of the characters in this series. They are just realistic enough to connect to but unique enough to be interesting.

[Marcia-Lee Finocchio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vintage Hats and murder!

Very entertaining storyline, loved the characters and the way this story was told. There also is great humor, found another wonderful Author to read.

[stephanie huntington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great outfits. Fabulous hats. Amazing exhibit. I really enjoyed book #3 in the series

[Angel Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit, I struggled reading this book. I found it dull, confusing and 50 shades of bland. I didn't find any if the characters worth rooting for.

[Marti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable murder mystery with LOTS of fashion details thrown in.

[Janet L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good book in this series! Samantha always seems to be involved in whatever crime happens in town and finds a way out with a little help from her friends and Detective Loncar.

[Dawn Cyr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

[patricia cruse · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the clothing descriptions.in this series.