Fear in Fashion

Raven Hill Mysteries #17

by Emily Rodda

Genres: Childrens, Mystery, Fiction, Contemporary

124 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Emily Rodda (real name Jennifer Rowe) was born in Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Sydney in 1973 with an MA (Hons) in English Literature. Moving into a publishing career, first as a book editor, and finally as a publisher at Angus & Robertson, Rodda's first book was published in 1984.

Reviews

[Kerryn (RatherBeReading) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars

[Hamna Ch · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a childish book...childish characters...childish plot. Nothing was intense. BORING😩

[Sarah Thornton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richelle. So vain. So trusting.
Scam-based book, no murders or skeletons.

Reread 2024: Richelle has no self awareness and I love that for her.

[Grace Chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute Middle Grade mystery that takes place almost entirely in the mall? Sign me up!
Behold this sentence in Chapter 13 which very simply and succinctly sums up what I would do in the middle of a catastrophe too:
“The next afternoon, instead of going to the police we went to the mall.”

I rest my case 🤣🤣🤣🛍️🛍️🛍️

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't have strong feelings about this story. It was decent and I don't have any real complaints about it. If I had to rank all of the books this one would fall somewhere in the middle.

[Heather Gallagher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just read this today to try and get a breakdown of the structure. I'm plotting out my own middle-grade mystery at the moment and struggling with structure. I've read quite a few of the Teen Power Inc mysteries and this was not as good as others - not so many twists or red-herrings. Basically there is one main character who is on the nose from the start and she's the baddy. The thing I did like about this was it got into what Richelle (the character narrating this particular book) really wanted - which is to be a famous model. This ambition blinded her to the smarmy baddy who basically offered her her dreams on a silver platter. Richelle is driven to act by this overwhelming desire and therefore this story really ticks the boxes on character 'wants'. SPOILER ALERT I really liked how at the end Richelle wises up to Dee Dee and literally strips her of her dignity. A mighty fine example of Girl Power :)

[Laura McCormick · Rating 3 out of 5]

She's a con artist. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. What kind of parents let their kids work for a percentage?
Implausible. The story is well written, in the sense that the underlying story is severely lacking but the words used to convey it are well chosen.
One of the few Teen Power books with no B plot.