Fashion Victim

Dallas O'Connor #3

by Chloe Green

Style and suspense come seamlessly together in Dallas's latest sleuthing adventure, "Fashion Victim." This time, a video shoot in the Caribbean is haunted by sinister pranks, voodoo curses, and gruesome murder.Shortly after Dallas arrives in Paradise, she realizes that the relationship between the five young women who make beautiful music together is less than harmonious. And the lead singer, Jillyian, has taken an instant dislike to Dallas, herself. Soon, a series of frightening practical jokes -- including a pin hidden in a makeup brush, a lynched "corpse" made to look like one of the girls, a phony snake bite, drugged punch, a vandalized sleeping room, and a stolen voodoo doll -- has everyone on edge. Dallas finds herself attracted to two men in the group, the chef Oscar, and producer Donny, but is beginning to have doubts that anyone can be trusted.

With a hurricane brewing and the video shoot in complete disarray, Dallas realizes that the jokes are over. This time, the body swinging from a palm tree in the breeze really is dead. And if she doesn't figure out fast who's the killer, she's going to learn the new meaning of "clothes to die for."

Genres: Mystery, Cozy, Cozy Mystery

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Suzanne Frank is a newspaper and magazine journalist who has traveled extensively in Egypt, Greece, and Israel. A native of Texas, she lives in Dallas. She has written 4 novels under her own name and a short series of light mysteries under the name Chloe Green, which feature a fashionable sleuth named Dallas O'Connor. Her four novels are a linked series of time-travel fantasy that take a woman from the 1990s to ancient Egypt, Atlantis, and Biblical Israel. She draws heavily on history, myth and especially the Judeo-Christian Bible.

Reviews

[Bookwormbelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 3rd and final book in the Dallas O'Connor series. This time instead of catalog shoots and models, Dallas is sent to the islands of the Bahamas to create a look for a new pop group. As usual, nothing ever is as relaxing as she hopes it will be.

It seems to me that there should've been more than 3 books in this series and each time I reread them, I'm left with that same thought.

[MB (What she read) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read 6/10/10.

This was my favorite book in this series. It was obvious to me on re-reading that Oscar's character was inspired by Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly --which was fun. The setting was gorgeous, Dallas was the same intriguingly contradictory character, and I'm still wondering who the girl group was based on. Was M.L. Diva supposed to be Madonna? (I'm not enough of a culture vulture to be up on this stuff, I guess.)

I found the styling of the clothes to be a huge flashback to those fun 90's and early 00's of Vogue. (Back when it was still a blast to read.) That was fun because I was able to picture the clothes.

I do wish that Chloe Green had written more books in this series as I think it had the potential to go big-time--since Dallas is a great character, with a fascinating career, and the settings and characters are great. Ms. Green's knowledge of the world she describes makes these books fun not only as mysteries, but also as novels about the fashion/advertising/entertainment world (although a little dated by now.) This is/was a fun beach read.

I also wish I could hear the tune to "The Old Conch is the sweetest...". (I tried googling, but to no avail.)

Since this novel ended with a huge set-up for a next book or books, it was frustrating for me as a reader to see that no others in this series were ever published. Aargh! (3.5 stars for me.)

Reread 10/10/14:
I really wish she'd have continued this series. This is definitely best of the three. It's so annoying that it ended with all these possibilities, and no way to continue Dallas' story.

[The Listmaker · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather disappointing read. Almost all the characters were unlikable. The "mystery" was lame. There was no depth to any character and the story was a fluffy mess.

What amazes me is that Chloe Green also writes under the name J. Suzanne Frank. There is a world of difference between the two styles. As Frank, she writes with depth and emotion and a certain eloquence; but as Green it's scattershot words on a page.

Wanna read something by this author? I'd suggest her novels as J. Suzanne Frank instead.

[Laura Salas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Self-published? I liked this fairly well, but had a couple of big gripes.

1. It's second in a series and doesn't stand alone very well. It gives a tiny bit of backstory, but not clearly. Felt like I didn't get the entire Thom Goodfeather issue.

2. I figured out the fact that someone else was lead singer, not Jillyian, LONG before mc Dallas did. That's just not right.

[Nancy S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to listen to this story with CJ Critt as narrator...well done. I like the main character in this series...Dallas rocks!