A Fashionable Fatality

Jennifer M. Dixon returns to narrate Maxwell’s eighth installment of the “Lady and Lady’s Maid Mystery” series, following A Deadly Endowment. While visiting her sister’s manor, Lady Phoebe and her lady’s maid Eva are surprised to meet the famous French fashion maven Coco Chanel. Coco’s unexpected guests soon fill the house with her fashions and her many assistants staging photographs of the designer’s latest creations. Soon it’s apparent that all is not well with Coco’s entourage, as accidents befall one of her models, and another dies under mysterious circumstances. As they strive to prove that the death was murder, Phoebe and Eva use their investigative skills to uncover the guests’ secrets. Dixon’s pacing keeps the story moving. Most of the characters are distinguishable from one another; however, many of the English women characters speak with a petulant, simpering tone, much to the detriment of the novel’s serious events. With the large cast of characters originating from different places and classes, Dixon has the opportunity to showcase a wide range of accents, which she does to a limited extent.