Haberdasher Crasher

Last fall, I fell in love with Jenn McKinlay's Wait For It.  But since then I found out that McKinlay writes more than romcoms.  She's also a cozy mystery queen, penning three series, one each about cupcakes, books, and, yes, hats.  Being a clotheshorse, I went for the headgear, beginning my millinery mission with book one, Cloche and Dagger.  

Heartbroken after an affair with a married man, Scarlett Parker flees Florida for London and Mim's Whims, the hat shop that she and her cousin Viv inherited from their grandmother.  Yet when Scarlett arrives, she finds that her cousin is missing.  Not that anyone else is alarmed.  Famous for having a head for hats but not business, Viv often takes off for parts unknown in search of exotic hat-making materials.  Mysterious disappearance notwithstanding, I love Viv's enthusiasm for and commitment to her craft.  So I was charmed by McKinlay's description of her and her grandmother's artistic spirit:

"Mim had the same temperament as Viv.  They were artists first and businesswomen second.  I'd known Mim to get obsessed with a particular hat style or a color -- there had been an infamous chartreuse stage -- or if she'd found a vintage hat that she wanted to make over, it positively took over her brain.  . . . There was something spectacular and otherworldly about Mim when she'd been consumed by her creative fire." (37-38)

It almost makes me want to chuck it all to open a shop in jolly old England.  Well, except for the murder bit.  Things turn serious when the hat shop's most difficult -- not to mention titled -- customer is found stabbed while wearing one of Viv's bespoke creations.  For a cozy, the description is a bit graphic, and I had to keep telling myself to focus on the cranial couture instead of the stab wound.  Because even in the land of make believe, fashion serves as a sanity-saving distraction.   

Speaking of which, just for fun, here's (most of) my own hat collection:

None of these toppers is of boutique caliber, having come from Kohl's, JCPenney, Amazon, and in one case each, Doll's Kill and Modcloth.  But then again, none resulted in a fatality either. 

If only that dead duchess had gone with a chain store chapeau.