Retro Reading: Fashion Faux Paw by Judi McCoy
Fashion Week Can be Murder
Ellie Engleman steps out of her comfort zone of professional dog walker to enter the glitz and glam of New York's Fashion Week in the last installment of the Dog Walker Mystery series.
In Fashion Faux Paw Ellie's client/model Patti Fallgrave puts in a good word and before she knows it she's soon wrangling the models' dogs. Besides grooming she has to make sure the four legged canines have the matching clothes their human counterparts will be wearing as they head down the catwalk.
As the chaotic week begins the furthest thing from anyone's mind is murder. At first the signs of designer Lilah Perry's death seem to be accidental. It was well known that the designer was not well liked and when she had an allergic reaction it was Ellie who found her bag and EpiPen. What no one knew was the EpiPen had been tampered with causing Lilah's death.
Since Ellie was once again at the wrong place at the wrong time she's questioned by the police and again promises her boyfriend, Det. Sam Ryder that she'll keep her nose clean. Of course we know this won't happen.
The stakes for this particular event are quite high and Ellie's Fashion Week assistant, Kitty, has the chance to move from the dog pen to designer now that Lilah's dead. Since the contest isn't cancelled Kitty is placed into the competition. Could Kitty have the motive and means to off Lilah for a chance at the big time? It seems likely since she had been turned down earlier.
By far this installment has had to have been the best in the series, yet ironically a few days before or after the release of this book author Judi McCoy passed away. McCoy's unexpected death also ends this installment in a very sentimental way as Ellie and Rudy are talking and both agree they live in a perfect world since they have each other.
Throughout this series it was quite evident that McCoy hadn't fully recovered from the loss of her own dog, Rudy and for those of us who have lost a beloved pet they're always on our mind. By writing these Dog Walker mysteries McCoy kept Rudy alive and I'm sure she found great comfort when writing this series.
Thank you Judi for the wonderful and sometimes crazy characters you created. It was my pleasure reading this series and you'll truly be missed, not only by your fans but by the many animals you helped from the royalties from Hounding the Pavement.
