Reviewed By Liz

ISBN 978-0-425-21294-3

Glossed and Found features Persia Vanderbilt, who is a perfume blender with an extraordinary sense of smell and the co-owner of a salon. The salon is going full tilt in the lead-up to the holiday season when Persia discovers that the employee who does the makeovers has left the salon in the middle of the day and then never returns. Her car is later discovered parked near the water, but Persia knows the woman is deathly afraid water and wouldn’t have gone into it for love or money. Since she can’t persuade the police that the woman couldn’t have drowned, she must figure out what happened to the missing woman on her own.

Glossed and Found is a book whose author couldn’t decide what it should be. In the beginning, India Ink lets us know that Persia is all about beauty, self-care, and money by including the brand names for all the clothes, shoes, makeup, and cars she wears and sees on her way to the chiropractor, masseuse, manicurist, and designer only clothing stores, etc. Then she drops this glam persona completely and makes a bizarre switch to Persia as Rambo when her ex-boyfriend starts to stalk her and we learn she is trained in the martial arts and has serious problems with anger management and scruples. Then we lean towards the supernatural as the author throws in a ghost and two psychics before arriving at an ending so saccharine you want to vomit. To say that this book is uneven is an understatement.

Unfortunately, I can’t say that the character or setup appealed to me in any of the book’s different phases.

Favorite character? Barb, whose mother-in-law is in town. Did I guess it? Yes. Will I read another? No.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

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