When Haley arrives at Holt's employee luncheon and fashion show, she spots a sick server and helps out by putting on a uniform and waiting tables. The luncheon is a hit, with catered food from Edible Elegance--her mother's latest business--until top fashion model Claudia Gray is found dead in the ladies room. Too bad for Haley that Claudia, ex-girlfriend of Haley's current sort-of boyfriend, was poisoned and the police are looking for a missing server. Can Haley uncover the truth before she becomes a victim?
HANDBAGS AND HOMICIDE, set in L.A.'s Garment District, is the first book in an exciting new series featuring the hilarious and irresisitible Haley Randolph. When Haley says she’d ‘kill for’ the latest fashions, she doesn’t actually mean it. Of course, she’d quite happily stamp on feet, pull hair and elbow rivals out of the way to get to a new designer bag. But when her boss at Holt’s department store is discovered dead in the store room fingers are pointed firmly at her! If Haley’s going to escape jail (not to mention the orange prison jumpsuits) she must find the murderer and prove her innocence. At least the hunky Ty Cameron seems to be on her side...
After she discovers the body of her arch-nemesis in her trunk, Haley Randolph must track a killer, while also trying to get her hands on the new to-die-for Sinful-brand handbag. By the best-selling author of Purses and Poison.
A hilarious, darkly comic graphic retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in radically condensed prose by legendary Swedish children’s author Barbro Lindgren and illustrator Anna Höglund. Look Hamlet. Hamlet not happy. Hamlet’s mommy dumb. Hamlet’s daddy dead. So begins this wonderfully strange, dark, and hilarious picture book version of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy boiled down to its smallest possible size: 100 words, give or take, and fifteen etchings that look like the lovechild of Beatrix Potter and Edward Gorey. In our despondent antihero, a lop-eared bunny Hamlet with handbag in tow, is somehow embodied all the tremendous pathos of Shakespeare’s Danish Prince. And in legendary Swedish children’s author Barbro Lindgren’s pithy prose resides the poetry of the original, reworked for the era of memes and short attention spans. Bold and brilliant, irreverent and humane, Look Hamlet is the perfect irreverent gift for Shakespeare readers of all ages. As the Bard himself wrote: “brevity is the soul of wit.”
When professional fashionista Haley Randolph is cursed by an irate customer and then experiences a run of bad luck, including the discovery of a dead former classmate in the menswear department, she races against time to catch the real killer.
A fashion-obsessed sleuth must solve a murder as she starts a new executive career—and try to resist abusing her corporate credit card… Just because Haley lacks the right qualifications for her new position as corporate events coordinator doesn't mean she murdered her company's chief of security. Nothing about her fashion sense screams deadly killer, but she'll need to shop around on her own for some guilt-proof clues to prove the police are looking in the wrong bag. Especially since some of the other recent hires at the company also have something to hide. . . Between her many investigations, the new high-pressure job, and her just-moved-in boyfriend, there's almost no time for the most important thing in Haley's life: maxing out her credit card. If she's going to catch a killer, she'll need to be on her toes--heels and all--or she'll be this season's hottest victim. . . "The well-crafted plot, humor, and designer details will appeal to fans of Laura Levine and MaryJanice Davidson." --Booklist "Fast and fun. . . Established fans and newcomers alike will look forward to her next appearance." --Publishers Weekly
Haley Randolph isn't exactly a model sales clerk at Holt's Department Store. But when the corporate office acquires a high-end boutique chain and extends a juicy discount to employees, the fashionista will do anything--maybe even a little hard work--to keep the part-time gig and clinch a Mystique handbag, the season's absolute must-have, at a heart-stopping price. With the extra duties she's taking on, Haley's positioning herself to be Employee of the Month. But when Haley discovers former Holt's employee Asha McLean shot dead behind the store during orientation training, it turns out there's more to die for than hot designer deals. The ensuing negative publicity could force Holt's to close its doors permanently, sinking the surrounding shopping center--and Haley's job--into oblivion. Haley can't fathom why anyone would harm Asha--until she learns that her former coworker, who secretly lived in Sherman Oaks and owned a mint BMW, was seriously shady. Upon closer inspection, Asha's duplicitous lifestyle not only earned lots of cash, but plenty of mortal enemies. As authorities question her innocence and business wanes, Haley's desperate to sack the murderer and save Holt's in time. Otherwise, instead of rocking a Mystique, Haley might end up full of holes--or worse, locked away in a very unflattering shade of orange.--
Elise, a young woman with a mysteriously ill son, returns to her childhood home years after running away with a lover. Now destitute, she begins to search for an object hidden somewhere in the house, which has been in a state of disrepair since her mother's untimely death. Her father, who fled political terror in in his youth, is frail and often dreaming. So it falls to Elise's older sister, who has never left home, to maintain family order. Unraveled by alcohol and her own longing for escape, "Aunt," as Elise's sister is simply known, is further disturbed by the child's illness and his mother's irresponsibility. To placate the child, she turns to the bedtime tale of the Three Little Pigs, which becomes increasingly corrupted with each telling. As Aunt struggles to take care of the child, she recalls -- with a mixture of jealousy and resentment -- the day her sister left home. Meanwhile, Elise continues her search, with consequences that will alter Aunt's life irrevocably. A writer of "obvious and extreme talent" (Los Angeles Times), Raffel uses starkly beautiful, stunningly precise language to etch this compelling portrait of a family torn apart by longing, miscommunication, and misdirected love. Meticulously crafted and utterly absorbing, Carrying The Body is ultimately about the inescapable emotional legacies passed from generation to generation, and our dreams of refuge and release.
Former CIA analyst Francine Mathews has created “one of the toughest female secret agents we’ve seen in a long time.”* Using her firsthand expertise of international espionage, Mathews offers another brilliantly realized suspense novel so intense, so authentic, it lethally blurs the line between fact and fiction. In Blown, Caroline Carmichael returns in a white-hot tale of terror on the streets of Washington, where one woman must gamble her life to save her country. As thousands of runners line up for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., no one suspects that in a matter of hours the event will become a race between life and death. CIA analyst Caroline Carmichael is about to tender her resignation, when the first reports of a terrorist attack pour in–and she instantly recognizes the hand of an enemy she’s battled for years: the 30 April Organization. The neo-Nazi group is alive and well and operating in the United States, assassinating top officials and abducting a vulnerable child from the front ranks of a state funeral. When Caroline’s husband, Eric, is arrested in Germany as a 30 April operative, Caroline has no choice but to take to the streets–and target the evil herself. Eric has worked as a “legend” for years–a false identity so perfect, the CIA believes he’s dead–and gone deep undercover within the terrorist group Caroline is determined to destroy. Now his cover’s been blown, and Eric’s intimate knowledge of 30 April’s plans makes him a target for both sides: the killers he’s betrayed, and the American government he’s sworn to protect. Torn between a desire to save her husband and her duty to save her country, Caroline is drawn back into a treacherous labyrinth where trusting others is as good as suicide. For the enemy this time wears a familiar face: that of an American patriot, waving his flag alongside his gun. To stem disaster, Caroline has only one choice: to betray everyone in which she believes–or everyone she loves. For an agent without cover–an agent who’s blown–is worse than betrayed: she’s as good as dead. *USA Today
USA Today-Bestselling Author: A fashion model is murdered in this witty mystery starring a “sassy heroine” (Kirkus Reviews). Fashion sleuth Haley Randolph is back for another murderous romp with the stylish set at Holt's Department Store. . . When Haley arrives at the Holt employee luncheon and fashion show, she spies a sick server hiding in a back room. Deciding to help out, Haley grabs a uniform. The catered array of food and personalized fruit bouquets from Edible Elegance is a hit until top fashion model Claudia Gray is found dead in the ladies room. Now, it's going to take more than a Chanel sample sale to ease Haley's panic once she learns Claudia's been poisoned. For someone thinks murder is the height of fashion--with Haley's name on the label. "A quick read with lots of humor." --Booklist "A solid mystery." --Publishers Weekly "Haley Randolph is a hoot. There is no way to get through Howell's latest without laughing out loud at least once a chapter." --Romantic Times "A treat for those with a passion for fashion. No doubt this sassy heroine's in for a long run." --Kirkus Reviews
