Frosted Shadow, A Toni Diamond Mystery: A Romantic Comedy Mystery (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
What can I say? I'm a sucker for the cozies!This was the first book in the series, and the first time I have read anything by Nancy Warren. It was entertaining, and light. A bit too light, but OK.Toni Diamond (real name) is a make-up sales rep (like Mary Kay), and she is one of two highest sellers. The other is Nicole Freedman. Every year, they battle it out to see who wins the 2 carat diamond ring at the yearly conference. The difference is that Toni does it honestly, while Nicole will win at any cost to the reps who are under her wing.There are 2 murders during the conference, and when Toni becomes involved in finding the murderer, or murderers, things start to happen.All in all, a fun read. I could stop and start, and pick up easily. Frosted Shadow, a Toni Diamond MysteryBy Nancy WarrenI had no expectations going into the reading of this book. I’d ever heard of the author or the main character before, probably because this is the first book in the series (with the only other one I found being published in May of this year – 2014). It sounded like a fun, easy, no-heavy-thinking involved reading, and it was. First – great editing and proofreading. I only found one error – blondr for blonder at location 646 on my Kindle, in the first paragraph of Chapter Seven. So, kudos on that front.There was a dandy mystery in this book. It was well plotted and paced. I did figure out who the murderer was by the time of the second murder – but still enjoyed the path to confirmation of my guess. The setting for the mystery was interesting – a large hotel in Corvallis, TX, during a set of conventions, the most important being the Lady Bianca cosmetics national conference. However, other conventions were meeting there at that time, including a convention of mystery readers. The high drama and high jinx going ons that emanated from that cosmetics were hilarious, but I’d imagine would have any decent Avon or Mary Kay representative cringing. The main character, Toni Diamond, is a hoot. She’s a rags-to-riches tale, with a sassy attitude and a fetish for physical perfection. She, and her host of strange but wonderful cohorts are fun, easy to identify with and you find yourself wishing someone would invite you to one of their at-home makeup parties. One of my favorite parts of the book involved the quotes at the start of each chapter, some real, some obviously not so real. My favorite was the first chapter’s quote, from American playwright, Jean Kerr: “I’m tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That’s deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas?”However, although I really enjoyed the book, I’m not particularly driven to purchase the next book in the series. I liked Toni Diamond. I did. I liked Detective Luke Marciano, too. I was happy to see them get together. But, I’m happy leaving them where the novel did and not so sure I’m interested in more cosmetically inspired mysteries.
What do You think about Frosted Shadow, A Toni Diamond Mystery: A Romantic Comedy Mystery (2014)?
I love this heroine. I also liked the mixture of romance and crime.
—Mars
Being in the cosmetic industry myself, this was a fun read for me.
—areyy
