Book Review: A Passion for Haunted Fashion

On this Mysterious Monday, we are pleased to bring you our review of A Passion for Haunted Fashion, the latest Haunted Vintage mystery from Rose Pressey. This is the series that combines murder, fashion, ghosts, a generous dose of humor, and a cat who uses a Ouija board to communicate. It is such fun!

The plot

In A Passion for Haunted Fashion, vintage clothing boutique owner Cookie Chanel is working on costumes for the Sugar Creek Theater’s upcoming production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Somehow, Cookie always finds herself sorting through trunks or racks of old clothing in a dusty attic or basement or some such place, and more often than not, she manages to stir up a ghost. This is in addition to her more or less permanent ghostly companion, Charlotte, who is bossy and sassy and very, very funny. The new ghost in this case is named Peggy, and she’s been in the theater since the 1950s. Can Cookie and Charlotte help her figure out why she’s there?

Sounds like enough to keep a person and two ghosts busy, but then one of the actors is found stabbed to death, with Cookie’s best friend, Heather, standing over him, covered in blood. Obviously things look bad for Heather, and now Cookie and the ghosts have two mysteries to solve, and if they don’t solve the more modern one, Heather could be headed to prison.

Fortunately they have plenty of suspects, both from the theater and from the victim’s personal life. Unfortunately, Cookie is not the smoothest investigator you’ve ever met, as she tends to get flustered when trying to question someone. Having two ghosts there to critique her performance doesn’t help, especially when Cookie can’t respond to them because she’s the only one who can see them. If she suddenly starts talking out loud to invisible people, everyone will think she’s nuts.  (Everyone probably already thinks she’s nuts anyway, but whatever.)

The cat

Also fortunately, they have the help of the white Persian cat named Wind Song. Wind Song has an interesting story herself. See, one time during a séance, Cookie’s grandmother’s spirit got trapped in the cat’s body. Now the grandmother (who is also sort of psychic—because why not?) communicates through a Ouija board. Except sometimes Wind Song the cat communicates through the board. Basically, if the message is relevant to the investigation, it’s from Grandma Pearl; if it’s about cat food, it’s from Wind Song. Anyway, Wind Song / Grandma Pearl are instrumental in providing clues that point Cookie and the ghosts in the right direction.

Our verdict

When we first started reading this series, we thought we might not like it so much because fashion is really not our thing. Honestly, when the outfits are described, we often even don’t know how to picture them; if it’s not jeans and T-shirts, we’re a little lost. But you don’t have to love fashion to love these stories, because they have a lot to offer. We love the role Wind Song / Grandma Pearl plays, and we like that Cookie keeps meeting new ghosts whose mysteries she must solve. Cookie has an endearingly fumbling method of crime solving, and Charlotte cracks us up (be sure to read her tips on the afterlife at the start of every other chapter; they alternate with Cookie's vintage fashion tips). Plus, we enjoy mysteries set in the South.

In A Passion for Haunted Fashion, Rose Pressey gives us another fun mystery full of characters we love. Recommended!

A note on the "Paws Up" system: Miss C gives either one or two paws up. One paw is for a good read; two paws is for a great read. She never gives three or four paws because that would require her to lie on her back...and Miss C does not do that!

We received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. We wouldn’t tell you it was good unless we really liked it!

The link below is an Amazon Associates link. If you purchase the book through this link, old SoLT and I could get some coin for our kibble account. Thank you!