Review - Haley Randolph Mysteries by Dorothy Howell

Haley Randolph Mysteries by Dorothy Howell
Publisher: Kensington
Other books in the series:

• Handbags and Homicide (2008)
  
• Purses and Poison (2009)
  
• Shoulder Bags and Shootings (2010)
  
• Clutches and Curses (2011)
  

Rating:




I've just finished reading the fourth and latest book in the Haley Randolph Mysteries, Clutches and Curses and found it to be exactly like the previous three books in the series. Now, that is not necessarily a dig or a compliment. The series has its virtues. It is at times funny, sometimes laugh out loud funny, and it provides that kind of mindless fluff that one needs to cleanse a mind overburdened with Russian literature, or in my case, horribly dull history journals. But the book fails in a lot of ways, one being the character of Haley. She is what one would consider "street smart" but not inclined to over-think things or read a book. In the first two books she has run ins with various men, but it isn't until the third and fourth books that this happens with a ridiculous degree. The fourth book is less of a murder mystery than Haley trying to decide between to gorgeous and rich men who both are wanting her attention. This seems to me a very unlikely scenario. Nothing in the four books has shown Haley to be anything but a spoiled, somewhat irresponsible twenty-something with an obsession for handbags.

Other than that, these books would be a PG-13 at most and I would not hesitate to recommend it to older teens.