A Veiled Deception by Annette Blair

Vintage Magic Book 1

Review written by Cindy F. (frazerc)

I loved this book, which really surprised me because much of it concerns fashion, both current and vintage, which I have no interest in. [Hey, it’s not entirely my fault – I grew up in a time and place where ‘haute couture’ meant your jeans and your sweatshirt were both clean at the same time…] But the author sold it to me and I actually found it very interesting.

The heroine, Madeira [call me Mad] Cutler, head design assistant in a New York fashion house is called home to Mystic Falls. Officially she’s supposed to help her youngest sister plan her wedding and unofficially she’s supposed to make sure there is going to be a wedding at all. An old friend of the groom has shown up and is acting like SHE is going to be the bride. Not good but Mad can fix anything – which turns out to be a very good thing when she stumbles over the corpse of the usurper strangled with Sherry’s wedding veil and it looks like little sister is the prime suspect. Of course she plans to fix this by finding out who really did the deed.

To this end she snoops, she gossips, she pulls strings – all while going up against Detective-Sergeant Lytton Werner. The same Werner who in third grade she called ‘little wiener’ in the school cafeteria – a nickname he has never escaped even when he became a 6+ foot hunk. And, yeah, he still blames her. He considers her his own, personal thorn…

And then her life gets really strange – it seems that besides being able to see ghosts [her family home is a haunted 250 year old inn] some vintage clothing gives her glimpses into their past owner’s lives. While she finds this spooky and disconcerting, it does help her solve the current crime [and sheds much needed light on past crimes as well.] She finally breaks down and tells Nick, her on-again-off-again boyfriend, FBI agent and brother’s partner, about the visions and eventually he comes to believe her. The trick is how to get the good detective to look in the right places without explaining how she got the information and without a lick of proof – because she is definitely NOT telling him about the visions!

All this is going on while Mad is having her own personal crises – she decides to quit her job, buy the old carriage house/hearse barn and turn it into an upscale [very, very upscale] dress shop selling high end vintage clothing and her own designs which will be named Vintage Magic. It comes complete with yet another ghost – one that is handsome, charming, and fond of chatting with those that can see him.

A word about the sex in this book – there’s sizzle but all the actual contact takes place ‘off screen’.

Vintage Magic Mysteries

1. A Veiled Deception

2. Larcency and Lace

3. Death by Diamonds

4. Skirting the Grave