This book grabbed me right from the start!

We open to Danny (N.A.) playing his handmade flute on a hill and thinking. We then meet his mother Juanita and Irene, proprietress of Irene's Closet a high end consignment shop in New Mexico. We learn Danny has gone missing! This is a action-packed story. We devolve into gangs, drugs and missing artifacts as we hunt along with our intrepid sleuth Irene for the truth about Danny.
I was completely surprise by how much I loved this authors writing style! I enjoyed "seeing" the Southwest through her eyes. This was a exciting read that I would highly recommend to anyone wanting to read a good solid mystery.

I received a review copy from NetGalley, and this is my honest opinion.

A good, solid second-in-series mystery, I enjoyed Accessories to Die For more than the first one. The characters are stronger and the primary characters are better defined and easier to empathize with. The plot is finely planned and executed, with the bad guy/ gal being a definite surprise. Overall, I like this novel and will be looking for additional books in the series.

Irene’s Closet is Irene’s upscale, designer consignment shop in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She and her salesperson, Angel, are a great team, and Angel has the charm and gift for sales and helps customers purchase hundreds to thousands of dollars of merchandise they will look gorgeous in. Juanita, a local Native American craftsman, designs and makes traditional jewelry that also bring in hundreds to a thousand dollars or more each. It is with sadness, then, that Juanita shares her concerns about her son, Danny.

Danny has been involved with drugs and possibly the Capitolistas gang. It is further thought that Danny stole the ancient and priceless “sacred necklace” from the Kewa pueblo. She saw him give it to the Frenchman, who steals the past from tribes across the country by purchasing for a song or stealing, then auctioning it in France for a huge profit. If it sounds like it is all about money, that is correct. Danny needs money to support his drug habit. The Frenchman makes a huge profit on the antiquities. When the Frenchman, Louis Armaud, is found murdered, some think Juanita did it, and others think Danny, who hasn’t been seen since the murder, did it. Now Juanita is arrested, Danny is missing, and Irene is hot on the trail to help her friend Juanita.

Adelle, Irene’s formerly pampered mother, is injured while she and Irene are at the Kewa’s Green Corn Dance. Getting help for her outweighs Irene’s search for Juanita. PJ, the local high-profile criminal defense attorney who has befriended Irene since she moved to Santa Fe, helps her through her search for Danny and Juanita.

The characters are well-rounded. To me, Adelle is someone who has changed since Irene’s first return to Santa Fe. While she still enjoys holding court and being the center of attention, she is also less dependent on her daughter and has even been staying out late – playing bridge? Irene, PJ, and Angel are the delightfully in-charge type folks we have come to know them as.

The plot is action-packed, with well-executed twists and turns, right down to the very last moment. The most astounding twist is almost at the end. I would never have anticipated the bad guy/ gal to be revealed in such a way! It was a complete surprise to me! I very much enjoy the Southwest setting, the inclusion of Native American art and challenges. There are many very suspenseful moments that I won’t give away. There is humor, especially in the exchanges between Irene and Adelle, and Irene and PJ. It is an intriguing, at times scary, and exciting read that I highly recommend!

From a grateful heart: I received this eBook from the publisher and NetGalley, and this is my honest review.

Irene Seligman is a former district attorney that returned to Santa Fe to help take care of her demanding mother. She runs a consignment shop and has made friends with a number of local shop owners and craftspeople. It comes as a shock when one of these friends is accused of murder, so Irene has does her best to clear Juanita's name before others turn up dead as well.

This is a cozy mystery set in the desert, and the first Irene Seligman mystery I've read. It takes place not just in the city, but in and around Native American reservations near Santa Fe. The cultures are respectfully included in the book, as it's one of the main concerns that draw a number of the characters together. It doesn't feel as though it's just for the sake of representation, but that the families involved revere their traditional culture and try to balance it with the world at large. This sets up some of the conflicts so that it's not a simple "just call the police" kind of solution. This is what allows Irene to lead the charge in solving the mystery for the police. Surprisingly, it doesn't feel too out of place.

Irene is fun to read about, and her mother Adele went from annoying to downright hilarious as the book progressed. It really does Adele a bit of a disservice and makes it feel as though her antics, later on, are a bit forced and out of character. I would have liked to see some hint of Adele being that clever earlier in the novel.

An interesting look at the Native American culture. I like the Irene and P.J. characters. Adele gets on my last nerve, but then I suppose that is the basis for her character. The publisher provided a copy via NetGalley for my voluntary review. I do look forward to reading more by this author.

I so wanted to enjoy this book, but I just was not drawn into it. First, the author begins with a prologue, a literary device I find overused and more often than not unnecessary. Although I believe the author's intent was to create a sense of mysticism and sympathy toward Danny, the prologue only caused me to roll my eyes and quickly lose interest. I did not find Irene believable as a prosecutor turned consignment shop owner. I read through Chapter 4, put the story down, and was unable to pick it back up and finish it . I just couldn't muster up any concern for the characters.

This is what I call a cozy mystery and I loved this book. It was so good I couldn’t put it down.
It is a mystery that takes place in Santa Fe. The main character owns a consignment shop and she has an assistant that makes most of the sales.
I can’t say enough good things about this book. Read it!

Accessories to Die For is the second book in the series by Paula Paul. I thought I might be confused by going into this book by not reading the first. But I wasn't I was able to dive Right into the story without feeling confused. It makes me want to get the first book in this series and read it to ready for when the author Paula Paul write and releases the third book in this series. This book has a murder with lots intrigue and suspense it will leave you guessing until the very end.

From the point our main character was going to tell the police an offhand remark her friend made to the ridiculous arrest i didn't find this to my taste. Plot plodding and characters unsympathetic.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House/Alibi, and Paula Paul for the ARC to review. I started to read this book and I wasn't quite taken with it right off the bat. As I kept on reading, I became optimistic that I would finish to the end. However, I thought the book at times was flat. I completed the book because I wanted to see how the book concluded, but I was not really taken with the book.

The owner of an upscale consignment shop in Santa Fe, New Mexico find herself helping an old friend who has just escaped from prison. I picked this one up because I love the southwest and didn't realize until I finished the book and saw a list of the author's other titles that this was the second title in the series. (It was there in the book's description, I just didn't read closely enough.)
With one exception, the characters feel more like real people than cozy mystery characters and although Irene is trying to help her friend find her missing son it didn't feel like the same type of mystery I'm used to.

Former New York assistant DA Irene Seligman moved home to take care of her aging, demanding mother, Adelle. She thought she was leaving a world of corruption and violence behind. But after opening her store, Irene’s Closet, and getting acquainted with the locals, she learns that violence and corruption aren't indigenous to big cities. Unfortunately, her friend Juanita Calabaza, a Native American artisan, can’t seem to escape the decidedly unfashionable surge in crime.

Juanita’s handcrafted jewelry has been known to catch the eye of many tourists on the plaza in Santa Fe’s historic district. However, lately, she’s been attracting the wrong kind of attention, from the police. Juanita foretells the death of one of her son's associates, which comes back to haunt her when the man actually turns up dead. Now Juanita’s trading in her turquoise beads for an orange jumpsuit. Irene will need to call upon all her old investigative skills to find a killer before it’s too late.

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Series: A Mystery - Irene’s Closet
Author: Paula Paul
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Publisher: Alibi

Accessories to Die For is an extremely original story. Ms. Paul writes an intriguing and entertaining story that will get the attention of the reader. Her writing is faultless, with little to no issues transitioning from one scene to another.

Irene Seligman is a well-rounded character with plenty of personality and a few character flaws that make her a wonderful main character that reader will enjoy learning about. She is intelligent with a curious streak that lands her in trouble more often than not. Although someone might wonder about her loyalty to her friends and family due to her legal training. Sometimes she forgets that she is no longer a DA and has trouble convincing herself to stay away from the police investigation side of crime.

Irene’s mother is a study in what a seventy-year-old woman should not be doing. She worries about what people will think, yet goes out of her way to meddle in situations that no proper lady would get involved with. Adelle doesn’t seem to understand that there are limits to what she can get away with at her age. PJ and Angel are fantastic characters play a more prominent part of the overall plot of this story.

The use of the Indian lands as well as Santa Fe and surrounding towns is a great location and setting for this story. The landscape makes for some interesting situations, and it is easy for the reader to imagine the lay of the land as it is described throughout the book.

The plot of this story is unusual for a cozy. There might be a bit too much violence for most readers of this type of material. Accessories to Die For is a good mystery but it is not easy to read. Some of the cultural background needs to be explained to the reader in order to follow the basic plot. This book cannot stand on its own without reading the other books in the series.

Although the story is fundamentally well written the solution to the murder among other issues are not resolved in a believable manner. Vital clues that would help the reader learn of the killer's identity and make the story far more enjoyable are left out of the story and are only brought to the reader's attention after the killer has been revealed. This makes for some frustration and disappointment.

Overall, if the reader has read the previous additions to this series they may well enjoy this book. Unfortunately, the ending leaves too much to be desired to make this a great book.

An ARC was provided by NetGalley

Accessories to Die For is a mystery novel set in New Mexico. The book includes historical information about various Native American beliefs that play a part in the plot. I was extremely disappointed with the violence and language in this book, which is listed in the cozy mystery genre.

Irene Seligman gave up her job as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, New York and returned to Santa Fe, New Mexico to help her self-centered and demanding mother, Adelle. Irene opened Irene’s Closet, an upscale consignment store, but Adelle is upset that her daughter sells clothes someone else has worn. Irene’s friend, Juanita Calabaza, is a Native American artisan of handcrafted jewelry, who is worried about her son, Danny, who has disappeared. Juanita doesn’t know if her son is dead, being held captive, or hiding. When Louis Joliet Armaud, who is buying historic Native American relics to be sold in auctions in France, is murdered, Juanita is arrested, but escapes. Irene is determined to prove her friend is innocent and to find Juanita’s son. P.J. Bailey, a criminal lawyer, and Angel, her shop clerk, help her.

I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed it.

Thanks to Net Galley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love this series! For me, the setting of a cozy mystery series is so important. It informs the kind of mysteries that we get, how they are investigated, and the people involved. This setting of Santa Fe is unique. I haven't read any other cozies set here. This combination of indigenous, Hispanic, and European is so interesting. And this mystery combines all these things. The solution is a bit complicated, but making me think isn't a bad thing.

We get a more in depth look at the recurring characters. And I like I like them better. Adele is complicated and fabulous. Angel is talented with a darker history than I knew. PJ is an actual character and not just romantic lead. Irene cares and ends up investigating because of that. And that is believable.

I really like this series and this mystery as well. I can't wait to see what is next!

The best part about this cozy set in Santa Fe is the relationship between Irene and her mother Adelle. There's a lot going on with regard to crime with Irene's friend Juanita at the center of all of it. Irene, Adelle, and other friends are determined to prove her innocent. Some of this is far fetched and frankly a little out there but these's a good heart here. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. This is a quick read. Liked the local atmosphere.

Every once in a while, I do enjoy kicking back with a cozy mystery; there's usually a decent story with enough action to keep me interested while leaving my fingernails intact. The only downside, for me, is that the main character too often is borderline silly - never listening to anyone while she (it's almost always a female) sticks her nose into everybody's business and whines when something she says or does goes wrong. Thankfully, that isn't the case with former New York assistant District Attorney Irene Seligman. She's quite intelligent, sensible and capable of dealing with situations and people.

Except, that is, her mother Adelle; a more truly obnoxious character I haven't come across in a long time and will be content never to see again. She goes miles beyond the quintessential Jewish mother - and to the very end it remains a mystery to me why Irene agreed to leave her big city career and come home to Sante Fe, New Mexico, to "take care of" her. Oy!

But come home Irene did, and now she's operating a consignment shop selling high-end discards, many courtesy of Adelle's snooty friends. The store, called Irene's Closet, is in the historic Native American part of the city; and it is in this arena that much of the story takes root. Local jewelry-maker Juanita Calabaza is beside herself trying to locate her missing son Danny, who's one misstep away from gang life and drug addiction. Juanita fears that Danny stole a sacred tribal necklace, then sold it to a shady French artifacts dealer to finance his drug habit. She'd be happy to see the guy dead, she says - and prophetically, that's exactly what happens. Now she's in the crosshairs of the police, who consider Juanita their No. 1 suspect.

Irene, though, believes otherwise; no way her friend Juanita murdered anyone - her only goal is to find her son before he, too, turns up in the morgue. Meantime (while trying to placate her mother's constant demands - Lordy, what a pain she is), Irene's "friend" P.J. Bailey, a successful criminal lawyer gets into the act because he represents clients who insist they were ripped off by the French guy. I suspect Irene and P.J. are supposed to be in the throes of romantic tension, but I must say nothing either of them said or did made me believe there's any hope whatsoever for any such liaison. P.J. is far more likable than Adelle (but then so are at least half the people in the entire world), but still, I'd never allow his shoes anywhere near the underside of my bed.

There are plenty of false starts, chases and starts as well as very interesting information about local Native American history and customs. Since this is one of a series, I don't think I'll spoil anything by saying that Irene remains relatively unscathed at the end - ready, no doubt, for another adventure. I'm up for it as well - and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review this one.

Irene and P.J. are back with another mystery to solve. This is book 2 in this series and just as good as the first. In this installment, Juanita’s son Danny has gone missing and a Frenchman has been murdered. It seems that the Frenchman was running a scheme of buying Indian artifacts cheap and selling them at European auctions. Juanita is arrested for the murder, then escapes from jail. Irene, her self-absorbed mother Adelle and P. J., everybody’s favorite lawyer, are hot on her trail. The story takes us into the Pueblo where Juanita lives and out into the desert under the relentless August sun in Santa Fe. Some of the Capitolista gang members get involved and there’s plenty of danger for all concerned.

Ok, so this is a really fun story, set in Santa Fe, NM, in the summer. As usual with this series, there is Indian culture mixed in with designer dresses, and a whole host of delightful characters. I would classify this story as a cozy mystery but it does have a bit more violence than is typical of a cozy. I always look forward to new work from this author because I find her characters to be so original. This would make for a great holiday read, especially if you’re in a cold place. I highly recommend this book or any of the author’s other work.

This story was set in Santa Fe. I live in New Mexico, have visited Santa Fe and I know about their Old World charm. I had to read this book.

Alibi and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published December 5th.

Irene used to be an assistant district attorney in New York, but her mother has asked her to come home. She's fearful of dying alone. Irene's mother frustrates her but she understands her need for company. She comes and she sets up a high end second hand store for recycled designer duds. It's a successful business. She hires a young man who charms the women who come in the store and is a great salesman.

Juanita sits on the Plaza and sells her jewelry. It's all made in the Indian way and is lovely to see. She's friends with Irene. Her son is missing and she's trying to find him. She knows he needs her. Then the cops charge him with murder and she gets even more desperate to save him.

You have drug trafficking, antique jewelry being stolen and sold in France at auctions, Indian versus American ideas of right and wrong, and Irene is in the middle. She's conflicted because she knows she has to report some of what she's heard but she doesn't want to make things worse. And her boyfriend is another attorney and he's representing the other side. Then she finds out her mother was dating one of the killers.

You learn about the beautiful Indian jewelry, the different tribes, and how fragile life is when you live on the fringe. You certainly won't be bored!

I love the cover art on this book. This was my first book by this author. 

I finished this book and still couldn't tell you much about any of the characters. They felt one-dimensional and flat. I could never get a good read on Irene and her mother was a bit over the top.

The ending felt rushed and very violent for a cozy mystery. For me, the character development is key. And that was sadly missing here.

Unfortunately I wouldn't read it again.

This was my first book by author Paula Paul. It was well written, but it took me a little bit to get into it. I felt I didn't really get to know some of the characters the way I would have liked to. I did however find the information on Native Americans interesting. I would willingly read the next book in the series to give it another chance.

On paper, no pun intended, it sounded like an interesting read. But it felt flat to me. The changing points of view were confusing and disrupted the flow. I found I could not care about it and had to make myself finish it,