Photo by Billy Bennight for The Los Angeles Beat
It was a festive launch party with treats and beverages at the one and only Ozzie Dots in Los Feliz. The event was for Diane Vallere, a Hollywood resident and Vice President of Sisters in Crime to introduce her new cozy mystery series “A Disguise To Die For” Ozzie Dots is one of LA’s premiere haunts for costumers and designers in pursuit of the odd and the exotic wardrobe and costume needs. It was the perfect place to have a book signing. Diane nestled cozily in the front corner of the shop wearing a very lovely pink dress and a huge multi-colored poke-a-dot clown tie she borrowed from Ozzie Dots inventory.
Diane has had a long-term interest in costume and fashion, given she was once a fashion buyer for Neiman Marcus,before reinventing herself as an author of 11 murder mystery books, where her love of fashion influences her brand. Diane explains that her fiction, “is for women who are into shoes, clues, and clothes.” Diane explained the meaning of “cozy mystery” which indicates there’s no graphic violence, there’s no graphic sex, and there is no swearing. Diane owes this current series of cozy mysteries to a lunch meeting with her editor and her bear, in this case a white yeti onesie made from faux fur. The bear is known as “Bear Vallere” and it has a Facebook fan page.
New York Times bestselling author Kate Carlisle says, “Meet Margo Tamblyn, the newest, savviest, smartest heroine to join the cozy mystery world. Her style, creativity, and courage make A DISGUISE TO DIE FOR, the first in author Diane Vallere’s wonderful new Costume Shop Mystery series, a must-read for sure! Weave in a quirky cast of characters, a fascinating setting, a fast-paced plot, and yummy recipes, and you have a thoroughly appealing whodunit that will keep you guessing all night long.”
The back cover of the book distills the story in this way, “No sooner does former magician’s assistant Margo Tamblyn return home to Proper City, Nevada, to run Disguise DeLimit, her family’s costume shop, than she gets her first big order. Wealthy nuisance Blitz Manners needs forty costumes for a detective-themed birthday bash. As for Blitz himself, his Sherlock Holmes is to die for—literally—when, in the middle of the festivities, Margo’s friend and party planner Ebony Welles is caught brandishing a carving knife over a very dead Blitz.
Besides Diane’s Costume Shop series, she written the Style & Error, Madison Night, and the Lefty Award-Nominated Material Witness mysteries. These are the kind of books you can cozy up to on a lazy cold evening to read a cleverly written murder mystery. For more information visit her website.
