A Killing In Costumes

A Killing in Costumes is a light cozy mystery with two gay protagonists. The point-of-view switches between Jay and Cindy. I wish the point-of-view had alternated chapters instead of switching randomly (I would have preferred third person). It was made more challenging with Cindy telling us how Jay felt about Jay's attraction to the detective (shouldn't Jay be telling us how he feels) or Jay telling us that Cindy is getting angry. The characters lacked development. We are given some basic background information. I wanted more details that would bring the characters to life. I did feel that the information we are given on Jay and Cindy does not jive with their age. We get to learn the ins and out of the movie memorabilia business. There are numerous descriptions of movie props, posters, and costumes. All the descriptions slow down the pacing considerably. The whodunit was straightforward. We have a dead man, several suspects, and a red herring or two. It takes one clue to solve the mystery. The pacing does pick up near the end as Cindy and Jay are discovering the final details they need to solve the crime and have a dramatic reveal. I got tired of being told that Cindy drove a Jurassic Park Explorer and the horror movie table was mentioned nine times. As you can tell, A Killing in Costumes was not my type of book. A Killing in Costumes is a blithe cozy mystery with movie memorabilia, slow sales, a prima donna nonagenarian, a murdered competitor, killer costumes, a lethal envelope, a dispassionate son, a shady assistant, and an iffy financier.