Even though a short very good ( )

A full star off for lousy editing - misspelled words, missing words, holes in the story from scene to scene.

Otherwise, a good story; I really like what the author did here: she used this short story as a more detailed lead-in to the book being published next month. It's a cliff-hanger in the sense that the murder mystery is just beginning, but the suspects have all been named and the scene set for Boone becoming a fugitive.

This short is told from Boone's POV, and I have to say, he's not nearly as cool and sexy here as he is in the regular books, told from Reagan's POV, but interesting just the same. A lot of what irritated me in the last book is missing here so I have high hopes that the book out next month will be an improvement over the last one.

But I hope she's got a different editor for it. ( )

Dead Man Walker is 3.5 in the A Consignment Shop Mystery series.

This novella is a lead in to book #4 Demise In Denim due out in April of 2015.

This book novella give Walker Boone a chance to be in the spotlight of this light hearted series.

Boone is called to the Conway Adkin's home by Mercedes, a housekeeper by day and a mortician/beautician by night and a recurring character in this series. Upon arriving Boone finds Adkins dead in his bathtub, having been shot. As the police begin to investigate his death, information surfaces that points to Boone. With the help of Reagan Summerside, Boone has to go into hiding.

Looking forward to reading Demise in Denim to see how this story unfolds and to see if there will ever be any kind of relationship between Reagan and Walker. ( )

Dead Man Walker is a short e-novella that acts as a kind of prologue to the next book in the Consignment Shop mysteries. But it is told in Walker Boone's POV, which makes it special. Because one thing that Reagan has never quite figured out is what Walker is thinking. It turns out that often it's about her. But there's no time for that kind of thing, because he's been set up for murder, after a local booster whom everyone hated is found dead. And it turns out that Reagan may be the only one he can depend on to help. Poor Walker.

The perfect set-up for the next book. I can't wait until April! ( )

This digital short story sets up the newest Consignment Shop mystery (Demise in Denim) which will be released in April, and it has some surprises for readers of the series. For one thing, it actually sounds a bit more Southern than the novels, which leads me to surprise number two: the entire story is written from Walker Boone's point of view. More on that later.

Duffy Brown adds more humor to this short story, too, and I lost count of the times she had me chuckling with her descriptive phrases and a few well-chosen scenes like the one in the dead man's home before the police arrive. The dead man, Conway Adkins, was probably the most hated man in Savannah, so the suspect pool should be a large one, especially with a stranger from Charleston in town who seems to be in cahoots with an ambitious local. Notice I said "should be." The police are aiming for the most obvious first.

Which leads me back to Mercedes and Walker. Mercedes is a wonderful character, and I definitely want to see more of her primarily because of her thought processes. (Mercedes believes that her housekeeping services are in such high demand that someone is willing to bump off her clients in order to be moved on up to the top of the list... among other speculations.)

Having the story told from Walker's point of view is a stroke of genius. His voice is different from Reagan's-- more Southern-- and we not only get to learn more about his mysterious background, we get to learn how he truly feels about Reagan Summerside.

Yes, this is a perfect lead-in to Duffy Brown's next book in the series, Demise in Denim, and I'm really looking forward to finding out how Walker Boone gets himself out of trouble. Roll on, April! ( )