This is the first of the series that I have read. I didn't even realize it was fifth or so in a series, the author did so well jumping in. The book is also about a milliner, something which I have no connection with at all. And yet the author had me turning the pages and laughing through the whole book. Only complaint, the book should be longer.

Brenda Midnight owns a milliner's shop in the Village. Murder seems to follow her. After hinting for weeks that she wants a surprise party on her birthday, she is not surprised that her friend Dweena calls her to say that she has been kidnapped. Brenda thinks that it is an elaborate ruse to get her to the party. Only Dweena really has been kidnapped, by an ersatz Amabassador of a phony country. After he gets his 50G ransom, Dweena is released. However, he is shortly thereafter accused of a murder and is using Dweena's money to pay for his defense. Brenda and Dweena have to find the murderer for that reason as well as others.

I found this to be an entertaining mystery. I figured out part but not all of the mystery fairly quickly. The rest was a surprise. One point, why are all female sleuths vegatarians these days?

Brenda Midnight, a Greenwich Village Hatmaker, her little dog Jackhammer, and her irreverant, eccentric pal, Dweena, frolic through another fun-loving urban mystery. Even the cops in this one are a treat! A rolicking read for urban mystery fans!

The best start for a book is one that grabs your attention and keeps it there, and that's just what happens in this madcap mystery, Hatful of Homicide, when hat creator / sleuth Brenda receives a phone call on her birthday that leads her to an unusual, action packed get together. The reader is entertained, humored, and like Brenda Midnight, drawn into the middle of the pandemonium. As each scenario is played out in the kidnapping and murder, I'm not sure whodunit or why, but I am sure that this is a good story line with some good points. As the murder and mayhem moved on, the series characters lives continue without interfering or distracting me from the mystery. There were enough scenarios to make me think twice, and enough characters to keep me in doubt of my amateur work as a puzzle solver. I will be honest and say I had it solved about three-fourths of the way through, but like I said, there was enough going on to keep me in doubt until Brenda, taking a que from the infamous Murder She Wrote sleuth Jessica Fletcher, sets up the one she suspects.

Barbara Jaye Wilson's talent for adding humor and wit to her characters is exceptional. The off the wall humor is hysterical without being offensive or biting. I was impressed with the eclectic cast of Detectives Turner and McKinley, who recommend Brenda go back to Midnight Millinery and make hats instead of deducing; returning characters, Chuck the computer wiz and Elizabeth an older friend who shells out advice; Johnny the TV detective, who has some secrets of his own that make Brenda suspicious; P.G. Dover, Ambassador to Gintoflakokia who isn't who he seems; One Coat, a paint store owner, who loves to say I told you so to amateur painters like Brenda; Brewster Winfield a sleazy lawyer with a strange sideline; Tommy who runs a local hangout and his bartender/cook Raphael, and last but not least Brenda's unique buddy, tall, gorgeous, sexy Dweena who occasionally under stress, can't keep Edward from peeking thorough.

Wow, time flies when you enjoy a series. This sixth edition involves a pretty good mystery, a marriage of convenience, revenge, time travel, and friendship willing to go the illegal distance.

I could hardly believe the blurb that came with the book saying Brenda married her ex-boyfriend's slim ball agent Lemmy Crenshaw, but it looks like it's true, and knowing Brenda, there's one heck of a story behind it. It seems Lemmy came to Brenda with a problem. She agreed to help out under certain conditions. When off and on love interest Johnny Verlone finds out, he reveals all creating a vengeful mad hatter. Brenda's anger and frustration at being tricked is apparent in her language and demeanor, a perfect mood for revenge certain to backfire. To get back at Lemmy, Brenda becomes a bra napper, and just her luck, in mid-revenge, she becomes a possible murder witness. During the mystery, her relationship with Johnny spins like a whirling derby with so many breaks up in one storyline that it's dizzying.

The same familiar characters return with Brenda. Elizabeth, her neighbor and friend, Ralph, her doorman and protector, Chuck Rily, who has this time travel thing going on, and of course Dweena who wouldn't dare be left out of the action, illegal or otherwise. It's amazing what one will do for those one associates with, especially in acts of revenge. It certainly makes for great entertainment, and readers will be entertained with Brenda and her cohorts' revenge until about chapter eleven when the mystery begins. Brenda turns to Detective's Turner and McKinley who have to deal with a department problem named Duxman. The characters personal lives and the mystery play well simultaneously. The murder mystery, with some great light moments, is pretty impressive. The turns fooled me, and the murderer revealed took me by surprise. Ms. Wilson has a great sense of humor and it shows - even through Brenda's intense moments. It's a fun series.

If Brenda Midnight used her brain she would have said no when her boyfriend's sleazy agent Lemon B. Crenshaw asked her to marry him. He wins her hand in matrimony by persuading her that he illegally resides in this country, but not for long as the INS has caught up with him. If deported, Lemon explains that he will not be able to rejuvenate her boyfriend's sagging career. Unbelievably, Brenda falls for the entire sad sack story and marries Lemon even though they keep separate residences.

Brenda becomes furious when she learns she must remain married to Lemon for six months. Her ire rises to stroke levels when she finds out he actually needed to wed her to win a bet. Determined to get even with the slimy Lemon, Brenda breaks into husband's apartment and steals her husband's valuable brassiere collection. A thump in the apartment above frightens Brenda who flees Lemon's apartment. At the elevator, she runs into a rude stranger. At home Brenda learns that someone murdered the wealthy philanthropist who lived above Lemon. She knows what the thump was and tracks down her fellow elevator rider. Each accuses the other of murder to the bewildered police.

Barbara Jaye Wilson writes humorous mysteries that will appeal to fans of cozies and amateur sleuth tales. Some of the one-liners throughout MURDER AND THE AND HATTER will leave the audience deeply laughing. Whimsical characters from previous works augment a tender feeling of familiarity while propelling the complex mystery forward without giving many clues to the reader. Ms. Wilson makes reading fun.

Harriet Klausner

Brenda's erstwhile love, Johnny is on his way to a new career in Hollywood. Just before his farewell party, Brenda's first exhusband Nado shows up at her business after having a fight with his present wife Kathilynn, an old high school nemesis of Brenda's. Once upon a time, Kathilynn sabotaged Brenda's romance with someone named Vinnie T. Brenda finds Nado a parking space in her friend's garage and he becomes a suspect in a murder. Then Kathilynn shows up to find her husband and Brenda moves back into her shop. Johnny calls but Kathilynn is selective about what messages she gives Brenda. Then, who shows up but Vinnie T. He looks like Johnny and is interested in Brenda again. In the background, one of her friends is having an artistic crisis, another is having a romance with a liar, and Dweena is still stealing diplomatic cars, her creative relocation project. Brenda naturally feels obligated to clear Nado, and then find him so she can send him and his wife back to Belup Creek where they belong.

This is always an entertaining series, with many bizarre characters as are always found in the Village, I wonder how Brenda stays in business, she certainly doesn't spend much time in her millinery shop. This was a very good example of the series.

This is a fun, lighthearted mystery with lots of colorful, offbeat characters and Greenwich Village atmosphere. The sleuth is a milliner and while she's solving crimes she's also designing next season's hat collection.

I think the title says it all. I will add that, sitting alone in my house, I laughed so hard the pictures rattled.