Royal Griffen Hotel Mysteries

At seventy-eight years old, Miss Dora Lee Griffen has mastered the art of being underestimated. Let them see the silver hair, the shuffling walk, the adorable dog in the coordinating outfit. Let them speak too loudly, assuming her hearing has gone. Let them dismiss her as harmless. It only makes the truth easier to uncover.A legendary fashion designer whose 1987 collection revolutionized how the industry thought about traditional techniques, Dora Lee now runs a quiet custom design shop just a block from her penthouse at the Royal Griffen Hotel. Her family once owned the grand old building, back when it was still a proper hotel, and when it converted to luxury apartments, she came with the deal. So did the fresh flowers in every hallway. Mother would have insisted on that.Life has settled into a comfortable rhythm of beautiful fabrics, loyal customers, and afternoon walks with Pippa, her Boston terrier mix with the too-big ears and the talent for tricks that always charm a crowd.Then rising star designer Ethan Kemper is found dead in the building's sauna.The jammed door makes one thing horrifyingly clear: someone trapped that young man inside and left him to die. This was murder.The police launch their investigation, but Dora Lee has advantages they don't. She saw Ethan arguing bitterly with his business partner just hours before his death. She's heard whispers about stolen designs and threatened careers. She knows about the service entrance that lets people slip in and out unseen. And she knows, better than anyone, how sharp the knives are beneath all that silk and sequins.As she digs deeper, Dora Lee discovers Ethan wasn't the golden boy everyone remembers. He built his rising career on the backs of desperate interns. He stole ideas from young designers too afraid to speak up. He made enemies of people with everything to lose.Now Dora Lee finds herself navigating a world of jealous rivals, ambitious protégés, and old friends who might not be telling her everything. His business partner stands to inherit the brand they built together. A young model Ethan dropped without explanation keeps appearing at Dora Lee's shop, wanting to talk. A ruthless designer circles the now-leaderless company like a vulture. And her best friend Viola seems eager to help, perhaps a little too eager, always steering the conversation in curious directions.Someone in this building is a killer. And with her sharp eye for detail, five decades of fashion industry knowledge, and a gift for playing harmless when it suits her, Dora Lee Griffen intends to find out who.Even if the truth hits closer to home than she ever expected.Haute Mess is the first book in the Royal Griffen Hotel Mysteries, a cozy mystery series featuring a seventy-eight-year-old fashion designer who proves that age is just a number when it comes to solving murders.

Miss Dora Lee Griffen never planned on a comeback. At seventy-eight, she was content with her small custom design shop, her penthouse at the Royal Griffen Hotel, and her Boston terrier mix Pippa, whose oversized ears and impressive trick repertoire never fail to charm a crowd.Then came the invitations. The interest. The impossible-to-ignore opportunity. And suddenly, the legendary fashion designer is mounting her first runway show in over a decade.The collection represents everything Dora Lee believes fashion should be: bold colors, impeccable craftsmanship, the kind of artistry that's become nearly extinct in an age of fast fashion and disposable trends. The industry is watching. Critics are speculating. Old rivals are circling.And then there's Scarlett.The fashion influencer with over a million followers has built her brand on brutal takedowns and manufactured drama. When she storms into Dora Lee's shop, cameras rolling, trying to publicly humiliate the designer with accusations of unprofessionalism, she makes one critical mistake.She underestimates a seventy-eight-year-old woman with receipts.By the time Scarlett storms out, her own followers are calling her a liar. Her threats hang in the air: You just made a huge mistake, old lady.The next night, at the show's rehearsal, the lights go out.When they come back on, Scarlett is dead.Dora Lee's comeback has become a crime scene, and she finds herself surrounded by suspects with secrets to hide. There's Casey, a fellow influencer whose entire concept Scarlett stole wholesale, destroying a friendship and a career in one calculated betrayal. There's Elise, a young model whose promising future Scarlett demolished with a single cruel post. There's even a familiar designer lurking in the shadows, one Dora Lee has crossed paths with before, always suspicious, never quite guilty.And then there's the question of who else Scarlett wronged. Because as more people come forward in the wake of her death, a picture emerges of an influencer who made enemies the way other people make content: constantly, carelessly, and without remorse.The show must go on. Dora Lee's reputation, her legacy, everything she's worked toward depends on it. But first, she needs to find a killer before they decide the designer with too many questions is the next problem that needs solving.In the fashion world, everyone wears a mask. The trick is figuring out whose is hiding murder.All the Rage is the second book in the Royal Griffen Hotel Mysteries. While it can be read as a standalone, readers may enjoy meeting Dora Lee and Pippa in Haute Mess first.

When the Metropolitan Museum of Art invites retired fashion designer Dora Lee Griffen to a gala honoring the bold designers of the 1980s, she expects champagne, old friends, and a pleasant walk down memory lane. What she gets is murder. Fashion historian Regina Thornwood has spent years researching a tell-all book about the industry's golden era. Her upcoming release has ruffled plenty of feathers, digging up old scandals and questioning long-held reputations. By the end of the evening, Regina is dead on the museum floor, and everyone Dora Lee shook hands with that night seems to have a reason to want her silenced. A bitter designer dismissed as derivative. A photographer whose career Regina destroyed decades ago. A legendary mentor with secrets he'd rather stay buried. And somewhere in the shadows, Dora Lee's oldest friend Viola seems to know more than she's saying. At seventy-eight, Dora Lee has perfected the art of appearing harmless. But beneath the gray hair and gracious smile lies a sharp mind that notices everything. With her Boston terrier mix Pippa by her side and a legal pad full of suspects, she's determined to find the truth before the killer decides that some legacies are better left buried. In the fashion world, history is written by the survivors. And someone at that gala is willing to kill to control the narrative. Chic Happens is the third book in the Royal Griffen Hotel Mystery Series, a cozy mystery featuring a seventy-eight-year-old amateur sleuth, her adorable dog, and the glamorous world of New York fashion.

They gave me a Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday night. By Monday morning, I was investigating a murder.I am Dora Lee Griffen. Seventy-eight years old, retired fashion designer, and resident of the penthouse at the Royal Griffen Hotel. I have seen a great deal in my years in this industry. Most of it I have kept to myself. That, as it turns out, was a mistake.The night of the awards ceremony, I made a dress for a young journalist named Daphne Holbrook. She was sharp and brave and asking all the right questions about a pattern of deaths that had been circling the fashion world. She was also, as I know all too well, getting too close to the truth.By morning, she was gone. The police called it a mugging.I called it what it was.Daphne was not robbed. She was silenced. And the woman who made her dress has a very good idea who gave the order, though proof is a different matter entirely from knowing.In the fourth installment of the Royal Griffen Hotel Mystery Series, Dora Lee trades her awards-night finery for a legal pad and blue ink, enlists the reluctant partnership of Detective Moreno, and follows a dead woman's notes straight toward the most dangerous discovery of her career.Some shadows have deadly designs. And this one has been in the room the whole time.Silhouette of Suspicion is Book 4 in the Royal Griffen Hotel Mystery Series and is best read in order.