Capped Off — Barbara Jaye Wilson

MOTIF FOR MURDER

Word is out that Doreen Sands, millinery buyer for an up-scale department store, is in a frenzy, spending like it's going out of style--and Greenwich Village hat designer Brenda Midnight arrives on the scene to unveil her gravity-defying creations. But before the hat-hopeful can pop the top off a hatbox, someone slams the lid on Doreen's life. And now Brenda, in the wrong place at the wrong time, finds herself tangled up in murder.

KEEPING IT UNDER THEIR HATS

The cops need help in probing New York's eccentric millinery community for answers. Brenda's old pals Detectives Turner and McKinley ask her to teach Officer Nicole (Gung-Ho) Gundermutter, a pony-tailed motorcycle-riding lady cop with some designs of her own, the tricks of the hat trade. She agrees, and soon discovers much more than she wants to know. Everybody's keeping secrets--including Brenda--and she's terrified too, because whoever permanently cancelled Doreen's orders might just have plans to cap off a curious neighborhood crime-solver.