Ethically Made Handbags for My Romantic Suspense Characters

It is amazing the things  you need to research when you are writing a romantic suspense novel. Today I am editing the sequel to Beneath the Skin, and I need to come up with an ethically made handbag for my tattoo artist Bella Bell to carry. It needs to be big enough for her to carry her sketch book in and all the rest of her stuff. It will play a role later on in the novel when she trying to escape the bad guys.

Her boyfriend Vernon calls it her dump bag because she can’t find anything unless she dumps it all out.  A search of the web turned up a bunch of interesting choices.

I found this very elegant vegan tote from Fashion-Conscience that I would like it for myself, but Bella is way more flamboyant than I am. She’d want something more colorful.

This hobo style bag from Hearts.com with Guatemalan weaving insets is colorful, but I doubt it would hold a sketchbook.

Now this bag from Education and More has a little of both  of the bags above, and it’s a rectangle so I know a sketch pad would fit. This is the one I think Bella would choose. It has the added advantage of being the kind of bag that things would dump out of which helps with my plotline.

What do you think? Did I choose the right one? Do you think details like what characters wear and what purses they carry adds to the enjoyment of a romantic suspense?

I’d love to talk about it with you. Post a comment below