This Pen for Hire - Laura Levine

Writer-for-Hire Jaine Austen is more used to helping would-be Romeo's with personal ads and love letters than investigating crime, but when one of her lovelorn losers is the main suspect in a murder she knows he couldn't have committed, Jaine finds herself pretending to be everyone from a police detective to a journalist in her quest for the truth.
Her name should have been my first warning that this was going to be an average chick lit contender. With the merciful exception of a lust for shoes, all the stock elements are present - the possibly gay lust object, the Jewish community ties, the allegedly pithy dialogue... which in this case includes a lot of snappy remarks Jaine thinks about saying but doesn't have the chutzpah to actually voice:

So what were you doing with that cop?" he asked, once again the Grand Inquisitor.
"Having passionate sex on the kitchen floor."
Okay, I didn't really say that. What I said was: "Just once, can't you mind your own business?"
Okay, so I didn't say that either.
"It's a long story, Lance. I'll explain later."

My library has several more in the series. I think I'll pass. - Alex