Nancy J. Cohen

Bad Hair Day Mystery #7"Dead Roots has all the right ingredients for a great hair day, absolutely fun, winsome characters, a fast-paced, wonderful mystery read."—Heather Graham, New York Times bestselling author of Killing KellyA haunted hotel, a family curse, mysterious Cossacks, hidden treasure, murdered guests...what looked to be a routine family reunion is turning into a serious Bad Hair Day indeed. One that's trouble all the way down to the...Dead Roots.Marla shore thought the only tricky part of the reunion at Florida's historic Sugar Crest Plantation Resort would be introducing her fiance, Detective Dalton Vail, to her family...and vice versa. But that was before her Aunt Polly was found suffocated in her bed.It turns out that her family has a tangle of ties connected to Sugar Crest, including Aunt Polly's father, who once owned the plantation—and hid a fortune in gems somewhere on the grounds. And though Sugar Crest is slated for demolition, many people would profit if it wasn't destroyed...and some just might go to any lengths to make sure it remains standing...To top it all off, the plantation was built on an Indian burial mound, which Marla knows is never a good idea—and then the grounds keeper turns up dead! Whatever is going on at Sugar Crest, someone is willing to go to great lengths to keep it hidden. But he or she hasn't planned on Marla, who will stop at nothing to learn the truth before the killer strikes again..."A winning cozy."—Publishers Weekly

Bad Hair Day Mystery #8"The perfect read for a beach chair or under the hair dryer."—Nancy MartinFire up the flat iron and break out the bullet-proof blow drier, because Marla Shore—the sassy, South Florida beauty salon owner with a knack for fixing hair and finding trouble—is back...Beauty shows are not always known for cold-blooded murder, but that's exactly the case when Luxor Products company director Christine Parks is found dead in her hotel room—facedown in a foot bath.It doesn't take long into Marla's investigation to discover that everyone who worked with Christine had a reason to hate her. From serial cheating to indulging in blackmail and bad investment advice, she was a walking Bad Hair Day, and the list of possible suspects is longer than a pop diva's hair extensions. And when a model with top-secret information for Marla turns up dead, things go from bad to worse in a hurry. Behind the thumping house music and dazzling, high-platform hair tricks of Florida's hottest beauty show, something very ugly is going down, something that goes beyond polish and style to the killer-takes-all ambition of the beauty biz. If Marla isn't careful, she just may end up on the wrong end of a murderer's very skillful hands..."Cohen fashions her Bad Hair Day series with plenty of humor, snappy repartee and even a healthy helping of current events."—Fort Myers Press-News­

Bad Hair Day Mystery #6"Intrepid Marla Shore is up to her elbows in hot water when a rival salon owner turns up dead...Nancy Cohen has penned another follicle-raising frolic with a wry twist of romance."—P. J. Parrish, author of Dead of Winter and Island of BonesNancy J. Cohen's Bad Hair Day mysteries shimmer with style and humor in the glow of the Florida sun. In her sixth hair-curling adventure, stylist Marla Shore lands in the midst of a murder with shadowed motives and the very darkest of roots...There's no love lost between Marla and Carolyn Sutton. Carolyn has never forgiven Marla for leaving Hairstyle Heaven to open her own place, especially since Marla's clientele grew as Carolyn's faded away. Carolyn retaliated by relocating near Marla, but couldn't put the highlights back in the balance sheet. Still, it's a nasty shock when Marla enters the meter room behind the shopping center that houses both salons and tumbles over her rival's body. Carolyn's neck is broken and a hank of her hair is missing.Marla's powerful curiosity would have been enough to send her snooping for clues, but when Detective Dalton Vail, her very significant other, actually asks her for help, nothing can hold her back. Her quest becomes even more personal when Wilda Cleaver, Carolyn's trusted psychic and new owner of her salon, insists that Carolyn's spirit is begging Marla to solve her murder. Adding a dose of blackmail, Wilda warns that someone Marla loves is in great danger but won't give details until Marla cracks the case. Marla's got her work cut out for her—poor Carolyn was far from popular...and maybe even farther from honest. There's Carolyn's snubbed sister, Linda, who only inherited an unspecified, "valuable" collection that appears to be missing, the chiropractor whose shady dealings Carolyn had uncovered, and the immigration lawyer who apparently had been issuing suspicious visas for Hairstyle Heaven's French-born staff.Add to all this some surprising news from Detective Vail and a blossoming romance for Marla's mother, and Marla's well-coiffed head is soon spinning. It will take all her skill to untangle the snarl of suspects, trim the list down to unmask the murderer—and learn what's behind Wilda's eerie premonitions before someone Marla loves is next.

"Writing the Cozy Mystery is a valuable instructional tool that will help you develop your characters, establish the setting, plot the story, add suspense, plant clues and sustain your series"--P. of cover.

Bad Hair Day Mystery #1Meet Marla Shore, a Florida beauty salon owner with a knack for creating dazzling 'dos—and solving mysteries...Marla was already having a bad day, but when one of her clients dies while getting a perm in her salon, her day just can't get any worse...until the smugly competent Detective Vail accuses her of poisoning the wealthy widow's coffee creamer! Granted, Bertha Kravitz was hardly her favorite customer, but Marla could never have murdered the ornery woman. Now it's up to the savvy stylist to find out just who did.Combing the woman's privileged world for clues, Marla soon discovers that the town is crawling with potential suspects. As the case grows more snarled, Marla becomes determined to unmask a cunning killer before she's outwitted—and dead."A terrific mystery debut for Nancy Cohen. Marla the beautician is a delight."—Tamar Myers, author of Baroque and Desperate"A keeper...I plan to reserve a permanent place on my bookshelf for this action-packed, character-driven series."—Denis Dietz, author of Footprints In the Butter and Throw Darts At A Cheesecake

In the midst of cat fights and huge hairdos during Florida's hottest beauty show, salon owner Marla Shore must clear the name of Georgia Rogers when she is accused of killing Christine Parks, the company director of Luxor Products.

Not just your average South Florida beachcomber, Marla's now a volunteer for Ocean Guard, a coastal preservation group. She's even in charge of their upcoming Taste of the World fundraiser. But when chef Pierre Chevalier's flaming Bananas Foster results in a three-alarm fire, she can't help wondering: too much rum in the recipe-or sabotage? Something is beginning to smell fishy in sunny Palm Haven, and it isn't just the polluted shoreline. But even Marla is stunned when Ocean Guard's attorney, Benjamin Kline, is murdered. Not that she was crazy about the guy-in fact, nobody was. The victim had his share of enemies, though Marla's old friend, the irritatingly appealing Detective Dalton Vail, is convinced the culprit was one of Ocean Guard's esteemed board members. Now he's counting on Marla to untangle the clues. The suspects couldn't be more varied-or less likely-from likable businesswoman Babs Winrow to quiet, respectable banker Darren Shapiro. Even Digby Raines, the smarmy mayoral candidate himself, and creepy funeral director Stefano Barletti are on the ever-growing list. One of them snipped Ben Kline's life short, and Marla's determined to get to the root of a case that's anything but cut and dried. And with her own brush with death serving as a blunt reminder that a killer's still on the loose, Marla realizes that if she isn't careful, the next thing to wash up on the sand might not be mere medical waste... With her sassy style and flair for local color, Nancy J. Cohen has created another sleek page-turner that will leave readers eagerly awaiting their next appointment with the pert and plucky Marla.

Marla and Dalton's honeymoon at an Arizona dude ranch veers from dangerous to downright deadly faster than a horse headed to the corral. With her husband's uncle-- the resort's owner-- on the suspect list for murder, Marla hopes her blind trust in his innocence isn't misplaced, especially when she learns their relative has secrets he'd rather keep buried. As the bodies pile up, and with her new family in jeopardy, she'd better figure out who's adding to the spirits haunting a nearby ghost town before someone she loves is hurt.