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Marla Shore's first (and only) ex-husband is on wife #3, the wealthy and socially ambitious Kimberly. Stan is arrogant, annoying, self-centered, and incredibly irritating. And he wants Marla to prove that he wasn't the one who stuck a knife in Kim. Marla is convinced to do it when he offers to sell her the other half of the building which houses her business, the Cut 'N Dye Salon, but only IF she gets him off the hook for killing Kim. Kimberly comes from a very up-scale Florida family. The matriarch, Miriam Pearl, is housebound and needs someone around to help her with the activities of daily living. The full-time nurse, Agatha, has suddenly decided she needs a day off every week. (This is one of the places when it becomes incredibly obvious that this is fiction . . . for years this nurse has worked seven days a week, with no time off??) Stan convinces Marla to apply for the job, since Agatha's one day off is conveniently enough Marla's one day off. Incredibly enough, Kim's family hires Marla - no professional credentials, references that would fade into nothing if anyone really checked them thoroughly, no agency to back Marla up. Miriam is a treat. Marla's working relationship with Miriam is great. The rest of the family is not so wonderful. Agatha is definitely not someone I'd like to be around for any length of time. Kim seems to have more enemies than friends. Stan's second ex-wife Leah is, for obvious reasons, not a big fan. Kim's gambling ex-boyfriend might be not so ex-. Kim's best friend is one of those friends that nobody really needs - the kind who'd just as soon gossip about you as with you. There is some connection between Uncle Morris, who manages the family coffee business in Costa Rica, and Jeremiah Dooley, a televangelist. Is it strictly business, or is something shady going on here? Is Miriam part of the problem? Dalton Vail is the detective assigned to the case. Dalton and Marla have a relationship, one which will get more complicated as the case progesses. Sometimes Marla tells Dalton things which will help him. Sometimes she doesn't. It's not always clear how that decision is made. They do make specific plans to investigate certain aspects of the case together. This causes some consternation in Marla's family when she and Dalton go visit a televangelist who runs a tilapia farm as a money-maker: Dalton tells Jeremiah Dooley that he and his fiancee Marla might be interested in contributing funds after they check out his operation. Dalton gives Marla a ring to lend credibility to their engagement. Marla's mother thinks it's a REAL engagement ring. And it might be. Maybe. This is a nice little mystery. I won't call all my mystery-reading friends and insist that they read it. I won't run right out and buy everything ever written by Nancy J. Cohen, either in hardback or in paper. But I would cheerfully pick up one of her books on a dreary day when I want something amusing and light to read while eating bon-bons on the couch. Should my friends ask me to recommend that kind of a book, I'd be happy to tell them about Marla and her Bad Hair Day mysteries.
Reviewed by P.J. Coldren, February 2003
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