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DEAD ROOTS
by Nancy J. Cohen
Kensington, December 2005
244 pages
$20.00
ISBN: 0758206585


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Florida hairstylist, Marla Shore is not exactly looking forward to spending Thanksgiving weekend with her family. Her hairstyling business has to be taken care of and she is a little worried about introducing her non-Jewish fiance, police detective Dalton Vail, to her very Jewish family. But her Aunt Polly has insisted that the whole family meet at a resort hotel called Sugar Crest, a former plantation, for the weekend. Since Marla is considered her aunt's favorite niece she and Dalton must attend.

Almost as soon as Marla gets to Sugar Crest she learns many things. First of all, her grandfather Andrew used to own Sugar Crest and the plantation is now owned by Aunt Polly, his daughter. In fact, Polly frequently visits the hotel and stays in the same room every time. Polly seems to be the only family member who knows what the secrets are surrounding how her father bought the hotel. But since Polly is now in her 90s, she is a little forgetful.

Marla is summoned to Polly's room and is asked to look for some letters Polly wrote to someone named Vincent. She's also supposed to find some stones and gems that used to belong to Andrew. Marla is confused by the request and plans to ask Polly more about the letters but unfortunately, Polly is found murdered right before Thanksgiving dinner.

Marla has to figure out who killed Polly, who Vincent is, where Andrew's stones and gems are, and still spend time with her fiance. But on top of all that there is also the matter of Sugar Crest itself. It's haunted. Many spirits, one of which might be Andrew, haunt the hotel. Soon Marla is having troubles when she is pushed into a ditch! Could her attacker have been one of the ghosts?

The hotel is also having new construction work done and some of the workers have had a few serious accidents. Marla has to figure out if Polly's murder and the accidents can be attributed to some otherworldly hands or is some very live person trying to scare everyone away so they can find Andrew's wealth?

DEAD ROOTS is Nancy J Cohen's seventh installment in the Marla Shore hairstylist series. Fans of the series get to meet Marla's family with all their quirks in this story. It's wonderful! I enjoyed the family's antics including Marla's 19-year-old second cousin. The young woman flirts with Dalton making Marla quite jealous. The family is very real and consists of true to life people, some of whom love each other, and others who just tolerate the rest.

Cohen constructs a dandy murder mystery with a wonderfully thought-out story line that includes family secrets, historic preservationists, real estate developers, and some scary things that go bump in the night. The characters are fully developed and very likeable.

Spend Thanksgiving with Marla and her family at the haunted Sugar Crest Hotel. You won't be sorry, a little frightened maybe, but not sorry.

Reviewed by Sharon Katz, November 2005

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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