Tressed to Kill

by Lila Dare

Book Overview

First in the brand-new Southern Beauty Shop mystery series St. Elizabeth, Georgia, offers charm, Southern hospitality-and, most recently, murder. When hairdresser Grace Terhune and her mother, Violetta, gussy up all the high-society ladies attending the town meeting, they find their snobbiest client dead. The police believe the mother-daughter duo did her in. But before things get snarled beyond repair, Grace sets out to clear their names.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0425234746
• ISBN13: 9780425234747
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Berkley Books
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 4.1" x 6.7"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Great New Series!

It's hard to believe that this is a first novel. The characters are interesting and people that you want to know better. One is invested in what happens to them. The plot also was clever. This wasn't a book that you can tell who the killer is the first time you meet him/her, but there are also enough clues along the way so that you have half a chance of figuring it out. I can't wait for Lila Dare's next novel and have already pre-ordered it.

Great book!

Short and sweet, I loved this book! It was a very fast read, and I really didn't guess who did it until it was revealed, I had an idea but it was still a surprise. I loved all the characters and can't wait to read the next in the series.

TERRIFIC!!!!!!!!!

THIS IS A NEW WRITER TO ME, AND I CAN NOT RECALL THE LAST TIME I ENJOYED A NEW BOOK AS MUCH AS THIS ONE!!!!!!! 10 STARS!

a great debut

This was a good read that combined what I like in my mysteries: friendship, humor, a budding romance and twists and turns that I didn't see coming.

fun regional amateur sleuth

Quaint St. Elizabeth, Georgia is a typical southern small-town in which the locals know one another and the crime rate is extremely low. Grace Terhune and her mother Violetta own a beauty shop that they operate out of the latter's home. They are swamped with customers who are going to attend the town meeting to discuss funds for the "Preserve the Rothmere Museum" and computers into the schools. The other item on the agenda is whether to allow Morestuf Mart to build a store in town. Society doyenne Constance DuBois demands Violetta put highlights in her hair just prior to the big meeting. The hairdresser warns the haughty client that she already has too many chemicals and fears adding additional ones to Constance's hair. Violetta proves right when Constance's hair turns orange. Blaming Violetta, Constance vows to shut down the beauty salon. Following the meeting, they find Constance's corpse in the parking lot. All evidence points strongly towards her mother, so Grace, knowing the cops will need all the help they can get, begins her own inquiry. The first Southern Beauty Shop amateur sleuth nicely captures the ambiance of life in a small Georgia town; for instance sayings like the War of Northern Aggression are accepted as much as the alphabet is. Grace is a classic steel magnolia who refuses to accept her mom's guilt and the consequently closing of their beauty parlor. She determinedly investigates because she knows the townsfolk, especially the ladies, quite well and cannot afford to hire a professional detective. Rather quickly she finds others with motives to kill Constance though she struggles with who did the act. Lila Dare provides a fun regional amateur sleuth starring likable mother-daughter beauticians. Harriet Klausner