Highlights to Heaven

Rating:
Summary: heavenly amateur sleuth
Review: Between owning and operating her own hair salon in a south Florida town and trying to keep her relationship with Detective Dalton Vail on an ever keel, one would think that Marla Shore doesn't have time for any extracurricular activities. When Dalton informs her that he got an anonymous tip that there is a dead body in her neighbor Goat's house, she's anxious to find out if it's true and what she can do to help.

Against his better judgment, Dalton let's Marla accompany him to investigate the tip and they find the murdered body of a man in Goat's home only it is not her neighbor. By the time they identify the body, Marla start her own investigation as well as nurturing her relationship with Dalton's daughter. Before the killer is caught, Marla is mugged, kidnapped and almost gets into a fatal car accident, courtesy of a killer with a score to settle.

HIGHLIGHTS TO HEAVEN is a heavenly amateur sleuth tale starring a protagonist who fills in every minute of her day, whether it's writing, sleuthing, or dealing with her matchmaking mother. Her deepening relationship with her lover's daughter is a beautiful scenario to read-about and comes across as totally believable. Nancy J. Cohen is excellent when it comes to plotting her adventurous storyline and creating eccentric adorable characters.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Reminiscent of Evanovich... fun read.
Review: If you want a mind-candy read somewhat reminicient of Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, you'll enjoy Highlights To Heaven by Nancy J. Cohen. This is part of her "Bad Hair Day Mystery" series. The main character, Marla Shore, is a south Florida Jewish hair stylist with her own salon, and she finds herself in the middle of crime investigations, much to the dismay of her love interest and police dectective Dalton Vail.

In the latest installment, her strange neighbor (nicknamed "Goat") has gone missing. When she goes over to investigate with Vail, they find a dead body, a stash of cash, and no Goat. Shore recognizes the highlighting style on the dead guy, and asks some questions of the stylist who did the work. Things start happening quickly at that point, and it seems to tie back to her styling school days when a group of her friends played a joke on another stylist who lost his hair in the process. All the friends are being killed off, and Shore narrowly escapes death a couple of time. A few unexpected plot twists brings the story to the typical life or death climax at the end. And as a subplot throughout the story, Shore's relationship with Vail advances forward to the next major stage... moving in.

This isn't deep thought-provoking material. It's a light story with interesting characters, and it's the exact type of recreational read that I often look forward to.

Rating:
Summary: Reminiscent of Evanovich... fun read.
Review: If you want a mind-candy read somewhat reminicient of Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, you'll enjoy Highlights To Heaven by Nancy J. Cohen. This is part of her "Bad Hair Day Mystery" series. The main character, Marla Shore, is a south Florida Jewish hair stylist with her own salon, and she finds herself in the middle of crime investigations, much to the dismay of her love interest and police dectective Dalton Vail.

In the latest installment, her strange neighbor (nicknamed "Goat") has gone missing. When she goes over to investigate with Vail, they find a dead body, a stash of cash, and no Goat. Shore recognizes the highlighting style on the dead guy, and asks some questions of the stylist who did the work. Things start happening quickly at that point, and it seems to tie back to her styling school days when a group of her friends played a joke on another stylist who lost his hair in the process. All the friends are being killed off, and Shore narrowly escapes death a couple of time. A few unexpected plot twists brings the story to the typical life or death climax at the end. And as a subplot throughout the story, Shore's relationship with Vail advances forward to the next major stage... moving in.

This isn't deep thought-provoking material. It's a light story with interesting characters, and it's the exact type of recreational read that I often look forward to.

Rating:
Summary: Highlights to Heaven
Review: Marla Shore has just wrapped up her latest sleuthing job, and is just beginning the next one a few weeks later.
Her neighbor Goat is missing, and a dead body is found in his home. As Marla searches for Goat and is trying to clear his name, her arch rival Carolyn opens a beauty shop in the same strip mall, her ma is becoming more involved with the mysterious (and badly dressed) Ralph, Ralph's son Barry is becoming more interested in Marla, as is Detective Vail, and his teenage daughter has developed a friendship with her as well.
Add to the mix - someone is killing off her old beauty school classmates, and she is next!
The detailed information provided by the author is very interesting (Jewish holidays, traditions, and recipes, along with animal smuggling, hair growth, fur information, citris tree diseases) - and Marla's angst in the dating arena is easy to relate to.
The only flaw in the book is that Marla has not yet learned how to be more cautious in investigations and sleuthing.
This is a fun read, take it in a light hearted vein and have some fun with it!

Rating:
Summary: Marla tries to find her neighbor and clear his name.
Review: Once again Nancy has done a terrific job. This is a great book! I highly recommend it. A wonderful addition to a superb series.

Marla Shore's neighbor Goat is missing and a man is found dead in his townhouse. Her boyfriend Detective Dalton Vail asked her to accompany him to Goat's townhouse. But, once the dead man is found, he asks her to let him handle the investigation.

Of course, Marla can' do that. The police think Goat killed him. She just can't believe that. She does some investigation. She goes to see her old teacher Cutter Corrigan at his salon. She recognizes the highlights in the dead man's hair as being Corrigan's signature.

At the same time Louise Cunningham is opening her salon just down the street from Marla's Cut `N Dye Salon. Marla is having trouble hiring another stylist and receptionist. She feels torn between the investigation and her salon.

Plus Marla's mother Anita keeps setting her up with Barry, the son of her boyfriend Roger. Marla can't stand Roger. Barry is a nice lawyer. She is confused because she can't decide whether she and Dalton have a future. Dalton's daughter Brianna is about to turn 13 and Marla isn't sure she wants a relationship with a child involved. Brianna is becoming attached to Marla. Marla and Dalton don't see eye to eye in the way Brianna should be brought up. This is causing a lot of friction.

Before Marla is done investigating, she will find herself in danger. Eventually Dalton goes along with her to help keep her safe.

Marla is such a great protagonist. She is likeable and strong willed. There are so many things going on in her life that at times she feels overwhelmed and has trouble focusing. I always enjoy this series and look forward to many more!

Rating:
Summary: Marla tries to find her neighbor and clear his name.
Review: Once again Nancy has done a terrific job. This is a great book! I highly recommend it. A wonderful addition to a superb series.

Marla Shore's neighbor Goat is missing and a man is found dead in his townhouse. Her boyfriend Detective Dalton Vail asked her to accompany him to Goat's townhouse. But, once the dead man is found, he asks her to let him handle the investigation.

Of course, Marla can' do that. The police think Goat killed him. She just can't believe that. She does some investigation. She goes to see her old teacher Cutter Corrigan at his salon. She recognizes the highlights in the dead man's hair as being Corrigan's signature.

At the same time Louise Cunningham is opening her salon just down the street from Marla's Cut 'N Dye Salon. Marla is having trouble hiring another stylist and receptionist. She feels torn between the investigation and her salon.

Plus Marla's mother Anita keeps setting her up with Barry, the son of her boyfriend Roger. Marla can't stand Roger. Barry is a nice lawyer. She is confused because she can't decide whether she and Dalton have a future. Dalton's daughter Brianna is about to turn 13 and Marla isn't sure she wants a relationship with a child involved. Brianna is becoming attached to Marla. Marla and Dalton don't see eye to eye in the way Brianna should be brought up. This is causing a lot of friction.

Before Marla is done investigating, she will find herself in danger. Eventually Dalton goes along with her to help keep her safe.

Marla is such a great protagonist. She is likeable and strong willed. There are so many things going on in her life that at times she feels overwhelmed and has trouble focusing. I always enjoy this series and look forward to many more!

Rating:
Summary: God Awful
Review: Usually when a series starts out bad, it can only get better. Unfortunately, this series keeps getting worse.

There were so many things going on in this book that it was hard to keep track of them all -- a murder in a neighbor's home, an incident between neighbors, animal cruelty, illegal fur business, exotic bird trade, competing salon owners, baldness, citrus canker, teenage angst, bad deeds from the past. Way too much to keep track of.

Marla never learns her lesson and keeps putting herself into stupid, dangerous situations. Her cop boyfriend does nothing to discourage her from involving herself in his cases other than shaking a finger now and then, but yet he turns around and tells her that the case is "our case." Cops do *not* encourage civilians to get involved in their investigations, particularly a civilian as stupid and careless as Marla.

After she finds out about two hairdressers being killed, Marla thinks she went to school with one and doesn't recognize the name of the other. After she goes to her beauty school and finds out they were all classmates, we suddenly learn that the three, along with two other students, were part of a tight "gang" who hung around together and basically ruined another student's life. So why doesn't Marla recognize the name of someone she was supposedly so tight with? That really lost me.

This author has enough trouble trying to write mystery -- the last thing she should do is try to add romance. There's really no chemistry at all between Marla and Dalton, and her attempts at writing romance for them come off as juvenile and amateur. On one page, Marla is fretting about their differences and how a relationship between them won't work, then on the next page she's discussing the changes she'd make to his decor if she moves in with him. No consistency and certainly nothing about these two that makes you want to read about them having a meal together (which will, of course, be filled with leers and attempts at sexually suggestive comments and feelings) much less living together.

This author really needs to go back to writing school, because she's a textbook for "How To Get Your Novel Published." There's no red, yellow and blue in Marla's world -- only crimson, lemon and azure. Clothing, table settings, meals, cars, everything is described in painstaking detail to the point where you end up skimming over paragraphs at a time. And, in addition to the very annoying "Bless My Bones!" and random Yiddish phrases, we're now also treated to "Holy Highlights!" throughout the book. What is this, Batman?

Anyone who lives in South Florida knows that Palm Haven is really Plantation -- it's silly to try to invent a town when you're specific enough to tell us that someone is driving down Nob Hill Road to get onto I-595. Why the author felt the need to invent the name of the town is beyond me, since a large portion of her reading audience is local.

Yet another poor effort by a very poor writer.

Rating:
Summary: Flawed but interesting
Review: When her neighbor disappears and a dead body is found in his condo, hair stylist Marla Shore gets involved. She recognizes the highlights on the body and knows the one hairdresser who can produce them. What she doesn't know is that her investigation is going to lead her into serious troubles involving animal research, animal smuggling, a cure for baldness, and a plant disease that threatens the citrus crops of Florida. Along with sometimes boyfriend Police Detective Dalton Vail, Marla rushes from danger to danger--all the while trying to figure out where her relationship with Dalton is headed.

Marla Shore is a mostly likable heroine, interested in others, sympathetic toward Dalton's pre-teen daughter, and caring about her neighbor, 'Goat,' who, Marla is certain, could not be the murderer. Marla's bad judgment when it comes to personal safety weakens the character, however, as does her certainty that she knows what is best for Dalton's daughter. One would think that a few near-death experiences would teach her a bit more caution but, unfortunately, they don't.

Author Nancy J. Cohen slips in an occasional clunker but her writing is mostly professional quality. HIGHLIGHTS TO HEAVEN is a flawed but interesting mystery.