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Rating: 
Summary: Horrible
Review: Less than mediocre writing, an unlikeable main character and a predictible story made this a complete waste of money. Look elsewhere for mysteries with a female sleuth.
Rating:
Summary: Ummm.....just plain bad.
Review: Less than mediocre writing, an unlikeable main character and a predictible story made this a complete waste of money. Look elsewhere for mysteries with a female sleuth.
Rating: 
Summary: Marla's ex-husband is accused and she needs to clear him
Review: Marla Shore, owner of Cut 'N Dye Salon, helps her ex-husband Stanley Kauffman find out who killed his third (and current) wife Kimberly. Stan has been charged with the murder but insists he is innocent. Marla is surprised he would ask her to help him. He has never believed in her and controlled her when they were married. One reason Marla agrees to help his is that he is willing to sell his half of their jointly owned property. Stan has been trying to get Marla to sell him her half because Kimberly wanted a bigger house. Marla refused to sell and would love to one this property alone - no more interactions with Stan.Stan convinces Marla to investigate Kimberly's family. Her grandmother Miriam is in need of a fill-in nurse 1 day a week. Marla interviews and gets the job. Right from the start it becomes apparent Marla isn't qualified. Luckily Miriam likes Marla and keeps her on. Marla gets information through Miriam and the rest of her family. Plus she helps Miriam realize she isn't such an invalid. Marla and Dalton, her boyfriend and the case Detective, end up investigating Jeremiah Dooley and what role he played in Kimberly's life. Many funny things happen in this book. I highly recommend it and the whole series. I enjoy Marla. Plus the fact that she is a hairdresser helps her gain information even the police don't know!
Rating:
Summary: Marla's ex-husband is accused and she needs to clear him
Review: Marla Shore, owner of Cut `N Dye Salon, helps her ex-husband Stanley Kauffman find out who killed his third (and current) wife Kimberly. Stan has been charged with the murder but insists he is innocent. Marla is surprised he would ask her to help him. He has never believed in her and controlled her when they were married. One reason Marla agrees to help his is that he is willing to sell his half of their jointly owned property. Stan has been trying to get Marla to sell him her half because Kimberly wanted a bigger house. Marla refused to sell and would love to one this property alone - no more interactions with Stan. Stan convinces Marla to investigate Kimberly's family. Her grandmother Miriam is in need of a fill-in nurse 1 day a week. Marla interviews and gets the job. Right from the start it becomes apparent Marla isn't qualified. Luckily Miriam likes Marla and keeps her on. Marla gets information through Miriam and the rest of her family. Plus she helps Miriam realize she isn't such an invalid. Marla and Dalton, her boyfriend and the case Detective, end up investigating Jeremiah Dooley and what role he played in Kimberly's life. Many funny things happen in this book. I highly recommend it and the whole series. I enjoy Marla. Plus the fact that she is a hairdresser helps her gain information even the police don't know!
Rating:
Summary: Horrible
Review: One would think this author could only improve as time goes on. Sadly, the opposite seems to be true. Ms. Cohen still hasn't learned how to write a lick since she began the series. Page after page is taken up with filler that lends nothing to the story. The dialogue between characters is inane, and it's so stilted and unnatural that you can't even stretch your imagination to pretend that people actually talk this way. People discuss things that both parties already know as a means of conveying it to the reader. The language used is unrealistic ("my salon is situated in that shopping center"), the haphazard Yiddish phrases are annoying and the stupidity of just about everyone in the book leaves you shaking your head (a woman is shot in the middle of a crowded circus and no one notices anything as a dead body sits among them?). Any South Floridian can easily figure out that the story is set in the Plantation/Davie area, so why would Marla act shocked that her brother and sister-in-law "came all the way from Boca Raton!" to attend her birthday party? Boca is only 1/2 hour away -- it's not like these people travelled from Siberia. Three times we were forced to read detailed descriptions of the feelings in Marla's mouth after taking a bite of food. And there's still no blue, green, yellow or red in Marla's world -- it's all sapphire, jade, sunflower and crimson. As far as the relationship with Vail, it seems the author is shooting for sexual tension and ending up with oversexed, hormonal high school juniors. There's nothing sexy about this relationship, and there's nothing likeable about either character or Vail's daughter. The murderer's identity was easy to figure out -- if you care enough to even try after wading through all the extraneous garbage. After four installments, all this series has proved is that anyone can get published if they have the right connections, whether they have talent or not. With all the good, and even half-good, amateur sleuth series that are out there, save your time and money for one of them. This one's not worth it, and I'm through giving it chances.
Rating:
Summary: upbeat amateur sleuth mystery
Review: Stanley Kauffman comes down to breakfast only to see his trophy wife lying on the floor, bleeding from a wound to her chest. When the police arrive, they declare her dead and arrest him. He calls his ex-wife, hairdresser Marla Shore, to meet him at the jail and asks her help in clearing him of the charges. He promises her that if she will, he will sell his share of the property they jointly own at a decent price. Marla agrees because she wants the property and because she believes Stanley would never physically harm a woman. Marla goes undercover at the compound of Stanley's in-laws by becoming a nurse's aid to the matriarch of the family. She discovers that almost everyone in the household had a motive to murder Stanley's wife and further investigation with her boyfriend Detective Dalton Vail turns up even-more suspects. If Marla isn't careful, the perpetrator will try to kill her to stop her from revealing what she figured out about her ex-husband's wife's death. Anyone who reads BODY WAVE will come away thinking it is an upbeat amateur sleuth mystery populated by a host of eccentric characters. The heroine is a bold strong woman who is not afraid to get in a person's face when she thinks she is right. Nancy J. Cohen is a talented writer who is famous for her complex plots and characterizations as this tale substantiates. Harriet Klausner
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