The Body in the Beauty Parlor (A Jazzi Zanders Mystery, #6)

by Judi Lynn

In addition to her house-flipping talents, Jazzi Zanders is breaking ground as a sleuth. But she’s going to need every tool at her disposal to solve two crimes . . .

In their hair salon, Jazzi’s sister Olivia and mother are savvy businesswomen whose creativity brings fashion and flair to the folks of Rivers Bluff, Indiana. So when their newest hairstylist Misty is caught scamming clients’ debit cards and selling beauty products during off hours to pocket the profits, Olivia fires her. But Misty retaliates by hitting back with a defamation lawsuit—which she is more than happy to drop if Olivia pays her ten grand.

But neither blackmail nor courtroom fees are accrued after Misty’s body is discovered in the salon with Olivia’s scissors stuck in her chest. Olivia may be the number one suspect, but her murdered employee had a reputation for making enemies.

Then Jazzi’s ex Chad appears, asking for help with his marital strife. This already awkward situation worsens when Chad’s wife vanishes and the police investigate him. Now, it’s up to Jazzi to clear both her sister’s and ex’s names while the killer—or killers—could be a mere hair breadth’s away . . .

• ISBN10: 1516110250
• ISBN13: 9781516110254
• Publish Date: 2 March 2021
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Kensington Publishing
• Imprint: Lyrical Underground
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 202
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/isbn/9781516110254

Reviews

[Mystereity Reviews]

Absolutely loved this one! Fantastic from start to finish!

Before I dive into my review, I want to reiterate something I put in an update: It's a myth that you have to wait 24 hours before reporting an adult missing. Absolutely not true. If someone you know is missing, call the police as soon as possible.

Ok, on to the review and this was a humdinger of a book! There were several mysteries, the "side murders" were the murder of a recently hired employee, Misty, in the hair salon owned by her sister and mother. That one was, as well as another murder of a waitress, were wrapped up pretty quickly. The big plot revolved around Jazzi's ex-boyfriend Chad, who Jazzi agreed to help after his wife, Ginger, went missing. Chad and Ginger's marriage had been rocky, but were working hard to repair their marriage when she went missing and was later found dead. Chad was suspected of the murder, but Jazzi knew he didn't do it and worked with Detective Gaff to find the real killer. The whole plot was put together so well and you know what I liked? That the murders are actually investigated thoroughly, there's no jumping to conclusions and wasting time taking people into custody for finding a body. Gaff, who always seems to catch the cases that Jazzi gets involved with, is pretty realistic for a detective, despite the fact that he brings a civilian along to question people (which I'm willing to overlook, otherwise there wouldn't be much to the books) and I love how he and Jazzi work together. And although she's busy detecting, Jazzi, Jerod and Ansel always complete their latest house flip ahead of schedule (you know, now that I think about it, that's the most unrealistic thing about this series; home renovations never end early and on budget. I've watched enough HGTV to know!) And to top it all off, the endings are always satisfying and realistic. Sprinkle in all the good family-gathering-with-good-food vibes (I always feel like I gain 10 lbs reading about everything Jazzi makes) and you have the perfect recipe for a great cozy mystery read. Definitely a full 5 star read!