Highlights to Heaven (A Bad Hair Day Mystery) - Tapa dura

When a dead body, with excellent highlights, is discovered in her neighbor's home, all signs lead professional hair stylist Marla Shore to the Heavenly Hair Salon where, while trying not to drool over gorgeous Detective Dalton Vail, she discovers a link between the murder and the exotic pet trade. 12,000 first printing.

Marla is concerned with her neighbour, Goat, is missing. His van is in the driveway; newspapers are piling up on the lawn; and no one's seen him for three days. It's unlike Goat to be so negligent, especially when he has pets in the house. Marla hears strange noises presumably from his menageries, but she's never ventured inside his place. She gets the opportunity when Detective Dalton Vail arrives after receiving a tip that her neighbour's house contains a dead body. Without a search warrant, he won't enter unless invited, and no one answered his knock on the door. Marla forges ahead, pushing inside the unlocked townhouse with Vail at her heels. A foul odour pervades the place, but it isn't from the hungry cats or the goat confined in the backyard. A dead man is sprawled in the master bedroom. While Marla heaves a sigh of relief that it isn't Goat, her expert beautician's eye picks up a clue. Noting the victim's bronze highlights, she relates their distinctive pattern to Cutter Corrigan a master stylist in the area. She surmises the victim might be Cutter's client and, soon enough, heads off to Cutter's to not only solve the murder, but to find out where her neighbour might be.