Rating: 
Summary: Great Escape!
Review: "Permed to Death" by Nancy J Cohen provided me with the perfect escape from daily doldrums. Marla Shore, the owner of the local beauty salon in South Florida, made a believable, nosey butt-inski! Her eclectic employees were true to form for any beauty salon. Snappy dialog and lots of action. I'm looking forward to the next Marla Shore mystery!
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I found Permed to Death at the library, and immediately picked it up. How could anyone resist such a title? This is, according the author's bio, the first published volume of a series starring Marla Shore, a South Florida hairstylist living happily alone (for the most part) despite the loud wishes of her mother and would-be suitors that Marla return to the dating scene. In this debut, Marla is seeing to regular customer/nag Bertha Kravitz who dies mid-perm from poisoning. Turns out Marla keeps a special stash of coffee creamer for Mrs. Kravitz in the salon and it is discovered to be tainted; clearly somebody wanted to cream more than coffee with it. Thus, Marla instigates her own investigation to clear her name -- seeing as how Detective Vail is ready to arrest her based on opportunity and lack of witnesses, she did buy the creamer, you know -- while also seeking to destroy some evidence that would definitely give Marla a motive as well. Marla hints often at this blackmail package Mrs. Kravitz had held over her in exchange for free 'dos, and I long figured it out before the nature of the evidence was revealed. Getting said material back from Bertha's whiny, conceited, and/or sleazy relatives and associates proves to be a pain. As far as the mystery goes, Permed to Death has its fun moments, particularly when Marla interacts with various supporting characters, yet reads a bit long. Though I could not immediately pick up on the murderer as other readers of this novel claim to have done, I got the feeling Marla didn't exactly make any shortcuts in her sleuthing. Her relationship with the cynical Detective Vail, in particular, comes off as awkward -- it appears as if Marla's primping for this man's visits and cursing him in the same breath. I'm reading this book and wondering to myself if Cohen was trying to introduce some sexual tension or to get us to believe that Marla and Vail would eventually become a couple. I didn't see some of the things Vail said and did in this book as typical of a true homicide detective.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I love mysteries especially those set in quirky situations, so I picked up Permed To Death by Nancy Cohen with much anticipation. I found this book disappointing from the very beginning. The dialog was simplistic and predictable as was the "whodunit". The characters were underdeveloped and not used to their full potential within the story. A few characters showed up with no introduction or background until later in the book or not at all, leaving me wondering just who they were and what their significance was to the storyline. I purchased this book and Ms. Cohens next book in the series at the same time but after laboring through this one I think I'll pass on the second and cut my losses.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I love mysteries especially those set in quirky situations, so I picked up Permed To Death by Nancy Cohen with much anticipation. I found this book disappointing from the very beginning. The dialog was simplistic and predictable as was the "whodunit". The characters were underdeveloped and not used to their full potential within the story. A few characters showed up with no introduction or background until later in the book or not at all, leaving me wondering just who they were and what their significance was to the storyline. I purchased this book and Ms. Cohens next book in the series at the same time but after laboring through this one I think I'll pass on the second and cut my losses.
Rating:
Summary: Potential with proffesionalism.
Review: I really enjoyed this book- it was really intriguing. Even though I felt like I knew who the murderer was pretty early on- it made the book even more irresistable to see if I was right. So saying, I must also say the book was a little too closely centered on sex. Romance peppered in is great, but I do hope that the future books in this series will have less explicit parts about sex. Other than this- I loved the book. I look forward to reading more. Oh yeah- I loved Detective Vail. I hope he continues to play a big part in this series, and also that we'll hear from his daughter. I hope to see new books in this series very soon.
Rating: 
Summary: Good First in Series
Review: Main character, Marla Shore - hair salon owner - has one of her customers drop dead after drinking a cup of coffee she served her. This spurs Marla on to find the real killer. Though the book was well written and good, the title and cover may mislead readers into thinking the story is full of laughs, and it's not. If there were any attempts at humor, I missed them. Marla is not a real interesting character. She seems to just exist, and there is nothing to really like or dislike about her. However, the author brings in other characters that have more of a personality (perhaps too many in this story). Hopefully we will get to know Marla better in the second book.
Rating:
Summary: Flawed First Novel
Review: Marla Shore's day is off to a bad start. She's had to come in early to accommodate her most demanding customer. But when Bertha Kravitz falls over poisoned, Marla's day just gets worse. Naturally, since Marla was alone with the victim, she's the prime suspect. Little do the police know that Marla had a very good motive. Now she must find the real killer and keep her past a secret from the very attractive Detective Vail.
This book was a mixed bag. I found Marla full of spunk and really enjoyed her. The plot twisted very nicely and I couldn't figure out who done it until the very end. However, the book also had some serious flaws. Detective Vail kept behaving in an unrealistic manner. I doubt any police detective would treat their prime suspect the way he did Marla without being fired. While I liked the fact that Marla had a past, I felt beat over the head with it since it seemed to be mentioned every few pages. Finally, the book felt overwritten, with too much description at times slowing down certain scenes.
Part of my problem might have been my gender; women might enjoy it more then I did. It wasn't a bad book; a good edit could have fixed most of the problems. Hopefully the series gets better as the author learns her craft.
Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: My 12 year old daughter could write a better novel than "Permed to Death". I was intrigued by the title & jacket summary so I invested in this book. I would have done better to put the money towards a perm for myself. No doubt it would have been more enjoyable. Cohen's writing style is juvenile at best and the dialogue was painful to read. Not knowing much Yiddish, I could have used a glossary at the back to define some of her expressions. I can't imagine how this book was published, not to mention the subsequent books in the same series.
Rating:
Summary: A Promising Debut!
Review: Permed to Death is the first of Nancy Cohen's Bad Hair Day Mystery titles. Marla Shore, owner of the Cut 'N Dye hair salon, leaves difficult client Bertha Kravitz at the shampoo bowl with a cup of coffee as her perm rods set. Suddenly, Bertha is dead, the police are everywhere and Marla is in trouble. Old secrets, new business problems and a vindictive former husband add to Marla's problems as she finds herself the target of a creative killer. Marla is also attracted to the detective assigned to the case, yet another complication in her hectic life. So many people had reason to want Bertha dead and its hard to stop with a single murder. Nancy Cohen is a former nurse and her medial training, along with a great deal of hair salon research, add to the flavor of this first mystery. I'm looking forward to getting to know Marla better!
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: The title and the artwork suckered me in. I'm always on the lookout for a new series with female leads in amateur roles. But this book was a bitter disappointment and I continued reading only it in hopes it would improve. It didn't. The mystery is badly constructed with the guilty party almost standing up and self-identifying in the earliest chapters. The characters all sound alike with awkwardly constructed and generally inane dialogue. The lead character has few redeeming features. I don't expect flawless people, but the lead isn't even likeable which is pretty much a necessity in cozies. If you're looking for a well-written beauty-parlour based mystery wait until mid March when "Bubbles Unbound" by Sarah Strohmeyer is released. I read the ARC and it's hysterical in a Janet Evanovich sort of way with full-bodied characters and a solid mystery. It's what PERMED TO DEATH ought to have been...
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