Thursday, August 30, 2012

Pg. 69: Bill Crider's "Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen"

Today's feature at the Page 69 Test: Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen: A Dan Rhodes Mystery by Bill Crider.

About the book, from the publisher:
Dan Rhodes, sheriff of Blacklin County, Texas, is called to the Beauty Shack, where the young and pretty Lynn Ashton has been found dead, bashed over the head with a hairdryer. The owner said Lynn had gone to the salon late to meet an unknown client. There was a lot of gossip going on about Lynn before her death, but no one seems to really know much about her, or they’re not telling Rhodes.

Lynn was known to flirt, and it’s possible an angry wife or jilted lover had something to do with her death. The salon owner suspects two outsiders who have been staying in an abandoned building across the street. While he investigates the murder, Rhodes must also deal with the theft of copper and car batteries, not to mention a pregnant nanny goat that is terrorizing the town.

Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen is a wonderful entry in this always delightful series by award-winning author Bill Crider.
Learn more about the book and author at Bill Crider's website and blog.

In his review of Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen, Ed Gorman praised Crider's "skills with characterization and milieu" and called the author "a master plotter."

Read the Page 69 Test entries for Crider's A Mammoth Murder, Murder Among the OWLS, Of All Sad Words, Murder in Four Parts, Murder in the Air, and The Wild Hog Murders.

Writers Read: Bill Crider.

The Page 69 Test: Murder of a Beauty Shop Queen.

--Marshal Zeringue