Body Wave

The Bad Hair Day Mysteries, Book 4

By: Nancy J. Cohen

Narrated by: Mary Ann Jacobs

Stylist Marla Shore goes undercover in a hair-brained scheme to catch a killer in her latest South Florida adventure. In a story braided with unexpected twists and curls, she takes on a role as nurse's aide for wealthy Miriam Pearl. While Marla snoops into the elderly matriarch's affairs, her boyfriend Detective Dalton Vail is afraid that the only affair she'll snag is with her ex-spouse Stan. Juggling work at her salon, crime solving, and two amorously inclined males, Marla fights a race against time to save Stan before the dashing detective nails him for murder.

"Ms. Cohen's plot has more twists than a French braid, and Marla is a shear delight." Joanne Fluke, author of the Hannah Swensen mysteries

©2002 Nancy J. Cohen (P)2018 Nancy J. Cohen

Body Wave

Body Wave
Nancy J Cohen

This is book 4 in a cozy mystery series Bad Hair Day. The listeners finds themselves in Fort. Lauderdale, Florida where the protagonist owns and operates a beauty salon. She is also dating a police detective and helps him solve crimes. A fun listen with lots of twists, like a too tight perm. We get murder, romance, former spouse, and lots of mystery. This one isn't too easy to figure out. I look forward to the next adventure.



The narration was well done. The characters were well portrayed. Mary Ann Jacobs is quite entertaining.



I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Great Mystery!

This is a great book; this is the fourth book in the Bad Hair Day Mystery series and is written by Nancy Cohen and narrated by Mary Ann Jacobs. Stylist Marla Shore goes undercover in a hair-brained scheme to catch a killer in her latest South Florida adventure. In a story braided with unexpected twists and curls, she takes on a role as nurse's aide for wealthy Miriam Pearl. While Marla snoops into the elderly matriarch's affairs, her boyfriend Detective Dalton Vail is afraid that the only affair she'll snag is with her ex-spouse Stan. Juggling work at her salon, crime solving, and two amorously inclined males, Marla fights a race against time to save Stan before the dashing detective nails him for murder. This is a great book with a wonderful story and well developed characters. This book will keep you listening long into the night. If you are looking for a great book, then you need to read this book. She does a fantastic job with all the voices and kept my attention until the end.

Love it,

Another great adventure with Marla the hair stylist. I love this series. Marla helps her ex husband, Stan, find out who killed his wife before he has to go to prison for it. She works to find the real killer and Dalton works with the evidence. Together they will find the killer or prove Stan is the killer. I look forward to the next book.

Shear Delight!

Body Wave by Nancy J Cohen is a such a fun listen. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the things in this cozy mystery. Marla is an endearing character, and I also loved the matriarch of Miriam. The author wrote a well plotted story with twists, endearing characters, humor, and a great resolution. This is my first listen to a book by Nancy J Cohen, and definitely not my last. I found this to be a great standalone, and part of a series. Mary Ann Jacobs did a great job bringing the characters to life with her distinguishable voices. I requested this review copy audiobook and have voluntarily written this review.

Easy listen

This is a fun light hearted cozy mystery, that was easy to follow along with. I had worked out the killer and why but there was a nice lot of clues to make you question it.
This is the first book I have listened to in this series, even though it is actually book 4 but you don't need to have heard or listened to the previous book to enjoy.
Marla life is hectic enough running her own hair salon but when her ex husband comes to her for help in clearing her name, she soon finds her self putting down a her hairdryer and picking up a wash cloth. With an eccentric family to investigate and I dead line to accomplish by Marla finds herself pulling out all the stops with the help of her boyfriend Detective Dalton Vail.
The narrator was very good and made it very enjoyable.

Fun cozy mystery

I enjoyed this fourth book in the Bad Hair Day series. I find Marla's character charming, but I agree with some other readers that she reads older than she is supposed to be, but that doesn't take away any from my enjoyment. I would have thought that Marla was in her 40-50's, as well as the detective that she is romantically involved with. I enjoy reading about Marla's description of things, as it relates to hair - I've never been too concerned with my hair, but I enjoy the different perspective. This book has some interesting characters, such as Miriam Pearl. I enjoyed watching her "blossom" under Marla's care. I listened to the Audible audio version of this book, and I enjoyed the narration. The book offers mystery, romance, and humor. I really enjoy this series, and look forward to the next one.

One of my favorite narrators reads a great book!

In <strong>Body Wave</strong> by Nancy J. Cohen, Marla Shore, hairstylist and amateur snoop, gets a call from Stanley Kaufman, her controlling and emotionally abusive ex-husband. His third wife, Kim, has been murdered in a stabbing and he has been arrested for the crime. Since Marla has solved a few mysteries in the past, Stan wants her to find the murderer for him in order to clear his name. In exchange, Stan will sell her his half of a house that the pair co-owns. At Stan's suggestion, Marla gets a job on Sundays taking care of Kim's frail grandmother, Miriam Pearl, even though Marla has no actual nursing experience. But the family shows hostility towards Marla because she tries to help Miriam become more active, getting her out of bed to join the family for their regular dinner instead of eating baby food in bed, to which her regular nurse, Agnes, has confined her. Marla also insists on fixing Miriam's hair and applying a little makeup to her face. She even takes Miriam to the mall. And the more she gets to know the selfish, bitter family, the more Marla becomes suspicious of the group of them.

In the meantime, Marla's relationship with Dalton Vail, the police detective, progresses, and she starts to let her guard down with him. This is a significant move for her because she has been so traumatized by the control that Stan exerted over her that it has made her fear any real commitment. She takes a long day trip with Dalton to interview a televangelist who has some connection to Kim, but which they can't determine. The couple's physical relationship also moves forward, as they discuss having a sexual relationship.

There is a creative scene where we get a lecture on tilapia as the detective snoops. I now know more about tilapia than I ever cared to know, but the whole scene was done so well that I wasn't bored at all! The scene was impressive enough that when I found my husband cooking tilapia that night, I was able to have a genuine discussion about them with him!

<strong>Body Wave</strong> is a very enjoyable book, my favorite in the first four books of the series that are out on audio. The plot has some really creative twists, and it made me keep changing my guesses as to the identity of the murderer. The denouement was thoroughly exciting and led me to cheer on the good guys!

As for the characters, I have come over the course of the four books to feel that I know Marla and Dalton personally, with their characters growing rounder and more in- depth each book, and I really cheered for their relationship to work out and for Marla to become able to open her heart to love and trust again. Stan shows his bad husband material all the more in this book, as he still tries to manipulate Marla and can't see why he hasn't been the perfect husband, despite three failed marriages, failures he blames entirely on the women and takes no responsibility for. I also loved the character of Miriam, who wakes up to life under the care of Marla and shows her own backbone. However, there were a lot of extra minor characters who knew Kim, and it did get confusing keeping all of them straight.

Mary Ann Jacobs does an excellent job of performing the audio edition of this book. She presents a unique attitude and uses strong timing and expression to convey the spirit and attitude of the book. I really like the sound of Jacobs' voice and appreciate her performance.

I had a great experience listening to <strong>Body Wave</strong>, which I liked the best of the four books on audio. The series consists of 14 books in print or on Kindle, so I am anxious for the next books to be recorded for those of us who can't read full length books visually. I appreciated the plot and the characters and really felt put into the world of the book. I give the book five stars!

Disclaimer: I was given this audiobook by the author, but that had no influence on my review.

Excellent Writer. Loved the story

I bought this book because I was interested in trying a cozy mystery. I'm glad I did. The story moved along at a good pace and kept me guessing till the end. Nancy Cohen is an excellent writer with good used of language, emotion & description. As for the reader she was great too. Keep me in the story and let me hear the main character's true voice.
Well done all around.
Thanks for the great read. I'm headed back now to get the next Nancy Cohen book!

A Great Listen

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, and found it very entertaining. The characters are very interesting and well written. When your ex husband offers to stay out of your life forever if you help his get out of his murder charge, what can a girl do? Hairdresser, Marla goes undercover to help her police detective boyfriend to solve the murder of ex husband's wife. This fast moving tale is full of suspense and humor as they try and solve this mystery. I will be checking out more books in this series.

A good mystery and great characters.

Marla is back in a new mystery. This one involves her ex husband. He is accused of murdering his wife. He turns to Marla for help. Dalton is reluctant to involve Marla in the investigation, but she knows Stan is a rotten person, but he isn't a murderer. As they try to solve the case, Marla and Dalton become much closer. A good mystery and great characters.