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Title: Without A Head
Series: Dying To Be Beautiful
Author: M. Glenda Rosen
Genre: Mystery
Release Date: 1st February 2016
BLURB supplied by Tribute Books
Saturday Morning, 6:00am
The head in the sink stared up at her. Darcy Monroe, the owner of a popular, chic hair salon was used to this. Only this time, the head was there without a body.
Chapter One: The Murder
As a Private Investigator, Jenna Preston had been hired to help solve murders, insurance fraud, cheating spouses and more. This was a new one for her.
She received what could only be described as a hysterical call from Darcy Monroe, owner of a popular, upscale hair salon in The Hamptons. A head without its body was rolling around in one of her shampoo basins.
Almost five-feet, five-inches tall, always looking taller in her two- or three-inch heels, Jenna had long red hair, blue eyes and was often seen driving around the East End in a white jeep, and in recent years, with her Irish setter sitting next to her.
The head in the sink stared up at her. Darcy Monroe, the owner of a popular, chic hair salon was used to this. Only this time, the head was there without a body.
Chapter One: The Murder
As a Private Investigator, Jenna Preston had been hired to help solve murders, insurance fraud, cheating spouses and more. This was a new one for her.
She received what could only be described as a hysterical call from Darcy Monroe, owner of a popular, upscale hair salon in The Hamptons. A head without its body was rolling around in one of her shampoo basins.
Almost five-feet, five-inches tall, always looking taller in her two- or three-inch heels, Jenna had long red hair, blue eyes and was often seen driving around the East End in a white jeep, and in recent years, with her Irish setter sitting next to her.
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EXCERPT
Chapter
1
The
Murder
Saturday, 6:10 A.M.
As a Private Investigator, Jenna Preston
had been hired to help solve murders, insurance fraud, cheating spouses and
more. This was a new one for her.
She received what could only be
described as a hysterical call from Darcy Monroe, owner of a popular, upscale
hair salon in The Hamptons.
A head without its body was rolling
around in one of her shampoo basins.
Almost five-feet, five-inches tall,
always looking taller in her two or three-inch heels, Jenna had long red hair,
blue eyes and was often seen driving around the East End in a white jeep, and
in recent years, with her Irish Setter sitting next to her.
As a well-respected private investigator
in the area, she told the salon owner, “I’ll be right there, and don’t touch
anything until the police arrive.”
Jenna knew they needed to secure the
business as a crime scene and Coroner Doc Bishop and Head of Forensics Lara
Stern had to be brought in as well.
“Troy, someone left a head, without the
body, in a shampoo bowl at Darcy’s Salon. I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”
”Damn it, Jenna, I nearly spilled my
coffee listening to this bizarre message. I’ll be there within the half hour.
Meantime, I’ll ask Lara to get over there to check the crime scene for prints and
other possible evidence and for Doc to arrange to bring the head to the morgue.
We’ll want to look at it there, after he’s had a chance to determine how it was
cut off and anything else he might find.”
Detective Johnson hung up.
He and Jenna had worked together and
known each other for a long time. They clearly trusted each other. He knew she
would follow police protocol at the crime scene.
Saturday, as always was an exceptionally
busy day, “in season” at Darcy’s Salon, which is why she had gotten there so
early. She always wanted the salon looking perfect, ready for stylists and
clients, who this day had appointments beginning at 7 am.
Located off the main avenue of this posh
resort at the East End of Long Island, less than ninety miles from Manhattan,
the salon was known for catering to the rich and famous, as well as some of
wanna-be customers, primping for weekend parties and fundraising events.
The salon was truly beautiful with warm
color tones and soft matching leather client chairs facing gold (well, fake
gold), trimmed mirrors. There was a reception area with the latest issues of
fashion magazines from Paris and Rome, and a few of the more popular Hampton
rags, like Dan’s Papers were spread
out on a marble table, next to it a coffee machine offering gourmet flavored
coffee and teas.
Most of the women who came to Darcy’s
Salon had plenty of money, some from their own success, although others were
arm candy for much older, wealthy men. Sometimes one of them would joke (maybe
not) that they were “Dying To Be Beautiful” like some of the famous models and
celebrities, many of who summered in the Hamptons.
“Jenna, you’ve seen how difficult and
fussy they can be, and their egos—they’re constantly seeking confirmation of
how beautiful they look. They want to come to a high-end salon, expecting to be
treated like royalty. And believe me, we do.”
Darcy Monroe was only too glad to charge
megabucks for her services since it included a whole lot of catering to their
whims and demands. Beauty could indeed be expensive in The Hamptons. The
chatter amongst the clients, the eight hair stylists, three manicurists and
several assistants meant gossip was a basic ingredient of conversation. The
story about the body without a head, and the head found in the salon, was sure
to explode through The Hamptons. It certainly had all the elements of a soap
opera.
“My god, Jenna, the gossip about this
mess is going to be like a volcano spilling over this town.”
Series: Dying To Be Beautiful
Author: M. Glenda Rosen
Genre: Mystery
Release Date: 18th April 2016
BLURB supplied by Tribute Books
Monday, 6:45am
Kevin Larson swam in his pool nearly every morning. Going on sixty-five, he prided himself on being in good shape.
Walking toward the small pool house, off to the left of the pool, he noticed a light was on. He was certain he turned it off the night before. Strange, he thought.
Even stranger, lying in a different sort of pool—blood—was his long time friend and lover, fashion designer Andre Yellen. Yellen was stuffed into one of the gowns he had designed and a wearing a blond wig.
The gown had been auctioned off the night before at a huge Hamptons fundraiser.
People in the Hamptons were certainly dying to be beautiful
Kevin Larson swam in his pool nearly every morning. Going on sixty-five, he prided himself on being in good shape.
Walking toward the small pool house, off to the left of the pool, he noticed a light was on. He was certain he turned it off the night before. Strange, he thought.
Even stranger, lying in a different sort of pool—blood—was his long time friend and lover, fashion designer Andre Yellen. Yellen was stuffed into one of the gowns he had designed and a wearing a blond wig.
The gown had been auctioned off the night before at a huge Hamptons fundraiser.
People in the Hamptons were certainly dying to be beautiful
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EXCERPT
Chapter
1
THE
GOWN
Monday, 7:30 a.m.
Detective Troy Johnson was at Larson’s
house when Jenna arrived. He had covered the victim with a large beach towel
until the coroner and forensics arrived. [deleted “He and”] Sergeant Stan
Miller, who had taken the call, accompanied him and was presently attempting to
hold back the media. They had heard about Yellen’s death on the police scanner,
and in no time, the active crime scene was quite a wild sight.
It was 6:30 A.M. when she had received
the call from Johnson that he was on his way to Kevin Larson’s house: “Jenna,
there’s been a murder. Designer Andre Yellen, the Fashion Queen, was found dead
this morning at the home of movie mogul Kevin Larson. He gave her the address
and exactly where it was located, “past the windmill at the edge of
Southampton.”
“More like the situation was at the edge
of reason,” Jenna thought.
“Jenna, they’re acting like a bunch of
hungry vultures. Help! These are your people. Well, they’re reporters like you
used to be. The homeowner is either in shock or just completely uncooperative
except for telling me where and when he found Yellen’s body.”
Jenna sighed, “Sure, I can’t say no to
such a lovely invitation.”
The death of Andre Yellen was big news.
Andre Yellen was squeezed—really, truly
squeezed—into a beautiful ocean blue, sleeveless, silk gown he had designed and
donated for a fundraiser the evening before. The size-8 dress was torn at all
the seams. Yellen, in his early fifties, 5’9” and clearly out of shape, was
more like a size-18-plus, and stuffed into a dress way, way too small for him.
As a designer for major celebrities for
nearly twenty-five years, Yellen was a man about town who loved both the ladies
and the men, or so it had been gossiped around the East End of Long Island,
also known as The Hamptons.
After all, this is THE HAMPTONS, and all
sorts of lifestyles are accepted, where choices are supposedly not judged, and
relationships are not restricted by conventional boundaries. Unfortunately,
there are always those determined to exercise their own brand of severe
judgment.
However, there was no evidence this
murder had anything to do with narrow minds. Not yet, anyhow. In fact, it
wasn’t clear at all what this murder was about—or who had committed it.
Private Investigator Jenna Preston was
familiar with many celebrities who lived or vacationed on the East End. Before
becoming an investigative reporter, she was entertainment and social events
reporter for the local daily paper and had interviewed quite a few of the “anointed”
as she had once called them. Gossip columnists covered the rest.
Jenna was regularly hired by law firms,
insurance companies and businesses for corporate fraud issues. She also had an
arrangement and relationship with the local police—especially when it came to
murder investigations. Some of the people she had once written about also tried
to hire her for personal investigations and for, what she considered,
ridiculous reasons. Such complaints included some new fence being too high or
people walking on the beach in front of someone’s home.
Most of these cases she didn’t accept.
“For me, it’s about justice. We all have
reasons, even life experiences motivating our passions. I have mine for what I
do,” Jenna told a local reporter whose paper was doing a story on crime in The
Hamptons.
Jenna had a solid reputation for being
smart, resourceful and most definitely charming—without an attitude—which was
different from many of the people who summered in The Hamptons.
She did love nice clothes, including the
red shoes or red boots she almost always wore.
“Hey,” she laughed once when Troy made
fun of her red shoes, “you wear a cowboy hat most of the time, so don’t make
fun of me, Tex.”
Jenna and Troy worked together
professionally almost as soon as she had become a licensed private detective.
It was a small police force, often stretched thin during the summer season.
Because they actually had few experienced investigators, he had requested and
been given approval by his captain to use a discretionary fund to hire Jenna on
an as-needed basis. She was often a member of his investigative team, usually
for murders.
Lately, there didn’t seem to be any
shortage of them.
Slender and almost 5’5,” yet always
looking taller in her two- or three-inch heels, Jenna had long red hair,
sometimes pulled back in a ponytail when she was working. She also had deep
blue eyes. With more than a hint of spunk and mischief about her, she was
definitely considered attractive.
Jenna’s new romance, Dave, thought so!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
M. Glenda Rosen is the author of The Woman’s Business Therapist: Eliminate the MindBlocks and RoadBlocks to Success, and award-winning My Memoir Workbook. For over fifteen years, she helped numerous authors develop and market their books, and presented writing programs in New York, The Hamptons, New Mexico and Carmel, California, on “Encouraging and Supporting the Writer Within You!” She's the founder and owner of a successful marketing and public relations agency for twenty-five years.
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***GIVEAWAY***
These books catch my interest because mystery is my favorite genre to read!
ReplyDeleteThanks to for enjoying mysteries, appreciate you comments, M. Glenda.
ReplyDelete(Marcia G. Rosen)
Sandra, thanks for spotlighting Marcia's series today.
ReplyDelete