We are delighted to welcome author Arlene McFarlane to Omnimystery News today.
Arlene's new first in series mystery is Murder, Curlers and Cream (ParadiseDeer Publishing; November 2016 ebook format) and we are thrilled that she has provided us with a short excerpt to share with our readers.
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YOU WOUND A PERM ROD AROUND a man's what?" Detective Romero stood in the middle of my Mediterranean-styled salon, hand on his gun hip, legs spread wide. His deep voice was laced with cynicism, and his blue eyes pierced me with a look that said now he'd heard everything.
I know it sounded outrageous, but good lord. It'd been several years since "Local Beautician Valentine Beaumont Uses Perm Rod to Curl Murderer's Gonads" made front page headlines in the Rueland News. Was I ever going to live that down? It was an awful picture of me they'd run too, considering I was soaked in mud and covered in cuts and bruises.
Besides, there was another crisis at hand. I mean, a dead body had just been removed from the facial bed in Ti Amo — one of my treatment rooms, not thirty feet down the hall. Didn't this detective, in his faded jeans and brown plaid shirt, think that was a little more important?
I pulled at my tight-knit top, trying not to let him get under my skin. "For the record, that perm rod saved me from being knifed to death. Anyway, it sounds worse than it was."
"Worse than it was! Lady, that's about as worse as it can get for a man." He blew out a sigh. "I'd love to hear the full story on that one day."
I smiled sweetly. "If you're nice to me, maybe one day I'll tell it."
He glared at me, probably not certain if I was being sarcastic or sincere. Frankly, I wasn't sure about that myself.
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Photo provided courtesy of
Arlene McFarlane
Previously an aesthetician, hairstylist, and owner of a full-service salon, Arlene McFarlane now writes full time. When she's not making up stories, or being a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, cat-mom, or makeover artist, you'll find her making music on the piano.
Arlene is a member of Romance Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Toronto Romance Writers, SOWG, and the Golden Network. She's won and placed in over 30 contests, including twice in the Golden Heart and twice in the Daphne du Maurier.
Arlene lives with her family in Canada.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at ArleneMcFarlane.com and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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Murder, Curlers and Cream by Arlene McFarlane
A Valentine Beaumont Mystery
Publisher: ParadiseDeer Publishing
Valentine Beaumont is a beautician with a problem. Not only has she got a meddling mother, a wacky staff, and a dying business, but now she's got a dead client who was strangled while awaiting her facial.
With business the way it is, combing through this mystery may be the only way to save her salon. Until a second murder, an explosion, a kidnapping, death threats, and the hard-nosed Detective Romero complicate things. But Valentine will do anything to untangle the crime. That's if she can keep her tools of the trade in her bag, keep herself alive, and avoid falling for the tough detective.
In the end, how hard can that be?
— Murder, Curlers and Cream by Arlene McFarlane
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