For fans of: Deborah Donnelly and Elizabeth Lynn Casey

When Grace Ann Terhune shows up to work at the salon her mother Violetta runs out of her Georgia home, she isn’t expecting to be drafted into spending a week at the Miss Magnolia Blossom pageant doing hair. The money is good, though, and her friend and co-worker Stella will be there doing the girls’ nails, so what’s to complain about? Almost immediately, though, things go wrong: minor accidents begin plaguing the contestants, a group of angry protestors sets up camp outside the pageant, and Stella starts acting strangely. And then, just when Grace thought things couldn’t get any worse, pageant coordinator Audrey Faye is found dead, stabbed with a nail file. It comes out that Audrey had been having an affair with Stella’s husband Darryl, and the police start looking hard at Stella as a suspect, but Grace knows her friend isn’t capable of murder. Can Grace unravel the mysteries surrounding the pageant and nab Audrey’s killer without becoming a victim, herself?

Polished Off is the second in Lila Dare’s Southern Beauty Shop Mystery series, and it’s quite a fun read. Dare’s prose is artful and stylish, her imagery is strong, and her book has a good sense of atmosphere; Violetta’s salon, in particular, comes alive on the page as a place filled with sunlight and good company. The pacing could use a bit more urgency, but the plot is solid and the mystery is strong, with just enough clues, twists, dead bodies, and viable suspects to keep the reader guessing.

Dare’s characters are unique and entertaining, many of them strong Southern women who would be right at home with the cast of Steel Magnolias. In particular, Violetta and her best friend, the larger-than-life Althea, are caring, outspoken women I’d be happy to have meddling in my life. Even the pageant contestants – characters who quite easily could have been written as nothing more than window dressing – have distinct personalities, and do their share to develop and richen the story.

My only real complaint is that some of Polished Off’s minor players are perhaps a little more well-developed than its heroine. While I genuinely like Grace and think she has a distinctive and engaging narrative voice, I feel like you never really get to know her in this tale. You see the world through her eyes, but she doesn’t turn inward often enough. There are flashes here and there – mostly in her all-too-brief scenes with potential love interests Marty and Dillon – but I wanted more insight as to her thoughts and her feelings. If Dare can manage that in future books, I think she may have a real winner of a series on her hands.

Reviewed by: Kat