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Bad Hair Day Mystery Books in Order

Part ofNancy J Cohen Books in Order

See the Bad Hair Day Mystery books in order by Nancy J Cohen, with short summaries, reading order, and where-to-start help for Marla Vail's cases.

Last updated: June 30, 2026

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Bad Hair Day Mystery books in publication order

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22 books

1

Permed to Death

by Nancy J Cohen

1999

Marla Shore's day turns disastrous when a difficult salon client dies in her chair and the police think poison came from Marla's coffee setup. To save her business and herself, she starts asking dangerous questions.

2

Hair Raiser

by Nancy J Cohen

2000

Marla volunteers at a charity food event and watches accidents, sabotage, and then murder tear through the guest list. With chefs dropping out and tempers rising, she has to sort through nonprofit politics before someone else gets burned.

3

Murder by Manicure

by Nancy J Cohen

2001

Trying to get in shape, Marla joins a fitness club and finds one of her salon clients dead in the whirlpool. The deeper she digs into the club's secrets, the clearer it becomes that the killer is still close by.

4

Body Wave

by Nancy J Cohen

2002

When Marla's ex-husband lands in trouble, she goes undercover as a nurse's aide in a wealthy household to help clear his name. Old emotions, family secrets, and a murder investigation make the case dangerously personal.

5

Highlights to Heaven

by Nancy J Cohen

2003

Marla's oddball neighbor disappears, leaving his pets behind and a dead man in his bedroom. Clues in the victim's hair send her back to beauty school memories, a former mentor, and a secretive pet fur business.

6

Died Blonde

by Nancy J Cohen

2004

When Marla finds her rival salon owner dead behind their strip mall, curiosity and justice pull her into the case. A pushy psychic, a missing lock of hair, and a brewing hurricane keep the pressure high.

7

Dead Roots

by Nancy J Cohen

2005

A Thanksgiving reunion at the haunted Sugar Crest Plantation Resort turns grim when Marla finds her Aunt Polly dead. Family history, ghost stories, and a fight over the property's future leave her digging into secrets some relatives would rather bury.

8

Perish by Pedicure

by Nancy J Cohen

2006

A beauty industry show looks like a career boost for Marla until a company director turns up dead in a foot bath. Clearing her former college roommate means untangling big egos, blackmail, and backstage grudges.

9

Killer Knots

by Nancy J Cohen

2007

Marla expects romance on her first Caribbean cruise with fiancé Dalton, not threatening notes and vanishing passengers. When their dinner companions are tied to a suspicious museum death, she realizes the killer may be sailing with them.

10

Shear Murder

by Nancy J Cohen

2012

Serving as a bridesmaid should be stressful enough, but Marla finds the matron of honor dead under the cake table. With her own wedding only weeks away, she has to sort out lies, rivalries, and family trouble fast.

11

Hanging by a Hair

by Nancy J Cohen

2014

Marla and Dalton settle into married life and a new neighborhood just in time for their combative HOA president next door to die. Since Dalton is too close to the case, Marla steps in to clear his name.

12

Peril by Ponytail

by Nancy J Cohen

2015

A belated honeymoon at an Arizona dude ranch turns messy when a run of accidents grows into murder. Marla and Dalton uncover buried family secrets while trying to save a resort, a ghost town, and themselves.

13

Haunted Hair Nights

by Nancy J Cohen

2016

Marla volunteers for her stepdaughter's Halloween haunted house project and finds a real corpse on the estate grounds. Between worried parents, stubborn school officials, and too many suspects, this short mystery packs in genuine chills.

14

Facials Can Be Fatal

by Nancy J Cohen

2017

Holiday bustle turns deadly when a wealthy client dies during a facial at Marla's new day spa. To protect her reputation, she digs into old secrets tied to local history, preservation politics, and another looming body count.

15

Hair Brained

by Nancy J Cohen

2017

After close friends are hurt in a suspicious New Year's Eve crash, Marla takes care of their baby and starts asking questions. Fraud, family strain, and hidden grudges make this one of her most personal investigations.

16

Hairball Hijinks

by Nancy J Cohen

2018

In this short between-novels adventure, Marla returns a friend's baby after her recovery and gets pulled into a search for a missing cat. A ransacked house and a string of local thefts quickly turn the errand into a case.

17

Trimmed to Death

by Nancy J Cohen

2018

Marla enters a charity bake-off and joins a scavenger hunt at a fall farm festival, only to find a food magazine publisher dead in the strawberry field. The suspects are all food-world personalities with grudges to stir.

18

A Bad Hair Day Cookbook

by Nancy J Cohen

2019

This companion cookbook gathers more than 160 recipes inspired by the Bad Hair Day mysteries. Along with easy dishes, it includes excerpts, cooking tips, and commentary from sleuth Marla Vail.

19

Easter Hair Hunt

by Nancy J Cohen

2020

At an Easter egg hunt on a historic estate, Marla finds a dead man in a bunny suit and a friend gone missing. Pregnant and worried, she still cannot resist chasing the clues.

20

Styled for Murder

by Nancy J Cohen

2021

Marla rushes to her mother's house after a body turns up in the shower during a remodel. The victim had plenty of enemies, and her stepfather's secret connection makes this home improvement headache far more dangerous.

21

Star Tangled Murder

by Nancy J Cohen

2023

A Fourth of July visit to a living history village explodes into trouble when a battle reenactment reveals a real corpse. Marla follows leads involving renovation plans, old grudges, and a possible lost Confederate payroll.

22
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Dreidels and Dead Ends

by Nancy J Cohen

2026

During a Hanukkah-season museum mystery, Marla gets pulled into the hunt for a missing diamond-studded hairbrush. What starts as a glittering theft soon leads her into tangled secrets and very real danger.

Bad Hair Day Mystery books in chronological order

  1. Book cover for "Permed to Death"

    Permed to Death

    by Nancy J Cohen

    1999Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 1
  2. Book cover for "Hair Raiser"

    Hair Raiser

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2000Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 2
  3. Book cover for "Murder by Manicure"

    Murder by Manicure

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2001Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 3
  4. Book cover for "Body Wave"

    Body Wave

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2002Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 4
  5. Book cover for "Highlights to Heaven"

    Highlights to Heaven

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2003Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 5
  6. Book cover for "Died Blonde"

    Died Blonde

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2004Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 6
  7. Book cover for "Dead Roots"

    Dead Roots

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2005Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 7
  8. Book cover for "Perish by Pedicure"

    Perish by Pedicure

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2006Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 8
  9. Book cover for "Killer Knots"

    Killer Knots

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2007Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 9
  10. Book cover for "Shear Murder"

    Shear Murder

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2012Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 10
  11. Book cover for "Hanging by a Hair"

    Hanging by a Hair

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2014Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 11
  12. Book cover for "Peril by Ponytail"

    Peril by Ponytail

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2015Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 12
  13. Book cover for "Haunted Hair Nights"

    Haunted Hair Nights

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2016Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 13
  14. Book cover for "Facials Can Be Fatal"

    Facials Can Be Fatal

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2017Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 14
  15. Book cover for "Hair Brained"

    Hair Brained

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2017Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 15
  16. Book cover for "Hairball Hijinks"

    Hairball Hijinks

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2018Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 16
  17. Book cover for "Trimmed to Death"

    Trimmed to Death

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2018Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 17
  18. Book cover for "A Bad Hair Day Cookbook"

    A Bad Hair Day Cookbook

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2019Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 18
  19. Book cover for "Easter Hair Hunt"

    Easter Hair Hunt

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2020Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 19
  20. Book cover for "Styled for Murder"

    Styled for Murder

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2021Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 20
  21. Book cover for "Star Tangled Murder"

    Star Tangled Murder

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2023Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 21
  22. Book cover for "Dreidels and Dead Ends"

    Dreidels and Dead Ends

    by Nancy J Cohen

    2026Bad Hair Day Mystery, Book 22

Series background & context

The Bad Hair Day Mystery books follow Marla Shore, later Marla Vail, a South Florida salon owner who keeps finding herself in the middle of crimes she never asked for. What makes the series click is that Marla is not a professional investigator. She runs a business, juggles relatives, manages staff, and tries to keep her private life in order. Then somebody dies, a client, a rival, a neighbor, a beauty executive, and she cannot leave the mess alone.

The clues are usually hiding in plain sight.

Marla's job gives her access to the sort of information other sleuths would kill for. People sit in her chair, relax, talk too much, and reveal more than they mean to. Cohen has fun with that setup, but she also uses it to build fair-play mysteries. The books are full of motives, side characters, and local tensions, yet Marla's solutions usually come from careful observation rather than lucky guesses.

The series also grows with her. In the early books, Marla is still feeling her way around detective Dalton Vail, who begins as both love interest and source of trouble. Later books track the shift from romance to marriage, stepmotherhood, and eventually motherhood, while still keeping the murder plots front and center. That continuity gives the series a comfortable, lived-in quality. You are not just showing up for the next body. You are checking in on a whole life.

Setting does a lot of work here. These stories are rooted in South Florida, with its mix of coastal weather, development fights, gated communities, tourist energy, and odd corners of local history. Cases spill into cruise ships, spas, haunted estates, home renovation projects, HOA battles, and holiday gatherings. The beauty business remains part of the fun, but the series never stays in one lane for long.

Even when the cases get tense, the books keep a cozy feel. There is humor, family chatter, good food, and a community of recurring characters around Marla. Later entries often add a seasonal angle or recipes, which fits the warm, welcoming vibe without softening the mystery. Readers who like an amateur sleuth with practical skills, strong opinions, and a believable home life will probably feel comfortable here from the start.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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