Customer Reviews

Death Splits A Hair

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When his friend, barber Joe Junior McBride, is murdered in his home, the Sheriff and Judge Jackson Crain quickly realize it is an inside job. Although Joe Junior was a popular man in town, obviously he had at least one enemy. Could it have been his angry son, Three? Or perhaps his step-daughter? Maybe Joe Junior's brother, who has been known to be attracted to the new widow, is the culprit. Maybe it's Joe's new assistant--a beautiful woman who appeared in Post Oak from nowhere and who quickly fell for Joe. Of course, the spouse is always high on the suspect list--although in this case, since Joe Junior left everything to his son, the problem there is motive. When Joe Junior's step-daughter vanishes from Judge Crain's home (where she was visiting Crane's daughter), Crane becomes even more involved in the case.

Although Crane wants to solve the case, he has a busy life, leaving only limited time for investigations. First, there's his former girlfriend, Mandy, whose feelings Crane hurt in an earlier case. Then there's the aging man in the house across the street who insists on wandering off and may need to be committed. When a stranger with a duplicate of Joe Junior's face comes to town and starts squiring Mandy, Crane is baffled and bewildered.

In DEATH SPLITS A HAIR, author Nancy Bell gives us more a picture of a town than that of a mystery. Small-town Texas might have its murders, but it's also a place where everyone knows everyone else, where funerals are opportunities to share favorite dishes and dish gossip, and where children can be raised far from the dangers of the city. But, as the town of Post Oak learned with its supposed millionaire who was actually broke, even a small town can hide its horrible secrets.

DEATH SPLITS A HAIR requires quite a few suspensions of disbelief. For me, the biggest was the lack of reaction when teenage girl Ashley vanishes. Rather than the entire town turning out (with massive help from the major networks seeking twenty-four hour 'missing white woman' coverage), the town seems to shrug its shoulders and get on with its life. The actual motivation for the murder also seems weak. Still, Nancy Bell's pleasant 'down-home' writing and the sense of place make this an enjoyable novel.

Perhaps if I had not read any of Nancy Bell's Biggie series, I would have liked this better, but it is inevitable that one would compare this with the charming Biggie books. Judge Crain just isn't very interesting--if I must tell the truth--and the town is not so much fun as Job's Crossing. The plot is only OK, but plot is not the most important or noticeable ingredient in a Nancy Bell book. I kept having the sense that I had seen all this before in Lilian Jackson Braun's cat books. I do hope the writer will end the Judge Crain series and return to Biggie's adventures.

In the small town of Post Oak, Texas, barber Joe Junior McBride is revered and respected by the townsfolk for his kindness to those less fortunate than himself. He adores his wife Marlene and her daughter Ashley and spoils his son Trey who is hateful to his stepmother and stepsister. The town is shocked when it is discovered that Joe Junior was killed in his very own home.

At first the sheriff and Judge Jackson Crain assume it was a robbery gone bad but physical evidence points to the fact that it was an inside job. Marlene says she was upstairs taking a shower when her husband was killed while Trey who was supposed to be out of town was spotted by numerous people. Just when it looks like her life couldn't get any worse for Marlene, who was cut out of her husband's will, her daughter goes missing and as days go by, hopes for her safe return diminish. Joe's brother, who was in love with Marlene, is murdered and Trey avoids coming in for questioning to the sheriff who starts to believe that he might be the killer.

Nancy Bell portrays what it is like living in a small Texas town off the beaten track where everyone knows their neighbor and a stranger is immediately recognized. Judge Jackson the person everyone goes to when they have a problem because if he can't solve it professionally, he acts as a friend to those in need and leaves them feeling better about the situation. Nancy Bell has written a very entertaining who-done-it that will please her many fans.

Harriet Klausner