Traci Andrighetti | The Clip and Sip in Danger Cove

When Gemma Halliday approached me about creating a series within her multi- author Danger Cove mystery series, I jumped at the chance. (By the way, if you're unfamiliar with Danger Cove, it's a quaint, seaside town in the Pacific Northwest where Elizabeth Ashby, the famous mystery writer and co-author of the Danger Cove mysteries, makes her home.) Luckily, Gemma gave us authors full creative license with our respective series, and I decided to make mine about a hair salon.

For the record, I don’t know the first thing about hair. In fact, I’m one of those Dear Abby types who has been wearing the same hairdo since time immemorial (in my defense, at least mine’s a bit more modern than Abby’s was). But my hair stylist, Debra Day, co-owns the hair salon down the street from my house, 4001 Duval Hair Salon. And since I had an appointment coming up, I figured that this would be a fun excuse to hang out in the wacky world of hair salons.

After doing lots of “research” (code for “listening to some fabulous stories and sipping lots of cinnamon sugar tea”), I realized that my protagonist Cassidi Conti’s hair salon, The Clip and Sip, had to feature five things:

1. A product-related murder

Hence the title DEADLY DYE AND A SOY CHAI (Although, I wouldn’t be too sure that hair dye killed old Margaret Appleby, if I were you.)

2. Kooky characters

Cassidi Conti is a runaway bride from Texas, and her cousin Gia Di Mitri is an ex- barista turned makeup artist from New Jersey. And wait until you find out about Cassidi’s late Uncle Vinnie and Margaret Appleby! Wow. Just wow.

3. Fun products

Because who knew that things like glitter lip kits, eye makeup stickers, and Phatty’s Phat Stick (for Phat Hair) existed?

4. Great gossip

What would a hair salon be without it? Incidentally, if you read closely, you’ll see that I drew some inspiration for a gossip scene in The Clip and Sip from Murder, She Wrote. I just love Ruth Roman as Loretta Speigel of Loretta’s Beauty Salon.

5. Tasty drinks

I mean, what gets loose lips to sink ships better than alcohol and caffeine? And believe me, some ships are sunk in DEADLY DYE AND A SOY CHAI, both literally and figuratively.

Besides my Hair Salon mysteries, there are seven other series within the Danger Cove mysteries:
Bakery mysteries (Jennifer Fischetto)
Cocktail mysteries (Sibel Hodge)
Quiliting mysteries (Gin Jones)
Renovation mysteries (Christina A. Burke)

These three series are forthcoming:
Bed & Breakfast mysteries (T. Sue VerSteeg)
Bookshop mysteries (Ellie Ashe)
Pet Sitter mysteries (Sally J. Smith & Jean Steffens)

Also, be sure to visit the Danger Cove website to take a tour of the town. While you’re there, stop by some local businesses and meet a few of the locals. It's a great place to visit!

Just be careful not to overstay your welcome...

Giveaway

What features do you want in a hair salon? Leave a comment below for a chance to win a digital copy of DEADLY DYE AND A SOY CHAI. 2 winners!

About Traci Andrighetti

Traci Andrighetti is the national bestselling author of the Franki Amato mysteries and the Danger Cove Hair Salon mysteries. In her previous life, she was an award-winning literary translator and a Lecturer of Italian at the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a PhD in Applied Linguistics. But then she got wise and ditched that academic stuff for a life of crime-- writing, that is.

If she's not hard at work on her next novel, Traci is probably watching her favorite Italian soap opera, eating Tex Mex or sampling fruity cocktails, and maybe all at the same time. She lives in Austin with her husband, young son (who desperately wants to be in one of her books) and three treat-addicted dogs.

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About DEADLY DYE AND A SOY CHAI

This salon's styles are to die for.

Native Texan Cassidi Conti was expecting to face some obstacles when she moved to Danger Cove and opened The Clip and Sip, a hair salon that gives away free drinks. What she wasn't counting on was a client dying during a dye job. But when eighty- year-old Margaret Appleby comes in for her biweekly appointment, that's exactly what happens: Margaret drinks her usual soy chai, dozes off under the dryer...and doesn't wake up.

Now The Clip and Sip is under suspicion, clients are wary, and Cassidi is on a mission to prove that while her styles may be killer, her employees are innocent!

But as Cassidi wades through the myriad of suspects in the small, costal town, the killer sets his sights straight on everyone's favorite stylist. If Cassidi doesn't watch her back, she may just end up Danger Cove's latest fashionable victim.