Some beauty secrets are more dangerous than others... When Beauty Box beautician Tammy Smith is discovered with a pair of hair shears in her back, there are suspects and secrets aplenty in her small Southern town. Octogenarian Myrtle Clover, bored by bingo and bridge, is intrigued by the crime...and her neighbors' secrets. But discovering, and blabbing, secrets got Tammy killed and Myrtle soon learns her sleuthing isn't just dangerous...it's deadly.

Retired octogenarian schoolteacher Myrtle Clover is fit to be tied when her book club votes to change to a supper club. Who wants chips and dip when they can have Dickens and Twain? The first supper club is a progressive dinner...where Myrtle loses interest during the hors d'oeuvres. But when a body is discovered during the main course, the evening quickly gets interesting. Myrtle pits her sleuthing skills against her police chief son's to find the killer....if the killer doesn't find her first.

Pretty on the outside may not mean pretty on the inside. Parke Stockard was certainly sitting pretty. Blessed with good looks and business sense to boot, she should have been content. Instead, Parke makes trouble in her small town. When retired octogenarian schoolteacher Myrtle Clover discovers her body, no one in Bradley is particularly upset. Myrtle decides to show up her police chief son and investigate the crime herself. And, just in time to play detective, she meets a widower newcomer who proves the perfect sidekick.

Cosette Whitlow is a society matron...if tiny Bradley, North Carolina, has one. She kindly volunteers for all the town's charities, but isn't nearly as kind to her own family, neighbors, and friends. In fact, Cosette is emphatically disliked by much of the town-including octogenarian Myrtle Clover. And Myrtle knows that dislike in Bradley can quickly turn deadly. No one seems surprised when Cosette's body is discovered during a party she's hosting-she was struck on the head with a croquet mallet. Wanting to restore order to the small town, Myrtle resolves to track down the killer-before the killer strikes again.