Sprayed Stiff
Laura Bradley
Pocket Books Mystery 2011
310 pages

Sprayed Stiff by Laura Bradley is a loosely plotted lightweight cozy chick lit mystery novel. The back cover blurb reads in part “(Hairdresser) Reyn is getting conditioned to normal life after untangling the murder of her beloved mentor”. The writing is really not as … punful … as that but this is a good indication of the overall tone of Sprayed Stiff. This is a beach mystery novel you pick up when you do not feel like concentrating too hard on what you are reading and may take longish breaks in between chapters. This edition is a reissue of the 2005 title. Kindle version at Amazon.

Reyn Sawyer is a single San Antonio hairdresser. She and local detective Jackson Scythe have a bit of a thing for each other. When a friend named Lexa asks her to come over in the middle of the night for a hair emergency Reyn goes. She finds San Antonio scion Wilma Barrister tied to a chair, wearing clown make-up and her hair spiked up like a fright wig that does not draw attention from the bullet hole in her middle section.

Stuff happens that makes little sense after you’re read all of Sprayed Stiff by Laura Bradley. Reyn is told by her almost boyfriend detective to keep her nose out of this case. Of course she does not so she and some of her friends decide to clear Lexa’s name.

This is really a lightweight read. A lot of this mystery novel has to do with incidental things and Reyn having the hots for the detective. The solve itself works but you cannot but think the heroine should have figured it out before.

Sprayed Stiff is not going to make you want to read Laura Bradley’s previous or next Hair-Raising mystery but it does entertain.