Makeover Murders, The

Television researcher and amateur sleuth Verity "Birdie" Birdwood investigates a murder in the pampered luxury of a world-famous spa, where every whim of the privileged clientele is promptly indulged

Australian TV researcher Verity Birdwood, seen most recently in Death in Store , is stranded at an exclusive isolated spa on her latest entertaining case. An assignment to take the two-week makeover course at Deepdene and check it out as a possible documentary subject fails to thrill the practical Birdie, who arrives at the start of the rainy season. The staff, including glamorous owner Margot Bell and co-owner hairdresser Alistair Swanson, coddles Birdie and four other women as the unceasing rain threatens to flood the surrounding creek and turn the spa into an island. Soon spa secretary William Dean announces that Laurel Moon, who murdered his fiancee and five other women, has been released from the psychiatric institution to which she was committed. When Margot is killed in the same manner as Moon's victims, Birdie suspects the killer may be among the guests. She calls her friend, Det. Sgt. Toby, who arrives with Det. Constable Milson before the spa is shut off, but both men are quickly drugged out of commission, leaving Birdie, aided by another guest, to solve a series of murders with a nice bit of thinking. Happily the mildly eccentric, thoroughly modern Birdie isn't made over a bit.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

It's a dark and stormy night when Verity (``Birdie'') Birdwood (Death in Store), researching a TV project, arrives at Deepdene, a ritzy but recently money-troubled spa co-owned by the haughty, gorgeous Margot Bell and hairdresser extraordinaire Alistair. The next night, even darker and stormier, Margot is murdered in exactly the way serial-killer Laurel Moon dispatched her six victims--and Laurel has recently been paroled from prison. Could Laurel be one of the guests or staff members at Deepdene? Birdie phones pal Sergeant Toby for help, but upon arrival he and his constable are each slipped a mickey, the night grows still darker and stormier, and Birdie, naturally, picks up the investigation herself--but not before the manicurist is also killed. Eventually, Birdie will uncover several blackmail schemes, soured love affairs--and a prettier way to wear her hair. Birdie's less starchy and acerbic this time out, and the case has all the hallmarks of the Christie classic And Then There Were None--but, unfortunately, none of its breathtaking originality or vigor. A pleasant diversion, nonetheless, for cozy fans. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.