Dead Beat and Deadly — Margaret Chittenden

After recovering from her last brush with murder, Charlie Plato, country-western club manager of Chaps, has decided it's time to take a break from teaching the Texas two-step and get lessons herself--in self-defense. The women's kung-fu course at Chaps is a bit slow warming up--except for Estrella, a pretty young Filipina who's more than ready to beat up their macho instructor. But this angry lady's real target, she confides to Charlie, is the husband whose bruises she displays on her arm.

When Estrella is stabbed to death and tossed off a bridge, it isn't hard to put it down to a case of bad love. But Charlie, always curious, wants to know more about this hair stylist who came to Bellamy Park as mail order bride to a strangely timid man, was seen with a mystery date in a seedy night spot, and drew a bundle of cash from the bank the day she died.

It isn't long before Charlie's hot on the trail of a killer hiding in the shadows of the dance floor. What she finds will curl her red hair tighter than ever as she discovers the lengths some people will go to escape their past and how quickly one set of lies escalates into a lifetime surrounded by them, with fatal consequences for anyone-including Charlie--who gets in the way...