Hard Bargain — Jane Tesh

STIFF COMPETITION

Former beauty queen turned P.I. Madeline "Mac" Maclin has a freshly painted office in Celosia, North Carolina, and clients pouring in. First up: a missing persons case involving an eccentric inventor who vanished, but left behind ten thousand dollars in small bills. Then events turn sinister when the cast and crew of Curse of the Mantis Man arrive to shoot their horror film in her sleepy Southern town -- and somebody murders the director.

Add a decades-old mystery about the fire that killed her almost-boyfriend's parents, and Mac has more excitement than this former pageant pro ever asked for. Especially now that the rabid "Pageantoids" are hounding her to rejoin the world of big hair and wide smiles as a consultant. But Mac is determined to stick with murder and mayhem -- the competition isn't nearly as brutal.