Written by Stephanie Dagg

I loved it! 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟

Published by	Amazon Digital Services LLC (10th February 2018)
Genre	Cosy Mystery, Sleuths
Pages	471
ASIN	B079QSKB5M

My thanks to Author Stephanie Dagg, and Rachel of Rachel's Random Resources for the invitation to join this blog tour, and a free copy of Haircuts, Hens and Homicide in exchange for an honest review.

The blurb:

Haircuts, Hens and Homicide

Megan finds mayhem when she arrives in France to bury her Gran and sort out her affairs. She expected difficult encounters with civil servants and red tape but not with wandering chickens, an imperious policeman and a dead body. Together with her unlikely new friend, the elderly and grumpy Alphonse and his canine equivalent, Monsieur Moustache, Megan becomes involved in investigating the fowl-related foul play that’s at work in this sleepy part of rural France.

She’s helped but mainly hindered by the people she comes across. These include the local mayor, who wants Megan to stay and set up a hair salon in his village to help keep it alive. There are the cousins Romain, the gendarme, and Nico, the clumsy but hunky farmer. They have always clashed, but do so constantly now that Megan is on the scene. Michelle, Romain’s terrifying ex who wants him back, appears along the way, as does Claudette, a wheelchair-bound old lady, and Kayla, Megan’s best friend, who is hugely pregnant but not above taking on the forces of French law and order when Megan finds herself the prime suspect after Alphonse is stabbed.

There’s excitement, humour and lots of ruffled feathers in this rom-com slash cosy mystery, the first in a projected series.

Cozy Mystery RomCom Fiction

My thoughts:

Haircuts, Hens and Homicide is written in the first person from the point of view of Megan, a young, recently-single, English, hairdresser from Maidenhead, who has arrived in France for her grandmother's funeral, and, as sole heir, is dealing with the winding up of the estate. The comical cover only hints at the fun to come.

Can I give this 6 stars? I read this book over the period of a couple of days and was thoroughly irritable when I had to put it down to attend to less important things, like providing sustenance for my family!

I found it laugh-out-loud funny. Dagg's entertaining and sometimes sarky writing style appeals greatly to my sense of humour. I loved the use of Megan's voice to make observations about her characters and stereotypical French life. I especially liked her descriptive nicknaming of people and animals to underline particular characteristics, such as "Mean Mutt" and "Obleix", and the "I-told-you-so" asides to the reader, when Megan correctly predicts an outcome, because this made me feel less of an observer to events, and more like Megan's confidant.

The plot is well-thought-out, brilliantly delivered and I learned a couple of things about French life along the way. Thankfully, there must be more to come, as this story ends with an unexpected event... And I really can't wait for the next instalment!

Purchase from:

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Author Bio – Stephanie Dagg
I'm an English expat living in France, having moved here with my family in 2006 after fourteen years as an expat in Ireland. I now consider myself a European rather than 'belonging' to any particular country. The last ten years have been interesting, to put it mildly. Taking on seventy-five acres with three lakes, two hovels and one cathedral-sized barn, not to mention an ever increasing menagerie, makes for exciting times. The current array of animals includes alpacas, llamas, huarizos (alpaca-llama crossbreds, unintended in our case and all of them thanks to one very determined alpaca male), sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, geese, chickens and turkeys, not forgetting our pets of dogs, cats, zebra finches, budgies , canaries, lovebirds and Chinese quail. Before we came to France all we had was a dog and two chickens, so it's been a steep learning curve. I recount these experiences in my book Heads Above Water: Staying Afloat in France and the sequel to that, Total Immersion: Ten Years in France. I also blog regularly at www.bloginfrance.com. I'm married to Chris and we have three bilingual TCKs (third culture kids) who are resilient and resourceful and generally wonderful. I'm a traditionally-published author of many children's books, and am now self-publishing too. I have worked part-time as a freelance editor for thirty years after starting out as a desk editor for Hodder & Stoughton. Find me at www.editing.zone. The rest of the time I'm running carp fishing lakes with Chris and inevitably cleaning up some or other animal's poop.

Author Bio – Stephanie Dagg

I'm an English expat living in France, having moved here with my family in 2006 after fourteen years as an expat in Ireland. I now consider myself a European rather than 'belonging' to any particular country. The last ten years have been interesting, to put it mildly. Taking on seventy-five acres with three lakes, two hovels and one cathedral-sized barn, not to mention an ever increasing menagerie, makes for exciting times.

The current array of animals includes alpacas, llamas, huarizos (alpaca-llama crossbreds, unintended in our case and all of them thanks to one very determined alpaca male), sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, geese, chickens and turkeys, not forgetting our pets of dogs, cats, zebra finches, budgies , canaries, lovebirds and Chinese quail. Before we came to France all we had was a dog and two chickens, so it's been a steep learning curve. I recount these experiences in my book Heads Above Water: Staying Afloat in France and the sequel to that, Total Immersion: Ten Years in France. I also blog regularly at www.bloginfrance.com.

I'm married to Chris and we have three bilingual TCKs (third culture kids) who are resilient and resourceful and generally wonderful. I'm a traditionally-published author of many children's books, and am now self-publishing too. I have worked part-time as a freelance editor for thirty years after starting out as a desk editor for Hodder & Stoughton. Find me at www.editing.zone. The rest of the time I'm running carp fishing lakes with Chris and inevitably cleaning up some or other animal's poop.

Other stories I've read by Stephanie Dagg