Jessica Harper Uncanceled

Jessica Harper was supposed to be investigating a cosmetics company. Instead, she ended up trapped on a Caribbean island, wondering whether someone was trying to kill her with moisturizer.

Which, when you think about it, is probably the modern American dream in a nutshell.

Jessica Harper and the Mascara Murders started with a simple question: what would happen if an ordinary, sharp-tongued magazine editor accidentally stumbled into the world of MLM beauty culture and discovered something genuinely dangerous hiding underneath all the smiles, slogans, and “boss babe” energy?

The answer turned out to involve fake friendships, suspicious face creams, a luxury launch event, a possible corporate conspiracy, several deeply questionable life choices, and Jess repeatedly finding herself in situations where she really should have stayed home with a glass of wine instead.

The book follows Jess Harper, editor of The Truvian magazine in the Savannah-like city of Truvy, Georgia. Jess is not a hardened detective. She’s a forty-something working woman with a husband, a teenage son, a tendency to blurt things out at the wrong moment, and an unfortunate talent for turning manageable situations into disasters.

Now, before anyone asks: yes, I am also called Jessica Harper.

No, the book is not autobiographical.

Well… mostly not.

Jess and I do happen to share a few things. We both work in journalism. We both have husbands and teenage sons. We both spend a lot of time observing human absurdity for a living. But the fictional Jessica Harper is very much the “what if things went catastrophically wrong?” version of me.

For example, I have never infiltrated a suspicious beauty MLM, crashed onto a tropical island, dangled from a sabotaged rope bridge, or been hunted over a potentially lethal anti-aging cream.

At least not this year.

One of the things I wanted from Mascara Murders was for it to feel fun and fast without becoming silly. There’s comedy in it, absolutely, but the danger is real. Jess is funny because she panics, over-explains, crashes into things, says the wrong thing in tense moments, and keeps trying to hold onto normality while the situation around her becomes increasingly unhinged.

I also wanted the world to feel recognizable. MLM culture (Amway, LuLaRoe, Herbal(Amway, LuLaRoe, Herbalife etc) ife etc) is fascinating because it blends aspiration, loneliness, salesmanship, self-help language, friendship, and social pressure into one strange cocktail. Most people have encountered it in some form, whether through beauty products, supplements, wellness schemes, or that one person from high school suddenly messaging you about “an exciting opportunity.”

At its heart, though, the book is really about trust. About how easily people can be manipulated when they want hope, success, friendship, youth, or reinvention badly enough.

Also there’s a rope bridge. And a possible shark attack.

So the important themes are all covered.

Jessica Harper and the Mascara Murders is available now in Kindle ebook and paperback.

If you enjoy funny mystery-thrillers with strong female leads, newsroom chaos, Southern atmosphere, suspicious beauty products, and women making terrible decisions under pressure, I think you’ll have a good time with it.

Thanks for reading,

Thanks for reading,

Jess x