Observe a special setting

Special Setting - Beauty Salon/Spa
I entered the salon, hearing a bell attached to the other side of the door. A friendly woman with perfect hair and make up greeted me with a smile. She went behind the desk and asked if I had an appointment, and checked me in. She said, Kellie will be right with you if youd' like to have a seat. She asked me if I would like a cup of coffee and went back to filing her paperwork when I said no thank you.
The salon had a comfortable environment with a cozy seating area. I noticed the beautiful photographs on the wall with spotlights on them. They had fresh flowers on the tables and beautiful green plants in huge urn type containers. They must have had a decorator do this place I thought. I noticed all the beautiful bottles and jars of many different colors on display, they glistened in the well placed spotlights. I looked at the nail polishes for a while, reading their names on the bottom of each bottle. I like the "Ruby Slippers."
I smell lavender and look around to see where it's coming from......ahhh, they have a tart burner with a pretty purple melted wax that is sending that smell through the air. I hear the chatter of my stylist, Kellie and another woman coming closer. They walk to the desk, make an appointment for six weeks, and the woman pays Kellie, they say goodbye, and the bell rings upon the woman leaving.
Kellie and I go back to the working parts of the salon where there are blow driers loudly humming, and people talking over them. I can smell hairspray, and there is a smelly perm going on two chairs away! Kellie puts a silky cape around my neck, and it feels a little cool against my arms. She escorts me back to the shampoo bowl, I like this bowl, I only have to tip my head back instead of my whole body. She starts the water, and I can hear it hitting the inside of the sink. She gets it to the right temperature, which she has down to a science, it is never too hot or cold. I can feel the perfectly warm water hitting my head, and wondering to myself, how is this not running down my back! As we make small talk, she lathers up my hair with the fruity smelling shampoo. While she is shampooing my hair, I get a whiff of acrylic nails sneaking out of the nail room, some people don't like the smell, but I do. I can hear the people in the nail room talking and laughing. In another room, I can hear the hum of the pedicure chair's bubbles; it kind of sounds like a hot-tub. Kellie has finished washing my hair which  is done with the perfect pressure, scalp massage! She is now putting an almond scented conditioner in my hair which feels heavy and cold, but that doesn't last too long. After a few minutes she rinses my hair once again, and I can feel my hair very wet and flat against the wall of the sink. She gathers my hair and lightly twists out the water and wraps a warm towel around my hair and head.
Back at Kellie's work station, she pumps up the chair so she can reach the bottom of my hair better. We talk about the dumb things our husbands have done, and silly situations they have got themselves into at work; our husbands work together. She glides a big comb through it, that conditioner was good! She sections my hair in to four, clipping them off for later use. She starts in the back and combs the hair flat and snips away the ends; she continues to each section until the haircut is done. She then applies a mousse that smells like coconut and oranges to my hair, I can hear the tiny bubbles in the mousse popping every so slightly, kind of like rice krispies popping. She then pulls out a big metal round brush with natural bristles and the blow drier. She sections and wraps the hair around the brush pulling and turning, pulling and turning until the blow drier completes it's job. As we talk, sometimes I cannot hear what she is saying because the sound of the blow drier, or sometimes even getting the inside of my ear blow dried! After ten or fifteen minutes, my whole head is dry, and my hair is super shiny and looks great! She takes the cape off of my neck, and that feels good, because now I'm hot from the blow drier, the silkiness no longer feels cool on my skin.
As we leave and head back to the reception desk, there are other people headed back to the area we are leaving; they are discussing the weather, and the lady's smelly perfume lingers after she passed us. We make our appointment for six weeks, while the receptionist is making another appointment for someone on the phone. I pay for my haircut and nail polish, and I give her a hug and a tip and leave.

Creative Process:
I find myself struggling with the assignment of writing a mystery story. My creative process began with the plot, or story itself. Just what am I going to write about? With that task, I had to decide exactly what the story is to accomplish in the end. Should I have a villain, and a hero, or perhaps, a twist to the story, or even, a surprise ending. After deep thought, I decided what my mystery's story-line would be.
The next task was to develop my characters, or archetypes, their personalities, and other key information for each. The next step is the setting development; where the mystery takes place, and plays out, and any variables that may be important to the story line.
One of the last things to do is fine tune the plot, and construct the story. The final part of my process is to edit, edit, and edit one last time. I do not think it would hurt to have a test reader either!
Hopefully the organizational part of the process will help me construct a good mystery that will keep the reader's attention.
I am a visual artist, and I plan to be as verbally descript as possible while constructing my mystery, so it will not be a bore to read.

The mystery genre appeals to me mostly for the suspense element. I don't want to read or watch horror movies, as they terrify the hell out of me, causing sleepless nights and feeling as though the murderer is hiding behind the shower curtain, or in a closet!
While reflecting on suspenseful books, movies and stories I have experienced in my life, the movie "The Sixth Sense"comes to the forefront! The audience was captivated by the boy's relationship with his psychologist. It was apparent throughout the movie that the psychologist's wife was not happy about  her husband's relationship with the boy. She was quite bitchy toward her husband, and ignored him a lot. The boy could see dead people, and had conversations with them, which caused alarm for the boy's mother.
The audience was captivated by the suspense of the why the boy saw dead people, and would the award winning psychologist cure his problem. At the end of the movie, the boy was in a bed, I seem to remember he was hospitalized for his problem, but I could be mistaken on that fact. The boy was telling  his doctor that he talked to dead people, and they didn't even know they were dead. The scene changed to the doctor's wife who fell asleep watching their wedding video, as their anniversary had just come and gone. She shivered from the cold of being visited by a ghost, as she fell deeper into sleep her had relaxed and her husband's wedding ring fell from her hand and rolled across the floor. As this happens, the doctor looked down, and noticed he wasn't wearing his wedding ring, as it rolled across the floor, and realized HE WAS DEAD! The audience, myself included sat straight up and said, "Oh My God He's Dead!"
I realize it is a different take on the mystery genre, as no one is solving a crime, a good guy and a bad guy situation, or a a whodunnit. Yet, the suspense is what made it a mystery genre film for me. I was captivated by why the wife was so bitchy and ignored her husband, and in one scene, yelled at him. She knew she was being visited by her husband's ghost, yet he, and the audience didn't.
I may be off target for this assignment, I'm not sure. However, the question posed was why the mystery genre appeals to me, citing an example, and why it was special to me. For me, a mystery genre story involves the suspense element, it could be ghosts, or a murder mystery, or perhaps an art heist, yet the common denominator would be in place, suspense!

In this first assignment, we were directed to go to playslueth.com, set up a character, background, and play the tutorial/first mystery. My "sleuth" is named CarlaC, she is a debutante family outcast who must now make it on her own, because she cannot run back to mommy and daddy for financial help anymore.
The key information I learned doing this whodunnit game was collect any evidence you can, as soon as you see it. Visit every person/suspect, ask questions, and sneak in to their homes to collect more evidence. The tutorial walks you through who to visit next, they may be leads, other suspects, or specialists that can help you match evidence.
I felt a little victorious after accusing the right person of murder! My husband took this same class last year, and he couldn't figure it out!
I liked this exercise.