Here we have Claire and Peter finally married and back from the honeymoon! But Peter is gone almost during the whole story, so he provides resources for our female sleuth (which of course everyone is glad about), but does not come into the dialog much. Perhaps it is for the best. Caron and Inez s...
I haven't read any of the books in this series in a long time and only remembered that I didn't much care for it, but couldn't remember why. I was lazy when I went to the library and didn't feel like going downstairs to the stacks, so I just grabbed this off of the new book rack. As soon as I s...
"It had never been a quaint little town with ivy-coated cottages. The locals weren't charmingly eccentric; they were surly, ornery, and opinionated."Once again I have misjudged how long it will take the library to come up with my book request and this was all that was available while I was out o...
Rating: 3.25* of fiveClaire Malloy, bookselling sleuth of the Farberville Book Depot, returns for her umpty-zillionth murder investigation (well, okay, only the sixteenth) but this time at a *shudder* Renaissance Faire!Now seriously. Have any of y'all been to a Renaissance Faire? Have you not wis...
I really enjoy this series featuring book store owner Claire Malloy. This book was no exception, although at one point there was a situation that was a bit unbelievable, even within the at times limitless confines of fiction. (view spoiler)[When a young lady was killed who had been staying with h...
Arly returns from a camping trip with boyfriend, Jack, to find the Maggody town folk stirred up. The local nursing home has been sold to a snarky diet doctor who plans to transform the building into an upscale rehab center called the Stonebridge Foundation. His plans begin to fall apart when the ...
Very disappointing addition to the Claire Malloy series. A Holly, Jolly Murder has been tagged as a "Holiday Themed" book. Only by stretching the imagination to its very outer limits would I categorize it that way. Merely because Hess mentions Christmas or Santa Claus now and then doesn't make th...
I've read some of other's reviews on this book and they seemed to be mixed (which is with all books, some like them some don't) I very much enjoyed the 4th Ozarks Mystery, everyone in Maggody finally gets what's coming to them in terms of lying and flapping their gums. The Mayor is opening a Supe...
It seems downright peculiar that all the alien babies are born in South America," Estelle was grumbling as I came across the tiny dance floor of Ruby Bee's Bar & Grill.How's that for a first line of a novel, doesn't it make you want to know just what's going on in Maggody. Arly the sheriff who ca...
Chief of Police Arly Hanks is still telling herself that someday she'll leave her hometown of Maggody, Arkansas (pop. 755) and return to the bright lights of Manhattan. Ordinarily Arly's known for saying nothing ever happens in Maggody, but lately that's all changed: Word is buzzing all the way f...
Chief of police Arly (Ariel) Hanks handles all the crime that comes her way in Maggody, Arkansas (pop. 755), with the ease that Ruby Bee at Ruby Bee's Bar & Grill gets out her blue plate specials. Of course, most lawbreaking in this neck of the woods has to do with an illegal still or Raz Bucha...
Faberville bookstore owner Claire Malloy is ruminating over the state of her love life when she gets disturbing news. Elderly Miss Emily Parchester is up a tree. Chained to an old oak, packing a thermos of tea and a gun, the retired schoolteacher is ready to go down with the ship, or rather the t...
I truly wish I could give this more than 2 stars. I love Joan Hess, but this isn't one of her better entries in the Claire Malloy series. From the moment Claire received a call from her presumed-dead-for-30-years cousin Veronica (aka "Ronnie") asking Claire to look for a blackmailer, to Claire's ...
I wanted to like Joan Hess' Claire Malloy but with this book I just couldn't do it. I don't hate her but she seems very wishy-washy and I certainly wouldn't enjoy the relationship she has with her daughter (I'd sit her right down and tell her if she doesn't like her life with mom, she knows where...
This was my first adventure with Claire, but I found myself enjoying the dialogue, the mindset, and the whimsical nature of this novel. Claire, an amatuer sleuth, and her daughter, go to visit her dead husband's family and quickly find themselves in a scene that is not-far-removed from the Addams...
There's trouble in Maggody Arkansas, again, and Chief of Police Arly Hanks has her hands full. The trouble's name is Brandon Bernswallow, the local bank president's playboy son, who became the new head teller and bumped long-time employee Johnna Mae Nookim right down to minimum wage. The fighting...
#13 in the Chief of Police Arly Hanks comedic mystery series. Set in the small rural Arkansas town of Maggody, pop. 755 filled with low IQ barely making it financially people with many from the same extended family. Very little happens that requires police work. Arly's tranquillity is disturbed w...
"Delectable and continually surprising" "(The New York Times Boos Review)," Joan Hess's one-of-a-kind mystery series digs up murder and mayhem in the sleepy little town of Maggody, Arkansas.When beleaguered chief of police Arly Hanks hears that her mother, Ruby Bee, and best friend, Estelle Opper...
The book business is in a slump in Farberville, and Claire Malloy, owner of The Book Depot, is feeling the pinch of financial woes and the pull of summer doldrums. The plucky amateur sleuth thinks her life is for the birds until a mysterious new predicament sends her to a posh lakefront community...
Murder is going to the dogs. . .Bookstore owner and amateur sleuth Claire Malloy has donned another hat (or is that a collar?)-as a petsitter extraordinaire. Her furry charges are Miss Emily Parchester's beloved basset hounds, Nick and Nora, and two very good dogs they are. Everything is just duc...
Claire Malloy believes there is just one thing better than chocolate...and it's not jumping around in an aerobics class. Nonetheless, she gets roped into accompanying a chubby heiress named Maribeth to Farberville, Arkansas's hottest new fitness center. Personally, Claire thinks the best way for ...
It's been awhile since I've read Joan Hess's Claire Malloy series. I'd forgotten how much I love it. The writing is extremely entertaining and doesn't take itself too seriously. It's very refreshing, especially these days when there are a glut of cozy mysteries whose authors take themselves an...
When Claire Malloy's best friend Luanne Bradshaw goes down with a badly sprained ankle, someone must fill in her shoes as Thurberfest beauty Pageant coordinator and usher a bevy of aspiring beauty queen through the two-day event. Enter Claire Malloy to the rescue. But this is one job Claire would...
This is the kind of funny book that many mystery authors wish they could write. Hess has it down.It's holiday time in Maggody and the town is ready to welcome home one of their own. Matt Montana, country singer, is a hometown boy who is making good. So in order to give him some free, good publici...
When you make a game of murder, be careful who the players are...Who could resist the mock-murder weekend at the charming Mimosa Inn-- certainly not bookstore owner and amateur sleuth Claire Malloy, who decides to bring her petulant daughter Caron along for some detecting. As the guests settle in...
I love the interesting cover, and the plot of murder at a mystery writers convention showed great promise, but I had to force myself to read this book. The characters are cardboard, main character Claire Malloy is just THERE and seems totally unable to pull things together or solve anything, and ...
I found this mystery interesting because they describe the Southern Ozark peoples as they are. My Grandparents lived in the Ozarks and I have visited them often. Lackadaisical is a word to describe the attitude of this Southerner. The county police force consists of one woman! Her mother, Ruby Be...
This review is for the audiobook ISBN 1-4025-7539-4:Oh. My. Stars. There is no way that I can tell you whether or not I like the story, the characters or even the author's writing style. The narrator on this audiobook, C.J. Critt, gave such a nails-on-the-blackboard rendition that after less th...
Just fun. With Joan Hess as my guide, it's a memorable trip. Arly Hanks is back from her so-called vacation and having to deal with a psychic, hippies, a new high school counselor, plus the usual crowd. When the local prostitute/moonshiner goes missing, her children go searching for some assistan...
“That’s because they’re horses.” “Where are the camels?” “How should I know?” “You’re the one who said there’d be camels all over the place.” “I did not!” “You did so!” What a dandy way to start a honeymoon, I thought as I came into the parlor of the suite. My daughter, Caron, and her best friend...
My hair flopped over my forehead; sweat dribbled down my back in salty tears. As I patted myself into shape, I ruefully decided that my semihysterical flight had been just that: semihysterical. In retrospect, and within sight of the house, it seemed foolish at best. Gothic. Dumb, as Caron would u...
Prejudice 13 “Was that necessary?” I said to Grady as I sat down behind Tricia’s desk. “Do you anticipate a posse of parents barging in to demand the lurid details?” I opened a lower drawer and feigned surprise. “Would you look at that? Tricia left us a libation. I don’t know about you, but I’v...
Her shoulders drooped like she thought she was carrying a goodly portion of the world’s woes in a backpack, and from her expression, I could tell right off that she didn’t think it was fair. I had news for her: nobody ever promised it would be. If it were, I’d have been playing pinochle beside a ...
I eyed it with suspicion, since Peter had told me the previous night that he would be in a meeting long before any patisserie pulled its first croissant out of the oven. Caron was asleep upstairs. My best friend, Luanne, was stalking bimboys on the beaches of southern Spain. I reluctantly picked ...