Read Series: Claire Malloy
by Author Joan Hess
A Conventional Corpse (2001)
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 ...
The Murder at the Murder at the Mimosa Inn (1999)
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...
A Really Cute Corpse (2007)
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...
Poisoned Pins (1994)
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...
A Diet to Die For (2007)
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 ...
Roll Over and Play Dead (2003)
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...
Tickled to Death (1995)
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...
Death by the Light of the Moon (2007)
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...
Busy Bodies (1996)
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...
Closely Akin to Murder (1997)
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 ...
Out on a Limb (2003)
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...
A Holly, Jolly Murder (2006)
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...
The Goodbye Body (2006)
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...
Damsels in Distress (2007)
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...
Deader Homes and Gardens (2012)
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...