Claire Malloy Series by Joan Hess

She would have killed for a bestseller--but someone beat her to it...Professor of Passion, the smutty new romance from Mildred Twiller--a.k.a. Azalea Twilight--isn't the kind of book Claire Malloy likes to hock at her bookstore, but Claire agrees to host a book party for her friend's trashy tale. As torrid as the novel is, it's nothing compared to the evening. After the party, poor Mildred is found dead in her home--strangled with a tightly knotted silk scarf... moreShe would have killed for a bestseller--but someone beat her to it...Professor of Passion, the smutty new romance from Mildred Twiller--a.k.a. Azalea Twilight--isn't the kind of book Claire Malloy likes to hock at her bookstore, but Claire agrees to host a book party for her friend's trashy tale. As torrid as the novel is, it's nothing compared to the evening. After the party, poor Mildred is found dead in her home--strangled with a tightly knotted silk scarf. Now it's up to Claire to find Mildred's killer, and it won't be easy--the two-bit author had offended nearly every faculty member she worked with at nearby Faber College. But who could have hated Mildred with such smoldering passion? less

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 near a bird sanctuary. The problem: Her friend Luanne is having an affair with a man she wants to believe is the perfect lover - except that he just may have murdered both his previous wives... moreThe 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 near a bird sanctuary. The problem: Her friend Luanne is having an affair with a man she wants to believe is the perfect lover - except that he just may have murdered both his previous wives. Despite her friend's gushing description, Claire thinks "perfect lover" is pushing it. Dick Cissel is a dentist, not a Don Juan. He has some charm, but it gets dimmed by his sulky daughter and the suspicions of a surly police chief. Captain Gannett is determined to prove Dick drowned his first wife and killed his beautiful second wife in a boat explosion. Now Luanne wants Claire to establish conclusively that Dick is no Bluebeard and, therefore, prime matrimonial material. Setting aside her money worries for the time being, Claire plunges into an investigation that she hopes will lead to some vital clues that can document Dick's innocence. But she is getting into dangerously over-her-head hot water with some of the dirt she unearths about the surprisingly unsaintly dead wives, the beady-eyed, bird-watching neighbors, and a disturbingly sexy bird doctor. And even when Claire's aviary excursion takes the lid off a nest of greed, passion, and oh-so-clever murder, there still remains one very menacing question for this intrepid sleuth who's coming too close for a killer's comfort: If Dick didn't murder his wives, who did? Once again, Joan Hess combines her delightful narrative voice with the ingenious plottingthat has made her one of today's preeminent mystery writers. less

Claire Malloy runs a bookstore in the normally quiet college town of Farberville, Arkansas-an enterprise which provides the verging-on-meager living for her and her deeply sarcastic teenage daughter Caron... moreClaire Malloy runs a bookstore in the normally quiet college town of Farberville, Arkansas-an enterprise which provides the verging-on-meager living for her and her deeply sarcastic teenage daughter Caron. So when emergency work forces Claire and Caron to abandon their apartment for a few weeks, they are in no financial position to put themselves up in style and Claire is thrilled to accept a customer's offer to let them stay at her well-stocked, well-equipped palatial home while she is traveling.Of course, nothing is ever that easy. No sooner do Claire and Caron ensconce themselves than disquieting events start to occur-dubious people show up looking for the 'traveling' owner of the house; the owner herself turns out not to be who she claimed and is now seemingly on the run; and a dead body keeps turning up-and subsequently disappearing-around the grounds of the house. Determined, for once, to stay out of the mysterious doings, Claire's hand is finally forced when the disappearing body turns out to be only the first corpse to turn up… less

Claire Malloy discovers that house-hunting can be murder—literally—in the latest entry in Joan Hess's "wildly entertaining series." (Mystery Scene) Back from her somewhat unusual honeymoon, Claire Malloy must face the harsh reality of life with her new husband, police chief Peter Rosen, and her teenage daughter Caron—three people simply can’t fit into her cosy two bedroom apartment... moreClaire Malloy discovers that house-hunting can be murder—literally—in the latest entry in Joan Hess's "wildly entertaining series." (Mystery Scene) Back from her somewhat unusual honeymoon, Claire Malloy must face the harsh reality of life with her new husband, police chief Peter Rosen, and her teenage daughter Caron—three people simply can’t fit into her cosy two bedroom apartment. After a week of fruitless looking, she finally finds the perfectplace—a well preserved large house on a large plot of land in an area called Hollow Valley. There are only a few problems. Such as the real estate agent disappeared mid-showing and hasn’t been seen since. And the last owner died in circumstances labeled ’accidental’ but were actually both ’mysterious’ and ’dubious’. The family that owned the estate is now suing the lover of the dead owner over the rights to the property. Oh, and it isn’t really for sale. When the previous owner’s lover dies practically at her feet, Claire decides to take matters into her own hands. After all, to get the house of her dreams, first she has to find a killer. And all’s fair in love, war, and real estate. less