A Conventional Corpse (Claire Malloy Series #13)

From Barnes & Noble

Claire Malloy learns that murder mystery is more than a literary genre, when a mystery writers' convention turns deadly in her hometown.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Bookseller Claire Malloy returns for her lucky 13th outing in another slyly satirical whodunit from Hess (A Holly Jolly Murder; the Maggody series). As the person in charge of the first mystery convention to be held at Farber College in Farberville, Ark., Claire faces numerous challenges keeping the participating authors happy. Laureen Parks, doyenne of the romantic suspense novel, is cranky because she can't smoke at the Azalea Inn, where everyone is domiciled. Sherry Lynne Blackstone, queen of the kitty cozy, has her fur ruffled because the inn doesn't allow pets. Dilys Knoxweed, writer of English mysteries, is stung by the insults from Walter Dahl, who pens poorly selling literary mysteries about heroes overwhelmed by their neuroses. Rounding out the list is Allegra Cruzetti, media darling and author of a runaway bestseller. As if the situation weren't fraught with enough potential disaster, obnoxious editor Roxanne Small, who has a personal connection to each of the writers, shows up to surprise them. When a conference attendee dies a seemingly accidental death and Roxanne ends up dead in a cistern, Claire once again turns sleuth to save the day. Juggling the problems of her relationship with Farberville detective Peter Rosen while sniffing out the truth proves no easy matter, but the witty, pithy Claire is equal to the task. Offering a teasingly intricate puzzle along with some zinging satire of current publishing trends, Hess has produced another first-rate mystery. Regional author tour. (June) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

Arkansas bookseller/sleuth Claire Malloy organizes a mystery convention at Farber College that goes awry. Five major writers and attendant quirks create problems, as does the appearance/disappearance of a hated mystery editor and the suspicious death of an attendee. An excellent choice. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

School Library Journal

Adult/High School-A light, humorous, uncomplicated mystery. Claire Malloy, bookseller and mother of a daughter who speaks in Capital Letters, is asked to facilitate the first-ever mystery convention on the campus of Farber College after the dynamic organizer of the event is hospitalized. The temperamental authors arrive, one with a forbidden cat in tow, to be housed in the Azalea Inn. The strict innkeeper adds even more to the bedlam. One conference attendee dies in a mysterious accident while a much-disliked editor is found dead at the bottom of a cistern. The policeman investigating the deaths is none other than Claire's ex-boyfriend, yet another frustration for her. Hess's snappy dialogue and descriptions of peevish characters move the mystery along. The ending is not entirely satisfying but the story is entertaining enough without a perfect finish. YAs will immediately relate to the daughter and her sleuthing mother and look forward to future Claire Malloy mysteries.-Katherine Fitch, Rachel Carson Middle School, Fairfax, VA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Perennially put-upon bookseller Claire Malloy (A Holly, Jolly Murder, 1999, etc.) is marching to an assertive new beat these days. She may have been impoverished by the untimely demise of her philandering husband Carlton, frustrated beyond belief at the adolescent angst of her daughter Caron, betrayed by her boyfriend Peter, and left in the lurch by convention chair Sally Fromberger, who's had the bad grace to be hospitalized with deep venal thrombosis on the eve of Farberville College's "Murder Comes to Campus" conference. But Claire refuses to play nursemaid to the four quarrelsome authors—Laureen Parks (gothic novels), Sherry Lynne Blackstone (cat detectives), Walter Dahl, (psychological thrillers), and Dilys Knoxwood (cozies)—who arrive for the festivities along with sweet-as-pie bestseller Alexandra Cruzetti and her editor, Roxanne Small. Instead, she presses Caron and her best friend Inez into taxi duty; browbeats Lily Twiller, proprietor of the environmentally correct Azalea Inn into allowing Laureen to smoke in her room; wrangles Sherry Lynne's feline traveling companion Wimple onto her sun-porch; and tirelessly exhorts the authors to quit bickering and get on with the show. She even succeeds in getting the pregnant, truculent English department secretary to let her leave several cartons of to-be-autographed books in the lecture hall. Getting them out, however, turns into a problem when Arnie Riggles, weekend custodian, turns up cold-cocked in the Azalea Inn's cistern, along with a very dead Roxanne Small, sending Claire into an immediate heads-on with ex-beau Peter, Farberville's chief of police. First-rate Hess: cracklingdialogue,winning characters, and an ingenious puzzle.

From the Publisher

"Hess goes about things in a lively style. Her heroine, Claire Malloy, has a sharp eye and an irreverent way of describing what she sees." — The New York Times Book Review

"Hess's style - that of a more worldly Erma Bombeck - rarely flags. Amiable entertainment with an edge." — Kirkus Reviews