From Booklist
Why is Claire Malloy such an appealing character? On one hand, she lives what many mystery readers would consider a dream life: amateur sleuth and small-town bookshop owner. On the other hand, Claire is endearing because she is very like most of us: far from rich and even further from perfect, she often breaks things, she messes up her relationship with handsome cop Peter Rosen, and she opens her mouth when she shouldn't. In this madcap entry in the long-running series, Claire and her teenage daughter, Caron, accept a house-sitting invitation from Claire's new friend Dolly Goforth. With her own apartment being fumigated, Claire feels like she has hit the jackpot with Dolly's invitation: a gorgeous home and use of a new Mercedes. The idyll soon turns ugly, though, with the discovery and subsequent disappearance of a dead body. The plot works itself out just fine, but face it, the real attraction here is the opportunity to spend some time with Claire Malloy. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
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. 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...



About the Author
Joan Hess is the author of both the Claire Malloy and the Maggody mystery series. She is a winner of the American Mystery Award, a member of Sisters in Crime, and a former president of the American Crime Writers League. She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Claire Malloy runs a bookstore in the normally quiet college town of Farberville, Arkansas - an enterprise that provides a verging-on-meager living for her and her deeply sarcastic teenage daughter, Caron. 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 so 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. Claire is determined, for once, to stay out of the mysterious doings, but her hand is finally forced when the disappearing body turns out to be only the first corpse to turn up.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

When Claire Malloy and teenage daughter Caron find rats in their apartment, thanks to the trash-laden downstairs neighbors, it's time to find somewhere else to live, at least temporarily, in the amateur sleuth's fresh and funny 15th outing (after 2002's Out on a Limb). Dolly Goforth, good Samaritan and relative newcomer to Farberville, Ark., comes to the rescue, offering her palatial home as a refuge while she travels. Soon after Claire and Caron and her best friend Inez settle in, however, the girls find a body behind the gazebo. When the police arrive to investigate, the body's gone. Various people keep showing up and asking for Dolly, including two young women who claim Dolly invited them to visit her anytime. Getting in touch with Dolly proves difficult, and when the body keeps turning up only to disappear again, Claire is more determined than ever to resolve this nefarious affair. Hess handles the complicated plot with consummate ease, and her trademark humor is stamped on every page. Fans of the long-running series will find much to entertain, including a decision Claire makes that will affect her relationship with longtime beau Peter Rosen. (Apr. 18) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews