When Farberville, Arkansas, plays host to its first-ever mystery convention--Murder Comes to Campus--local bookseller Claire Malloy finds herself in the midst of barely controlled mayhem. Bad enough that she is surrounded by peevishly capricious authors; bad enough that Roxanne Small, renowned (and feared) mystery editor, arrives unexpectedly, to the disgruntlement of said authors. But add in the news that Claire's amour, police detective Peter Rosen, has decided to do a little propagating of the species--with his ex-wife--well, all things considered, Claire would rather be in Philadelphia. Or just about anywhere without temperamental authors, irritable teenage daughters who have mastered the art of Speaking in Capital Letters, and sudden death.

But when one of the convention attendees dies in a suspicious accident, and Roxanne Small turns up at the bottom of a cistern with a severe case of shattered skull, Claire decides that selling books to rabid fans takes second place to ferreting out the unlovely skeletons in the publishing world's closet. A Conventional Corpse finds Claire in typically acerbic form; Joan Hess is a master at presenting a decidedly cockeyed world in precise and amusing language. Claire's opinion of her glibly sarcastic daughter is typical: "Two years until I could pack her off to college, I reminded myself as I closed her door. Or perhaps I could surreptitiously sign her up for the Peace Corps and arrange an assignment to a country in which headhunting was still a popular sport. Or leave her in a basket at the door of a convent in a newly autonomized country such as Azerbaijan--sans passport."

This is the tone that has won Hess many fans, but every character, unfortunately, sounds exactly alike: detectives, authors, innkeepers, vagrants--they all speak in the same voice. The overall effect is one of limited imagination. In addition, the denouement will leave many readers perplexed, renouncing as it does the constraints of logic, motive, and probability. Claire Malloy fans, though, will more than likely be pleased enough with the return of their favorite bookseller to read in a forgiving frame of mind. --Kelly Flynn


From Publishers 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. Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From 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, VACopyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From 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 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Hess' Claire Malloy series has never enjoyed the following of her Maggody novels--perhaps because its comedy is less crazed--but this latest installment offers an enjoyable take on a familiar theme: murder at a mystery writers' convention. When the organizer of "Murder Comes to Campus" is hospitalized, bookseller Malloy is roped into leading the conference, which features five mystery authors, none of whom is pleased to be cooped up at tiny Farber College in Farberville, Arkansas. The egomaniacal authors are soon driving Claire even more crazy than her teenage daughter. Then Roxanne Small, an editor of many and enemy of most, turns up dead, leaving all five authors as prime suspects. Whether Hess meant any of these characters to resemble real writers is unknown, but a few of them bear striking resemblances to some familiar figures in the genre. Claire proceeds to solve the crime, with the help, of course, of the mystery writers themselves. Good fun for those who are, or would like to be, insiders in the crime-fiction world. Jenny McLarin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


From 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: crackling dialogue, winning characters, and an ingenious puzzle. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"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



Review
"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



Review
"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



Book Description
Farberville, Arkansas is playing host to its first ever mystery convention. Sponsored by the Thurber Farber Foundation and held at Farber College, Murder Comes to Campus is playing host to five major mystery writers representing all areas of the field. Dragooned into running the show when the original organizer is hospitalized, local bookseller Claire Malloy finds herself in the midst of a barely controlled disaster. Not only do each of the writers present their own set of idiosyncrasies and difficulties (including one who arrives with her cat Wimple in tow), the feared, distrusted, and disliked mystery editor of Paradigm House, Roxanne Small, puts in a surprise appearance at the conference. Added to Claire's own love-life woes with local police detective Peter Rosen, things have never been worse.

Then when one of the attendees dies in a suspicious car accident, Wimple the cat disappears from Claire's home, and Roxanne Small is nowhere to be found, it becomes evident that the murder mystery is more than a literary genre.



About the Author
Joan Hess is the winner of the American Mystery Award and the author of twelve previous Claire Malloy books, including Dear Miss Demeanor and Strangled Prose, as well as the Maggody mystery series. A member of Sisters in Crime and a former president of the American Crime Writers League, she lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

FROM OUR EDITORS

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

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Farberville, Arkansas is playing host to its first ever mystery convention. Sponsored by the Thurber Farber Foundation and held at Farber College, Murder Comes to Campus is playing host to five major mystery writers representing all areas of the field. Dragooned into running the show when the original organizer is hospitalized, local bookseller Claire Malloy finds herself in the midst of a barely controlled disaster. Not only do each of the writers present their own set of idiosyncrasies and difficulties (including one who arrives with her cat Wimple in tow), the feared, distrusted, and disliked mystery editor of Paradigm House, Roxanne Small, puts in a surprise appearance at the conference. Added to Claire's own love-life woes with local police detective Peter Rosen, things have never been worse.

Then when one of the attendees dies in a suspicious car accident, Wimple the cat disappears from Claire's home, and Roxanne Small is nowhere to be found, it becomes evident that the murder mystery is more than a literary genre.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers 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.