The Claire Malloy Mysteries

STRANGLED PROSE

Is killing a romance novelist considered a crime of passion? 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. 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 smouldering passion? Find out in Joan Hess' first Claire Malloy mystery novel Strangled Prose.

THE MURDER AT THE MURDER AT THE MIMOSA INN

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 for a weekend of sleuthing, dressed as their favourite literary detectives, many a Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot stand poised to solve a murder. But fiction becomes alarmingly real, as the mock-murder victim isn't just playing dead-he's really been bashed to death. More determined than even to find the killer, Claire combs the grounds of the lovely inn for this most uninvited guest.

DEAR MISS DEMEANOR

At Farberville High, it's reading, writing . . . and murder.

Who knows what evil lurks in the halls of Farbervilles' high school-or what blackmail is hidden in Miss Demeanor's Falcon Crier advice column? Certainly not bookstore owner and amateur sleuth Claire Malloy-until her daughter Caron persuades her to substitute for disgraced column editor and journalism teacher Emily Parchester. Surely Miss Parchester cannot be guilty of embezzlement. But the petty charges graduate to murder when Principal Weiss gets his last licks from Miss Parchester's peach compote. Miss Parchester herself, last seen at a local sanitarium, is suddenly missing. And now it's up to Claire to find someone who's been schooled in the fine art of murder . . .