|
| Damsels in Distress (Claire Malloy Mysteries, No. 16) | 
 enlarge | Author: Joan Hess
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Category: Book
List Price: $6.99
Buy Used: $0.22
You Save: $6.77 (97%)
New (28) Used (34) from $0.22
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 535954
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.2 x 1
ISBN: 0312989938
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780312989934
ASIN: 0312989938
Publication Date: March 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More.
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A Renaissance Fair is coming to the relatively quiet college town of Farberville Arkansas, which is not the sort of news that usually sets local bookseller Claire Malloy’s heart racing. But with Claire’s daughter, Caron, being the perpetually petulant teenager that she is, and her fiance, Police Lieutenant Peter Rosen, away, she finds herself drawn into the strange inner workings of the group putting on the fair.
Stranger still: A Ren Fair volunteer has just been found burned in the wreckage of a rented home. Who is this woman, and why haven’t any of her associates ever met her in the flesh? When the fair is set to open, tensions expose the dark secrets and malevolent schemes that lurk beneath the surface. Now, with Claire’s dreams of a blissful wedding hanging in the balance, she has no choice but to fling herself into the battle and match wits with the killer…
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Laugh Out Loud Fun April 26, 2007
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
The only problem I have with this series is waiting for the next installment! Claire is planning to become Mrs Peter Rosen, finally, but before she can say "I DO" - she unwittingly becomes "Lady Clarissa of Farberville" when the first annual Ren Fair gets underway. This has all the loveable, humorous characters from earlier books, daughter Caron and her friend Inez, the sci fi hippy, and the entire Farberville police department. There were pages that were laugh out loud funny, and the book is worthy of a second read.
Entertaining amusing mystery series set in college town May 14, 2007
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This lastest clever mystery by Joan Hess moves you from your armchair to a college town coping with a medieval fair with a cast of characters funny but believable.
wickedly funny and clever April 21, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
With her fiance Peter, a Farberville, Arkansas police lieutenant out of town, Claire Malloy, the owner of the only bookstore in town, anticipates a quiet period with no dead bodies to trip over. Alas, her quiet time comes to an end when a Renaissance Fair comes to town. Edward Cobbinwood, known as Peter the Jester, asks her if they can set up a booth outside her shop to sell tickets and entertain the crowds with much of the money going to charity. Claire reluctantly agrees.
Edward confides in her that he is looking for his father who lives in Farberville, but the man doesn't know he exists yet. Claire fears it could be her late husband's son, but Edward spitefully refuses to name names. She gets pulled into the lives of the local players when they start confiding in her or when she overhears conversation. When Angie, who is teaching a group of children how to dance like fairies, dies in an arson fire, Claire investigates since nobody except the children and Edward ever sees the recluse. At the fair, a player has an axe in his head. He was the richest person in the group and from her own investigation and overheard conversations, she has figured out who the killer is. Now she has to prove it.
Joan Hess, author of sixteen Claire Malloy mysteries, outdoes herself in DAMSELS IN DISTRESS. The plot is wickedly funny and clever and the insider's look at what goes behind the scenes of a renaissance fair is fascinating. The group of players all have secrets to hide which leaves the readers wondering which one of them is the killer since they all have motives. This reviewer can't wait for the next book in the series.
Harriet Klausner
 A disappointing read June 10, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I really had to work to stay with this to the end, and wasn't worth my time. The renaissance stuff was tedious, a really disappointing read.
 A laugh a minute in a Renaissance murder setting May 1, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
The Renaissance Fair in my state is among the oldest continuously operating Renaissance Fairs in the United States, and will celebrate its 37th anniversary this year. I have attended the fair numerous times, and know people who participated.
I have often wondered what transpires behind the scenes at the fair--and Damsels in Distress answers this question. Murder most foul. An excellent who-done-it with motives scattered among the Renaissance Fair participants. The story hosts a royal court rift with jealousy, infidelities, and greed. Farberville, Arkansas is a small, quaint college town about to host its first Renaissance Fair. Through it all, our heroine, Clarissa Malloy, must walk a tightrope between bookseller, mother of a teenager, amateur sleuth, and fiancee of Police Lieutenant Peter Rosen.
Clarissa is drawn into the inner circle of the royal court much against her will. She's privy to a secret that could shatter her daughter and her upcoming marriage. Then, when one of the participants dies in a suspicious house fire, Clarissa finds herself sniffing out the clues. She is also torn between being glad Peter is away, because what he doesn't know about her involvement in the crime won't hurt her or him--and being upset that Peter's mother is trying to set him up again with his first wife who is rich, powerful, and beautiful.
This is the 16th Claire Malloy Mystery, but there is no need to know Claire's previous history in order to enjoy Damsels in Distress, but it might very well encourage you to give the other books in the series a read.
Armchair Interviews says: Humor abounds at the Renaissance Fair.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
