A Holly Jolly Murder (Claire Malloy Mysteries, No. 12) - Softcover

Hess, Joan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451407288 ISBN 13: 9780451407283

Publisher: Onyx, 1998

Synopsis

Anticipating a humdrum holiday with her self-absorbed daughter, Claire Malloy attends an eccentric customer's Druid winter celebration, only to find the event's benefactor murdered. Reprint.

About this title

Review:

A few days before Christmas, bookseller Claire Malloy determines that she has heard one too many comments about being set in her ways. To quiet such complaints she accepts an invitation from an eccentric customer to a New Age celebration of the winter solstice. An early morning adventure with Malthea, Arch Druid of the Sacred Grove of Keltria, should have been enough to prove that Claire has not yet settled into middle-aged complacency. But the morning's activities provide more than she bargained for once one of Malthea's followers turns up dead. Our heroine sets out to determine whether her new acquaintances are murderous Satanists or only very odd, and, in the process, to discover just who shot whom.

Holly Jolly Murder is Joan Hess's 12th mystery featuring Book Depot proprietor and attractive widow Malloy as an inadvertent sleuth. Better known are Hess's Maggody books, which richly parody livin', dyin', and prayin' in the backwoods of Arkansas. The Malloy series is similarly witty, but its humor is a bit more subtle and less predictable than that of its country cousin. The college town that Malloy inhabits allows for occasional digs at academia as well as a broader range of quirky and seemingly less contrived characters--a Druid priestess being the obvious example. In Holly Jolly Murder, Hess has set the stage for Claire to come into her own as an accidental detective (lover-policeman Peter is conveniently away for the holidays) with suitably festive results. --K. Crouch

From the Back Cover:

THE GIFT THAT GIVES ON GIVING. . .
With Farberville's college on holiday break, Claire Malloy's bookstore is quiet . . . deadly quiet. Breaking the silence is a little old lady looking for volumes on pagan rituals, applied magick, and Celtic mysticism. Claire is intrigued and miffed that her lover, Farberville police Lieutenant Peter Rosen, says she's in a rut happily accepts an invitation to welcome the winter solstice at dawn.
HOMICIDE FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Showing up at the Sacred Grove, Claire expects wild chanting or even nude dancing. Instead she ends up sitting on a stump watching the Arch Druid clean her bifocals. Then winter arrives and so does a dead man. Someone has shot the wealthy benefactor of Farberville's neo-pagans. Now Claire is mixing some snooping with her Christmas shopping. But instead of wrapping up the case, she finds out tis the season for ho- ho- homicide . . . and she may be the next victim.

"Delightful entertainment, a just-right antidote to holiday busy-ness or anytime blahs."
--"Publishers Weekly"
""A Holly, Jolly Murder "showcases Claire at her lovable best, struggling with a mystery just as she tries to widen her horizons by diving into the middle of New Age elements."
"Painted Rock"
"A pleasant, entertaining series addition."
"Library Journal""

About this edition

• Publisher: Onyx
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0451407288
• ISBN 13: 9780451407283
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 288