Closely Akin to Murder (Claire Malloy Mysteries, No. 11) - Hardcover

Hess, Joan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0525939113 ISBN 13: 9780525939115

Publisher: Dutton Book, 1996

Synopsis

At the request of long-lost cousin Ronnie, who as a teenager had been accused of the murder of a Hollywood producer in Acapulco some thirty years ago, Claire Malloy and her daughter Caron head to Mexico to find a blackmailer and unravel the truth about the decades-old killing.

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Reviews

YA-A phone call from her supposedly dead cousin, Veronica, sends Claire Malloy to Mexico seeking new answers to a 30-year old murder. Veronica enlists Claire's sleuthing skills to find out the identity of a blackmailer who is trying to ruin her career as a research scientist and the truth about the murder. It takes a kidnapping, a wild car chase, and several deaths before Claire pieces together the puzzle and comes up with some bizarre answers. Hess weaves the complex and well-organized plot tightly together using Claire's snappy remarks and continuous dialogue as the basic foundation for communicating events. Numerous details and several red herrings add interest and build anticipation right up to the end. Featuring a unique brand of humor and a fast-paced plot with plenty of adventurous diversions, this entertaining series entry, with its surprise ending, will appeal to teen audiences.
Pam Johnson, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Agatha, Macavity and American Mystery Award winner Hess sends her bookseller sleuth Claire Malloy (seen last in Busy Bodies) far from her small Arkansas town of Farberville in this tightly woven tale. Out of the blue, Claire receives a call from a cousin whom she understood to have died 30 years earlier. Veronica Landonwood, who at age 17 was jailed for murdering an American movie producer in Mexico, has since made a new life for herself as a medical researcher. But now, she says, someone is threatening to reveal her past if she doesn't hand over $1 million and she insists that Claire, whose detecting exploits she has secretly followed, is the only one who can save her. Claire takes her teenage daughter, Caron, to Acapulco to find out who among those involved in the murder and subsequent trial is still living and might be blackmailing her cousin. When their hotel keeper is murdered and Caron is abducted for ransom, Claire is thrown in with a Mexican family of dubious means. She sets out on a path, marked by seven bodies and nearly as many mistaken identities, that takes her to Arizona and Illinois before leading her and Caron safely back in Farberville. Hess knots deceit upon deceit into this suspenseful story, whose tone is lightened by Claire's quick wit and warm heart. Mystery Guild selection. (May) ~ FYI: Hess also writes the Maggody mystery series.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A shocking wakeup call for Farberville (Ark.) bookstore owner Claire Malloy (Busy Bodies, 1995, etc., etc.)--from her cousin Ronnie Landonwood, presumed dead for 30 years after she admitted killing Hollywood director Oliver Pickett in Acapulco, and now threatened by a blackmailer who's going to expose her all over again. The call sends Claire and her daughter Caron south of the border, where their benighted guide is attacked, Caron is kidnapped, a key witness is murdered, and nobody knows anything, especially since most of the principals in the Pickett case- -Oliver's daughter Fran, his callow assistant Chad Warmeyer, starlet Debbie D'Avril, and Ronnie's parents--are long since dead or disappeared. Wait till Claire heads back stateside and the missing witnesses start popping up on every street corner. Formidably inventive, though told with a dispiriting air of mild inconsequence, as if, despite the high body count, clearing Ronnie's name were no big deal. Even Hess's trademark guffaws are only smiles this time. (Mystery Guild selection) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Bookseller and series sleuth Claire Malloy answers cousin Veronica's plea for help-even though the woman supposedly died 30 years ago after murdering a Hollywood producer. Now, a blackmailer threatens to expose Veronica's new identity and the scandal. Juicy reading.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dutton Book
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0525939113
• ISBN 13: 9780525939115
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256