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 HOLIDAYSShowing 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.

When bookstore owner Claire Malloy agrees to pet sit for Nick and Nora, two pampered bassetts, they quickly vanish on her watch. When she discovers there's a blackmailing dognapper who runs a pit-fight gambling ring loose in town, she gets really mad--and when Claire gets mad, she gets even....From Publishers WeeklyAgreeing to care for two basset hounds while their elderly owner is away, bookseller Claire Malloy is introduced to the underworld of pet snatchers.redundant, if they're stolen When the hounds left in her care disappear, Claire discovers other neighborhood pets in her small university town are also missing. A check at the animal shelter turns up the information that the unsavory Newton Churls runs an operation licensed to sell animals for medical research. An official inspection, authorized by an unwilling sheriff, proves unavailing. The bereft pet owners and Claire's teenage daughter Caron attempt a nighttime commando raid; when Claire follows them, she finds Churls torn to death by his pit bulls. On the lam to keep up the search and avoid being called as a material witness, Claire is attacked by several unsavory country boys at an animal sale; a ransom demand further complicates the case. Hess again provides lively and diverting entertainment via her brash and articulate detective, last seen in A Diet to Die For . Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Kirkus ReviewsFarberville's bookstore-owner/occasional sleuth Claire Malloy (A Diet to Die For, etc.) has consented to care for Emily Parchester's African violets and basset hounds, Nick and Nora, while Emily takes a trip. Days later, the hounds have disappeared, along with the various pets of neighbors on the block, and Claire is in the middle of a plot to recover them from the filthy quarters of nasty Newton Churls, notorious local animal-dealer. Not so easy, especially after Churls is killed by his pit bulls--not accidentally; Claire's warned off by the local law; a couple of Churls's brutish redneck pals are prowling the neighborhood, and Claire's teenaged daughter, Caron, and friend Inez undertake some heroics of their own. Another of the author's ditsy mixes--a worthy issue; a few eccentrics; lots of ill-advised forays into danger; and a blithe heroine whose ironic reflections often produce a chuckle. Of special interest to dedicated animal-lovers. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Things that go bump in the Bayou...For bookseller and amateur sleuth Claire Malloy getting a root canal beats going to a Malloy family reunion. But it is time her fifteen-year-old daughter Caron visits her deceased father's relatives. Now Claire and Caron have arrived at Malloy Manor, a run-down mansion in Louisiana's bayou country...where the mosquitoes are big enough to barbecue, the swamp is crawling with alligators, the butler looks like he stepped out of a teen slasher movie, and the wheelchair-bound matriarch, Miss Justicia, races around the grounds cackling like a loon.It's the perfect setting-for a murder. Before a night has passed, Miss Justicia is sleeping with the fishes. The police call it a "tragic accident." Caron is all for calling a cab. But Claire wants to have a closer look at her "loving" relatives since she has a hunch leaving Malloy Manor isn't going to be all that easy...and neither is staying alive.

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 favorite 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.Review"Hess's books are funny, acerbic, touching, terrific." -- Elizabeth Peters"Joan Hess is one very funny woman." -- Susan Dunlap"Joan Hess is the funniest mystery writer to come down the pipe since England's incomparable Pamela Branch. And oh, how well Joan writes." -- Carolyn G. HartFrom the Inside FlapWhen Claire Malloy and her daughter Caron attend the mock murder weekend at the charming Mimosa Inn, everything goes swimmingly until Harmon, the leader of the theatrical group staging the event, turns up as the corpse . . . for real. Now the game turns to deadly earnest . . .