Mummy Dearest: A Claire Malloy Mystery

by: Joan Hess

Published by: St. Martin's Minotaur Press

Reviewed by Kathy Perschmann

Finally Claire Malloy, bookstore owner in the small college town of Farberville, Arkansas, and mother to Caron, one of the more outrageous teens in existence, has married her long suffering boyfriend, Lt. Peter Rosen of the Farberville Police Department.

They are on their honeymoon in Luxor, Egypt. Well, Claire, Caron and her best friend Inez, are on a honeymoon, Peter seems to be called away frequently on some mysterious government business. Ever since he had some FBI training, he has been secretive and acting very peculiar.

Claire is left staying at the luxurious old Winter Palace and doing her best to avoid a coterie of eccentric archaeologists, British expatriates and odd collectors: Lord Bledrock and his handsome n’er-do-well son Alexander; the strange Mrs. McHaver and her daughter Miriam; Magritta and Shannon King, both working on the excavation funded by Lord Bledrock and sponsored by a small American college; and the obnoxious Texan developer, Sitterman.

There are also several odd Americans, Buffy and her boyfriend Samuel–are they really tourists? No one is what they seem. Everyone appears to be putting on an act. Claire hears all about the death of Oskar, Magritta’s late husband, in a suspicious fall at the excavation site three months previously. Then Dr. Shannon King is found dead in a similar manner at the excavation site after a remarkable find is made. During a tour of Abu Simbal, several scruffy young locals on horseback kidnap Buffy. Caron and Inez are hours late from an evening out at a local party with friends. Peter is concerned about terrorists. What more could go wrong?

Humorous, with loads of amusing characters and situations, Hess will have you giggling and guessing your way to the very end.

Lady Amanda Peabody Emerson makes an appearance as an expert in Egyptian antiquities, carrying a parasol, and lending an air of professionalism–an homage to the Elizabeth Peters Lady Amelia Peabody series!

Armchair Interviews says: Joan Hess does it again with her Claire Malloy mystery.

Author’s Web site: http://www.maggody.com