Helpful Score: 3
This was the first Clair Malloy I read and it got me hooked on the series. The clues are VERY subtle, but if you read it closely, you can figure it out. The only thing I don't like is that Clair comes across as snotty. I don't like that. Fortunately Ms. Hess toned her down a bit in the later books.
Helpful Score: 2
The main character was unlikable. Since she was also the narrator of the story, that pretty much killed the story.
Helpful Score: 2
Life is hard enough when running a book store and solving murders but add living with a dramaic teenage daughter and you have a very entertaining cozy mystery.
Helpful Score: 1
Very slow and dry. Did not care for or about the characters or what they were doing. Read about two thirds, put it down and never picked it up again.
Helpful Score: 1
This book was just okay for me. I couldn't really relate to the main character because the author's style seemed so distant. In addition, I had to re-read the first chapter because I felt the introduction to all the characters were very confusing and vague. Hess also didn't reveal the relationships between the characters until midway through the novel, which caused my interest to "pause" until I figured out who was who and what was going on. The story and mystery itself was pretty good, despite the character-dilemma for me.
Helpful Score: 1
This book might have taken me a couple of chapters to get really caught up in it - but after that it was a very enjoyable read. Good characters, well written and with an ending that couldn't have been expected!
Theresa S. (homesteadneedlearts) -
Helpful Score: 1
Welcome to Claire Malloy's life. We meet Claire, her daughter and the Lt. in her first book as she hosts (unhappily) a book signing for a local romance writer. The writer is strangled to death after quickly exiting the book signing and three likely suspects are at hand including Claire herself! An easy enjoyable read, you'll run through this in a few hours.
Enjoyable little cozy. I like the main character's daughter. She is a hoot along with the daughter's friend.
first in the series.. joan hess is great !!!!
Good book! Claire Malloy becomes entangled in a web of deceit and murder. Long time friends may not be true friends and when the secrets of several English Dept members are revealed, no one is safe, especially Claire.
A funny, quick read. I liked the protagonist, she's snarky and cynical. The views on sexual preference seem pretty dated, though, even for 1986.
This is her first Claire Malloy, its funny and I liked the characters.
This is the first book in the Claire Malloy series. I found it to be ok. A lot of humor, which I like about Hess' style of writing. But, the story was just ok. I've read some of the other books in this series and found them to be really good. So, am not giving up! Maybe just a case of the character/series not fully developed yet.
In this first Claire Malloy mystery, a local Faberville, Arkansas romance writer is strangled after a book party introducing her latest work. Set on a college campus, "Professor of Passion" is peopled with thinly disguised versions of the local college English department, characters who all have guilty secrets. Do they really? Did one of them kill Azalea Twilight?
A comical murder mystery with a witty, sarcastic heroine is the sure thing to beat the winter blues or to take to the beach!
Arlene L. (poolmysteryreader) reviewed Strangled Prose (Claire Malloy, Bk 1) on + 63 more book reviews
quick read. start of a series.
Bonnie A. (ladycholla) -
She has very funny comments about characters, her daughter and herself. She has teenagers down pat. Not a problem, I know where she coming from. Good story.
Book one is series
Interesting. . .very flowery writing, but funny in a dry kind of way.
