Reviews for Murder as a Second Language : A Claire Malloy Mystery
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
An Arkansas bookseller discovers the perils of literacy. After carefully removing the dead bodies from her dream house in greater Farberville (Deader Homes and Gardens, 2012), newly married Claire Malloy finds herself unexpectedly bored. Her husband, Deputy Police Chief Peter Rosen, has open cases to investigate. Her daughter Caron is preoccupied with her best friend Inez's transformation from frump to vamp. Jacob, her clerk, runs the Book Depot with an iron fist, leaving Claire little more to do than file invoices. And her foray into French cuisine leaves her family howling for takeout pizza. So she allows Judge Wilhelmina "Willie" Constantine to pressure her into joining the board of the Farberville Literacy Council, whose mission is to teach English to the foreign-born. Her fellow board members are a motley crew. In addition to Willie, there's banker Rick Lester, corporate executive Sonya Emerson, wry academic Drake Whitbream, dipsomaniac Austin Rodgers and stodgy board president Frances North. But they're not nearly as motley as the students, from tiny Asian student Miao to enormous Polish student Ludmilla, who terrorizes her fellow students with her multilingual tirades, reserving extra venom for executive director Gregory Whistler. As if dealing with feuding board members and polyglot students weren't enough, program director Keiko Sakamoto inveigles Claire into filling in for FLC's receptionist. Once Claire arrives, it's only a matter of time before murder follows, and sure enough, Keiko arrives one morning to find a corpse in the copy room. Claire's 19th case goes on too long, but freed from penury and domestic drudgery, she sparkles.]]]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal
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Her local literacy foundation has some serious problems, but new volunteer Claire hadn't thought they'd bring out murderous instincts. Still going strong after 27 years; this is number 19 (after Deader Homes and Gardens). (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
In Hess's winning 19th Claire Malloy mystery (after 2012's Deader Homes and Gardens), Claire's daughter, Caron, and Caron's best friend, Inez, sign on as ESL tutors so they can put community service on their college applications. Claire also tries to volunteer at the Farberville, Ark., Literacy Council, but she winds up instead joining the board of directors. One of the ESL students, elderly Ludmila Grabowski, is found dead in a council storage room, and it appears as though she fell and hit her head against a copying machine, but someone appears to have dragged her body into a corner to try to conceal it. Claire's new husband, Deputy Chief Peter Rosen, actually asks for her help in what becomes a murder case-which is a good thing, since she's going to snoop anyway. Claire discovers that her fellow board members had plenty to hide as she investigates with her usual humor and panache. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
With her bookstore, the Book Depot, being run by a competent graduate student, Claire Malloy is at loose ends. Her attempt to learn French cooking meets with dismay, so when her daughter, Caron, and Caron's friend Inez sign up to tutor English-as-a-second-language students to beef up their college applications, Claire offers to help tutor. After being turned down as a tutor since she missed the training session, Claire is roped into becoming a board member of the Farberville Literacy Council. She soon learns there are problems with the council's books, and then an elderly Polish student, Ludmilla, is murdered at the council's office. The unpleasant Ludmilla's death is not even mourned by her own grandson, so there are plenty of suspects. As Claire investigates, she uncovers other nefarious deeds that have transpired among the employees of the literacy council, and she becomes a target. Claire's investigation leads to the resolution of several crimes in this satisfying cozy that contains humor, sympathetic characters, and well-drawn family relationships.--O'Brien, Sue Copyright 2010 Booklist
