Mummy Dearest (Claire Malloy Mysteries, No. 17)

In the ancient Land of the Pharaohs

Claire Malloy—a single, widowed mother of a teenage daughter and a bookseller in Farberville, Arkansas—has finally said ‘I do’ to her swain, Peter Rosen of the local police department. Now they are on their honeymoon in Luxor, Egypt. Well, Claire is on her honeymoon, accompanied by her daughter Caron, and Inez, Caron’s best friend and frequent partner in adventure. Peter, meanwhile, is mostly away doing business in his new, completely undiscussed role in law enforcement.

Lies a thoroughly modern malloy mystery …

At the glamorous Winter Palace in Luxor, Claire is intent on a quiet, uneventful stay involving shopping, and tourist sites. But despite her determined efforts to avoid trouble, the tenor of the trip quickly switches from sleepy to creepy. First, Caron and Inez are chased through darkened deserted alleys by persons unknown. Then a blond college student of their recent acquaintance is kidnapped by two young men on horseback in a scene reminiscent of a Hollywood horror film. Something is clearly afoot in this tourist paradise…and now Claire will stop at nothing to find out what.

“Humor, quirky characters, a rich mother-daughter relationship, and the fresh setting all add to this satisfying addition to Hess’s long-running series.”—Booklist

Publishers Weekly

Hess's delightful 17th Claire Malloy mystery (after 2007's Damsels in Distress) pays tribute to the Egyptian novels of Elizabeth Peters, the pseudonym of Barbara Mertz, to whom the book is dedicated. Claire has at long last married her cop boyfriend, Peter Rosen, and they are ostensibly on their honeymoon in Luxor, Egypt, accompanied by Claire's daughter, Caron, and Caron's best friend, Inez. Peter, however, is often called away on mysterious meetings with Egyptian police, and Claire and the girls are left to their own devices. Odd things start happening: the girls claim they're being followed by a sinister Arab with a scar, a young American woman is kidnapped in the desert, and murders dog an archeological expedition. Hess throws into this heady mix a deliciously eccentric cast of supporting characters, including one Lady Amelia Peabody Emerson, reputed to be the descendant of famous English archeologists. Manipulating everything with a practiced hand, Hess concludes the story in a manner worthy of Hercule Poirot in the classic Death on the Nile. (Apr.)