Murder at the Mimosa Inn

Here's an intriguing tale in the "traditional/cozy" mystery genre. Claire Malloy drags her reluctant teenaged daughter, Caron, to a murder mystery weekend at the Mimosa Inn. Claire, bookstore owner and amateur detective, is determined to solve the mystery and win the prize: champagne. It's not that she wants to outwit the charming and disarmingly sexy local police detective, Pete Rosen. It's just that...well....The game progresses until, suddenly, the "victim" turns up dead. Really dead.This is an early Hess mystery -- the second, I think, and her devil-may-care style is just developing. MURDER AT THE MIMOSA INN is unpretentious and good entertainment, almost as much fun as actually attending a murder mystery weekend.Sunnye Tiedemann (aka Ruth F. Tiedemann)

Joan Hess, creator of the Maggody series, introduces a new slueth in this amusing romp. Claire Malloy is wonderful as the bored bookstore owner looking for some excitement in her life. Claire's daughter Caron is every mothers' teenaged nightmare. The book provides a great introduction to this series of amateur detective fiction at it's funniest.