The Murder at the Mimosa Inn

Rating:
Summary: Deadly Game
Review: 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)

Rating:
Summary: A mediocre mystery with a homophobic sleuth
Review: I found this to be a plodding and mediocre mystery, lacking in hilarity or great wit. Claire Malloy's comments exhibit an anti-gay or homophobic prejudice against "Bruce" (stereotypical name) the bartender

Rating:
Summary: The title is the best thing about the book
Review: Joan Hess's "The Murder at the Murder at the Mimosa Inn" begins with great promise as Claire Malloy takes her daughter to the Mimosa Inn for a mystery murder weekend. Claire is obsessed with the idea of solving the mystery and winning the Champagne prize, and her efforts are amusing as she runs around gathering clues and viewing the other guests with inordinate suspicion. For roughly the first half of the book, the story is enjoyable, particularly when Peter Rosen, an actual cop and Claire's friend, lover, and competitor, shows up on some sort of secret mission.

When the mock murder is interrupted by a real murder, though, the story turns into a farce of tragic proportions. Claire turns out to be obsessed with interfering in the investigation of an actual murder while placing her daughter in jeopardy. It is a reasonable criticism of mysteries, particularly cozy mysteries such as this, that murder is often treated too lightly. Here, especially, the real murder never takes on the feel of anything other than the entertaining diversion of the staged theme murder for the weekend.

Nothing about the second half of the book is convincing. With a real murderer running around, for example, Claire is more concerned with solving the crime than with ensuring her daughter's safety by leaving. And the cop, rather than protecting the guests, illegally forces them to stay in the hotel with the murderer. The "game" of the real murder becomes truly absurd when Claire starts blurting out statements told to her in confidence by Peter (the cop). In short, the characters seem very real when they're solving a pretend murder, but when it comes to a real murder, they act in extraordinarily bizarre ways, and the novel suffers immeasurably as a result.

Rating:
Summary: A classic Joan Hess mystery!
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: MURDER ISN'T A GAME!
Review: Taking a break from the daily bookstore grind, Claire decides to get away from it all and drafts her daughter Caron to accompany her on a mystery murder weekend at the Mimosa Inn. Her boyfriend Peter Rosen (an investigator with the Farberville police department) scoffs at the whole idea of solving a pretend murder. This only makes Claire more determined to take part in the mystery murder weekend and become the person who solves the murder.

To complicate matters, Lt. Rosen shows up at the Inn shortly after Claire, who is positive he is only there to show her up. Clues are dispersed to the mystery participants up until the point when the murder victim turns up murdered for real.

With a situation like this, it's a given that Claire will try to out-sleuth Peter, and only get herself in harm's way. And with Joan Hess's comic flair and skillful plotting it turns into a pretty interesting read. It's the kind of book you want to read when you just want to get away from it all for a bit. Actually I enjoyed the book so much; I grabbed her A Diet To Die For from my bookshelf as my next book to read. (Also reviewed today on Amazon.)