- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Minotaur Books; First Edition edition (Mar 8 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312320809
- ISBN-13: 978-0312320805
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 14.7 x 2.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 204 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,175,342 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
After a long and successful career as a theatre director in Manhattan, fifty-something Claire Gray succumbed to a tempting offer to establish the theatre department at the new and very well funded Desert Arts College in Palm Springs. It has proven to be an exciting opportunity for Claire but now she's facing the end of her first academic year with a measure of melancholy. Not only is the spring production about to end but her student and clandestine lover, Tanner Griffin, is about to leave school for Hollywood. The person responsible - renowned producer Spencer Wallace - spotted Tanner in an earlier school stage production and signed him to a role in his next film, Photo Flash. Now with the closing performance of the spring production completed, the cast party at Claire's house promises to be a bittersweet affair.
What Claire gets, however, is more than she bargained for when, in the middle of the very crowded affair, Spencer Wallace turns up dead in Claire's pool. To make it worse, Claire herself is one of the most probable suspects - with means, motive, and opportunity to have committed the deed. But Wallace is a man with a past and a reputation - and there are far more than a handful of people with better reasons to wish him harm. Now, with time running short, it falls to Claire to figure out who is really responsible before someone else gets away with the crime and leaves her holding the bag.
What Claire gets, however, is more than she bargained for when, in the middle of the very crowded affair, Spencer Wallace turns up dead in Claire's pool. To make it worse, Claire herself is one of the most probable suspects - with means, motive, and opportunity to have committed the deed. But Wallace is a man with a past and a reputation - and there are far more than a handful of people with better reasons to wish him harm. Now, with time running short, it falls to Claire to figure out who is really responsible before someone else gets away with the crime and leaves her holding the bag.
About the Author
Michael Craft is the author of several novels, two of which were finalists for a Lambda Literary Award, as well as the play Photo Flash. He divides his time between Kenosha, Wisconsin and Palm Springs, California, which is the setting for the Claire Gray novels.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
"Claire." The whisper came from behind, mouthed over my shoulder in the darkness. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
"Claire." The whisper came from behind, mouthed over my shoulder in the darkness. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Mystery? What mystery?,
By A Customer
This review is from: Desert Spring: A Claire Gray Mystery (Hardcover)
The only mystery here is why people like this book.It's predictable, dull, badly written, and stuffed with cliches and unbelievable situations. The plot is absurd, the characters are cardboard. Even a willing suspension of disbelief doesn't get you past the first few pages. It's just plain silly. I second tevans' opinion: Save your money for something better.
3.0 out of 5 stars
A visit with friends --------,
By Ernie Redmond (Somers, CT) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Desert Spring: A Claire Gray Mystery (Hardcover)
Desert Spring gives us a chance to catch up with Claire Gray and enjoy a pleasant weekend read, while visiting some of the friends we've made in Michael Craft's earlier Claire Gray mysteries. From the time you first met Claire in "Rehersing" and catch up again in Desert Autumn and Desert Winter, you come to know an intriguing personality who surrounds herself with an assortment of friends and aquaintances we are sure to recognize. Let yourself go a little and you might think Michael Craft "knows" you. If this is the first of his novels you have a chance to read - prepare to enjoy yourself. If you have read his earlier works - either the Claire Gray or the Mike Manning series - you will find yourself growing and developing along with his corps of characters, and wanting more.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A magnificent tale,
This review is from: Desert Spring: A Claire Gray Mystery (Hardcover)
In his playful (pun intended) tenth novel, Michael Craft fuses the intricacies of the classic mystery genre with the overall structure of dramatic theater to create a wild entertainment. Claire Gray is facing the end of her first academic year at Desert Arts College, as well as the probable end of her relationship with her younger leading man, who is set to star in his first feature film. She publicly laments this loss, and quips that she wishes the director dead, so when his body is discovered in her pool after that night's party, guess who's the prime suspect? Briefly reluctant to involve herself in yet another murder investigation, Claire sets out to clear her name and finds that only she actually liked the director, and the list of suspects grows by the moment. Written simultaneously with Craft's stage play "Photo Flash", "Desert Spring" borrows heavily from the theater world, and this only cements the lively quality of his storytelling. The book is determined to be both fun and serious, without being dour, and greatly surpassed my expectations.
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