From Publishers Weekly
Hess delivers another lighthearted but tartly told mystery. Bookstore owner/sleuth Claire Malloy (last encountered in Death by the Light of the Moon ) finds herself embroiled in the affairs of Farber College's sorority, Kappa Theta Eta, whose house is next door to Malloy's. Suspecting prowlers after she hears a scream emanating from the shabby premises, Claire gains the qualified (and condescending) tolerance of the house's summer occupants: four students and the divorcee housemother. The reappearance of Claire's nemesis, Arnie Riggles, and further prowler sightings culminate in the hit-and-run death of one of the sisters. Suspicion falls on the sorority misfit, whose car was involved, but Claire follows other leads (and her own instincts), identifying a major college administrator as one of the KTE prowlers, which gives rise to further questions. Among other complications in Claire's life is the sorry state of her love affair with Farberville police lieutenant Peter Rosen, who wants her to stay out of sleuthing, and the newest get-rich-quick scheme of her teenage daughter Caron.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Adventure #8 for Farberville's bookstore owner Claire Malloy (Death by the Light of the Moon, etc.), widowed mother of teenager- from-hell Caron and sometime lover of police lieutenant Peter Rosen. Claire lives next door to this college town's Kappa Theta Eta sorority house, only sparsely occupied in the summer. Here, Claire--nosier than ever--gets involved in a series of incidents there--from screams in the night to prowlers and unexplained lights, culminating in the death of much admired senior Jean Hall, apparently run down by vanished Debbie Anne Wray, a wimpy pledge. Claire's persistence, not to say chutzpah, gradually uncovers connections to Law School Dean John Vanderson, his sleekly efficient wife Eleanor, the local hot-sheets motel, and a range of house activities undreamed of by the sorority's rules committee. Claire grows less appealing and amusing as her foibles are archly exaggerated; the plotting is also sometimes murky and unconvincing. Amiable but often dull fare. --
Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
