The signing is most definitely not a success – one of Claire’s other friends, a professor at the local college, arrives to read a few choice excerpts from the book, all of which make very clear parallels between the characters of the novel and questionable acts by the local academics. One of these friends, Mildred Twiller, aka renowned romance author Azalea Twilight, convinces Claire to hold a signing and reception for her most recent release, Professor of Passion.

Claire doesn’t live the romanticized small-town life often shown in many modern Cozies – though she has a relatively wide social circle, her natural cynicism (verging on pessimism) often leads her to see the negative in those around her, including but not limited to her daughter, her bookstore, and her friends.

This month I’m writing about another book that I really have wanted to re-read for a long time now – Joan Hess‘s Strangled Prose, the first in her Claire Malloy Mystery Series.Ĭlaire Malloy is a busy woman – she’s a widow, a mother, and a business owner, running a semi-successful bookstore in Farberville, Arkansas, a small college town where life seems to largely revolve around the liberal arts college Claire’s husband was a professor at before his untimely demise.

Strangled prose joan hess