After a somewhat long and, at times, strange courtship, Claire Malloy -- a single, widowed mother of a teenage daughter and a bookseller in Farberville, Arkansas - has finally said 'I do' to her swain, Lt. Peter Rosen of the Farberville Police Department. Now they are on their honeymoon in Luxor, Egypt. Well, Claire is on her honeymoon - accompanied by Caron, her teenaged daughter, and Inez, Caron's best friend and frequent partner in adventure. Peter is mostly away on various mysterious consultations with equally mysterious government agencies is his new, completely undiscussed, role in law enforcement.
Staying at the glamorous Winter Palace in Luxor, Claire is intent on a quiet, uneventful honeymoon involving shopping, tourist sites, and, when it can't avoided, drinks with the local British expatriate contingent. But despite her determined efforts to avoid any involvement in criminous events, the tenor of the trip quickly switches from bucolic to creepy. First, Caron and Inez are chased through darkened deserted alleys by persons unknown. Then a blond college student of their recent acquaintance is kidnapped by two young men on horseback in a scene reminiscent of a Rudolf Valentino film. Something is clearly afoot in this tourist paradise, and now Claire will stop at nothing to find out what.
Joan Hess was the author of both the Claire Malloy and the Maggody mystery series. Hess was a winner of the American Mystery Award, a member of Sisters in Crime, and a former president of the American Crime Writers League. She lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Joan Hess also wrote a mystery series under the pseudonym of Joan Hadley.
Very disappointing. The characters all seem like caricatures and Peter seems like an afterthought. It was as if Joan Hess needed an excuse to get Claire Malloy to Egypt and he seemed like the easiest way. In the end the reason for Peter to be in Egypt is never explained. If he is a city cop why would they send him to Egypt. On the other hand if he works for the FBI when did that happen? There are too many questions left unanswered. And if Caron were my daughter she would have been Put Up For Adoption by now. Will she ever stop whining?
Every good author periodically writes a clinker, and this is Ms. Hess's example. I have loved most of her Malloy and Maggody books. Not so here. I finished it, basically because I expected it would improve. Now, I am waiting for her next one to see if she returns to form.
Series mysteries are either the breath of readerly life or the kiss of death, depending on the temperament of the lector. I love them, I read them, I look for clues to new ones all the time, and on rare occasions, I drop the ones I've been following. Most often I do so because some shift in me or the author has occurred and the initial spell that lured me to the table is broken, leaving moldy dishes in an unscrubbed sink in place of the banquet I first saw.
Claire Malloy and Peter Rosen are married at last. I don't think Ms. Hess quite knows what to do about that yet. Caron and Inez are finally growing up some, and that's a problem too. This series is reaching middle age, and some middle-aged lumps are to be expected. But the problem here is, I read these books to laugh while thinking through the puzzle. I didn't laugh much in this case, and the puzzle didn't satisfy me much either. Just not up there to my eyes.
So, I ask myself, is Claire destined for the scrap heap of readerhood? No, not quite yet. I liked the setting of the book, and I enjoyed the murders since the "right" people were murdered. I'll assume that the likelihood of a sub-par outing in any seventeen-book series is high, and I will move on.
But more cautiously than before. Read only if already a series fan.
Unlike the last mystery I read, Tree Huggers by Goodreads author Judy Nichols, Mummy Dearest was pretty easy to put down, at least for the first 170 pages. Because I enjoyed some of the earlier Claire Mallory mysteries, I plowed on. It actually did get a lot better about page 170 so I recommend starting there. Still, if over half the book is sort of silly and boring, 3 stars seems like enough.
I started reading this book because I just finished “The Painted Queen” and wondered what Joan Hess’s own books were like. I am absolutely appalled. This book is a story of a group of the ugliest American tourists traveling in Egypt, they are not enjoying any of it and bad mouth everything. I never give books a poor review - this deserved the worst. From the first page to the middle of the book(I couldn’t stomach finishing it) it is full of the type of American tourists that make me ashamed to be an American overseas. I am shocked that Barbara Mertz could tolerate Ms. Hess’s company.
Hess wanted to write a book based in Egypt; I suspect she also avoided dealing with Clare and Peter as a married couple seting up house in Farberville this way. As reviewed elsewhere, the supporting characters are cartoon-ish; the series isn't particularly "advanced" on the whole, except perhaps the relationship betwen Caron and Inez. Not particularly recommended.
This is one of the worst books I have tried to read for a long time. I got to about the last 10 pages and decided it wasn't worth the effort to even finish. So, don't ask me what happened. The characters are silly and very poorly drawn.
This is a cheap knockoff of the Amelia Peabody Emerson series by Elizabeth Peters (a friend of the author). An English drawing room comedy of a mystery set in Egypt that falls flat.
Maybe because I listened on audio, I found Mummy Dearest hard to follow with too many characters I didn't care about and multiple indistinct crimes which barely seemed related.
Ha Ha Ha -- I picked a bag full of discarded Joan Hess mysteries from the giveaway table recently at the Winona, Miss., library; today, I finished reading this one, "Mummy Dearest", a good example of the Hess witty writing style; set in Luxor, Egypt, as our heroine and her new husband, along with two teenage girls, are spending an extended quasi honeymoon there amidst the intrigue and antiquities. This book was quite a treat! Not that I am complaining about several of the Robert B. Parker crime novels that were in another of the giveaway bags! Y'all give Joan Hess a try. CIA and the folks from Farberville, Arkansas kick up quite a bit of sand here.
#17 in the Claire Malloy mystery series. Claire finally marries Peter Rosen of the Farberville Police Department. Peter has been trained in international copspeak in order to go on special assignment in Egypt, so that is where he and Claire spend their honeymoon. Unfortunately, much of their honeymoon in Luxor, Egypt is spent apart while Peter is off doing...whatever policework he's there to be doing, leaving Claire behind at the luxurious Winter Palace hotel along with 17-year-old daughter Caron and Caron's ever-present best friend, Inez.
The first part of the book is hilarious. To my disappointment, the humor kind of petered out (pun not intended) after that. I enjoyed Alexander and the other boisterous British characters, who always seem to show up at Claire's hotel room door when she wants some peace. I think an opportunity was missed to make the lazy Alexander an amusing couple with animal-mummification-expert Salima. Unfortunately, Salima ended up being annoying and childish instead of being built up to her full potential as a character.
I really enjoyed the change of pace in getting Claire away from Farberville. I was very impressed at Joan Hess's research of Egypt. I just wish she'd used some of her knowledge to give us visuals of the Egyptian landscape, instead of some of Inez's factual speeches. Also, I would like to know how Claire came to the conclusions that led her to solve the mystery. I'm still a bit bewildered by the ending.
Overall, I enjoyed it. Joan Hess is one of my favorite authors and I'll never turn away a Claire Malloy mystery! I personally think there were a few missed opportunities to make this particular novel better, but it's still a good read.
No such thing as a bad book by Joan Hess. I prefer her "Maggody" series more than this, one of her "Claire Malloy" books, but both series are smart-funny with great plots and offbeat, memorable characters.
This was only three stars, though. Part of that may be my distraction with the Olympics and a craft project, but this seemed to move slowly. Or it had a lot going on, but none of it seemed directly connected to a crime. The murders all happened "off-screen," and seemed very remote. Plus, this edition took place in Egypt rather than Claire's hometown of Farberville, Arkansas. That tends to put me off a little bit, too.
Claire and her new husband Peter (a cop turned spy) are in Egypt for their honeymoon, along with Claire's daughter Caron and Caron's friend Inez (they are 17). Peter brought them to Egypt, because he's meeting (a lot) with secret spy-type people. The people at their hotel are part of an archeology dig, and are all oddballs. Several months ago, a crew member died at the dig, but it was ruled an accident. Strange things keep happening, but little else. Then bodies start turning up and Claire ends up involved.
The book seemed to be going nowhere till it was quickly wrapped up at the end. In retrospect, I guess the clues all fit, but it didn't feel like something I should have been able to sense all along, and not really anything that even FELT like much of a clue to me. Or maybe I'm just distracted.
Claire Malloy is actually likable in this book. I would love to continue this series based on this book, but; unfortunately, I know she reverts true to form in the next - totally self-centered, over-confident in her detective ability and extremely annoying.
She is more laid back in this book and it almost gives you hope that she and her husband, Peter Rosen, can forge a working partnership (in terms of her amateur investigations and his professional law enforcement role). She is not in your face - still a bit impulsive, but on the whole, very restrained and as I said, likable.
For those of you that love Elizabeth Peters, there is a minor character in this book, Lady Emerson, based on and a tribute to the Amelia Peabody and Radcliffe Emerson series. Amanda Emerson is a descendant of those two notable characters and living off the royalties from Amelia's memoirs. This was a enjoyable addition to this story.
I would have rated this higher, but for the fact I know Claire reverts to form and is not an enjoyable and likable character after this. What a disappointment. At least I saved myself the shock when the next book doesn't continue in this vein.
I had an absolutely delightful time reading Mummy Dearest by Joan Hess. I've read a couple of Hess's Claire Malloy series before and enjoyed them, but I'm not a huge fan. This book was in my MIL pile, though, and I thought I'd give it a try. I am so, so, so glad I reached for it!
As you might have guessed from previous book reviews, I love Elizabeth Peters. Love, love, love Elizabeth Peters. She's used her study and love of Egyptology to write more absolutely delightful books than I can count. Well, apparently Joan Hess is also a big fan -- both of those books and their author -- and I hope had a blast writing an homage to all in Mummy Dearest. The names, the settings, the style -- all are reminiscent of Peters' Egypt. I'm having more fun reading this book than I've had reading anything for a long, long time. (I've enjoyed other books quite a bit, but this is like ... a literary amusement park.) If any of you are Peters fans, even if you've never read a Claire Malloy mystery before, you should pick this book up!
I have read a TON of this mystery series, but it's been a few years since I picked one up. I've mentioned before that I will stick with an entertaining and engaging heroine through less-than-stellar-plots. Though this one is a little slow going at first, the new setting of Luxor, Egypt, is a refreshing change that makes up a bit for the lackluster plot. It ended up being quite an amusing denouement, and her sly wit comes through especially well in the end.
Caron and Inez's relationship is taking on more shape, and going through some typical teenage bumps. The one relationship that continues to fall a bit flat is the main romance! Why is it that often the tempting side characters seem more appealing than the main relationship? Curious.
Enjoyable, and saved me from tv overload when stuck inside with a cold over the long holiday weekend!
While others didn't like this book because they didn't think it was up to Hess' high standards, I enjoyed the book for the humor of the book. It was fun to listen to the strange cast of characters that were written by Hess. I read to be entertained and to get away from reality so it was fun to just listen to the book and laugh. However, that said, I also wanted to slap Alexander and a few other characters upside the head since they were always walking into Clare's suite. Sure sometimes things were a little far fetched but it's entertainment.
I usually enjoy the Claire Malloy series. Sometimes they are laugh out loud funny. This, however, was not one of my favorites. I found it rather convoluted and at times just boring. I didn't figure out who done it, but it didn't really matter. It was still predictable in most of the outcomes. And although this was my least favorite book in the series so far, the excerpt for another book at the end made me want to read it. So, I will continue to read the series and hope others will give the Claire Malloy books a shot.
I am a mystery reader and, therefore, love series of favorite authors. I have read Joan Hess and have always liked her Maggody series better than those featuring Claire Malloy. For some reason I just couldn't warm up to Claire.
However, Mummy Dearest held my attention and was LOL funny. Perhaps it was because Claire had more in common this go-around with a favorite character of mine: Amelia Peabody. In fact, Joan dedicates this book to Barbara Mertz (aka Elizabeth Peters).
I am usually a big fan of Joan Hess, however, this book was not quite as good as the rest. It took almost half of the book to really get going. For me is was a little far fetched that a small town detective would be working out of country when there has been very little reference in past books abount him training for higher positions or expressing a desire to expand his career. It seemed out of place and out of character. I hope that future books go back to her previous style of writing.
In spite of a premise with potential, this turned out to be a dreary slog. I got more than tired of the endless bickering between all the characters -- it's difficult to believe any of these people care about each other. The secondary cast of British aristocrats seemed to be pale and disagreeable imitations of Noel Coward characters. And Egypt -- which could have been such a fascinating setting -- seemed to be almost entirely inconsequential. Read something else.
Decent trip to modern Egypt with Claire Malloy. Mystery is a little obvious and as usual I wish I liked these enough to read them all in order so I'd have some better character development. Best parts are the mother-daughter interactions, and Inez. I think I like Inez better than anyone else in the series. Bonus 1/2 star for Elizabeth Peters references, subtracted again for my dislike of future Emersons as portrayed.
I love the Claire Malloy series but I had a hard time getting into this one. It just didn't seem to flow very well. Now, I have to say that I usually read a book in a few days and I've been so busy it too me longer to read it, and that may be in part why the book felt disjointed, but it just seemed like it was lacking in...mystery (and it's a mystery book). I'll continue to read the series but I hope the next one is better.
Love CJ Critt's narration. Honeymoon to Egypt. Interesting details about the setting. Hess's books are humorous, but this one is not her best work. Planning to skim the end in print.
Lots of build up with little to no delivery. I feel like Claire should stand up for herself more and the series but in this one particularly it’s starting to bug me with everybody walking into her room whenever they feel like it, forcing her into having drinks with them manhandling her etc. It just was so not something anybody would think would be OK. I am always wondering why the relationship between Karen and Peter is never explored they seem to have little to no affection for one another. He views her as an inconvenience and she just seems to not really have any feelings about him when where the other. It’s kind of creepy I also don’t really understand why Peter, Claire and Karen didn’t just go on a family vacation versus a honeymoon. I don’t think that they should’ve allowed to care and to bring her friend because what would be the point. She should have a trip with her mother alone if Peter is it gonna be around much. Plus with all the lamenting Claire did about her daughter soon to be two years older and heading off to college I would think that she’d want to spend as much time with her alone but in the long run. I also think it’s interesting how barely even five books ago she was hating the idea of her daughter being far from her, but now she wanted to be as far as possible. I feel like Claire’s character changed her personality every few chapters in this book. Alexander and Selena were interesting characters but I feel like they didn’t reach their full potential, I also feel that Karen and I know should’ve just been the main storyline in this book because it felt like they were the only interesting characters. It’s interesting how Claire can have feelings and hates them being dismissed by Peter and so on, but the moment Karen and her friend talk about something that she feels is not believable she treats him the same way. Is the weird story and I don’t think it fits into the series at all. I like that they were out of the country, and I think that they should do more of that. But I just cannot imagine reading the series without Karen as she will be going off to college soon. This story gave me a glimpse of what it would be like and I honestly don’t think I like Claire as much as I like the supporting characters in the story.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I felt the book could have been improved by a few characters who had nothing to contribute to the plot—they seemed to be only present to swell the numbers at cocktail parties and thereby contribute to Claire’s feeling overwhelmed. And at the dénouement keeping track of who was involved in some criminal activity other than murder, who was innocent of wrongdoing, and who was investigating crimes, criminal conspiracies and assorted other plottings. I did however have a clear grasp on the one responsible for the killings. One character was a real hoot: Lady Amanda Peabody Emerson. Not that there was anything particularly humorous about her per se, but she’s the image of Amelia Peabody Emerson (the narrator of the Victorian Egyptian mysteries by Hess’s good friend Elizabeth Peters) and lives off the fortune generated by several books written by “an ancestor” a few generations ago. On its own I might give “Mummy Dearest” 3.5 stars—really not Hess’s best—but it was so wonderful to relive our stay at the Winter Palace; our visits to the Valley of the Kings, Abu Simbel, the temple of Karnak; watching the feluccas gliding on the Nile as the sun set, that I’m giving it five stars.
I read and enjoyed all of Joan Hess’s early Clair Malloy mysteries but hadn’t read any lately, so when I saw this one, I was sure it would be a treat. It was not what I expected, although I did appreciate the slight connection to Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series. I am hoping the next book in Ms. Hess’s series will be more like her earlier Claire Malloy mysteries.
I used to really enjoy Joan Hess books but, now that the main character has gotten married, I just find them boring and not to my liking. Whole books basically wasted for him/her to find time to be together, ugh!
That was not an enjoyable mystery. The main character was always crusty, the people in the hotel drove me nuts. The staff are annoying and clingy. Clare’s new husband is rough and angry. And the teenagers are brats. By the end of it I didn’t care who was killing people or stealing artifacts.
Christmas covid 19 orders to stay safe, isolate gave me the chance to read those piles of older books in my some time stash. Joan Hess has usually brought good mystery plots and witty humor to her many novels but this story lacked both. Too many secondary characters arguing with a slow moving plot made this one of her major misses.