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Kylie Kendall Mysteries #3
The Quokka Question
Kylie Kendall is hired for a routine security detail to prevent an academic rival from disrupting Dr. Oscar Braithwaite’s keynote address at UCLA’s Global Marsupial Symposium. Sounds easy enough to be downright dull, but then Dr. Braithwaite is murdered, and his sister, the sexually voracious and irresistibly attractive Dr. Penelope Braithwaite, hires Kylie to investigate his death. Can Kylie keep from mixing business with oh-so-much pleasure? Can she remain true to her barely requited love for her ice-queen business partner, Arianna Creeling? Oh yes, and can she figure out who killed Oscar? All of these questions and more are answered in this latest installment of Claire McNab’s Kylie Kendall mystery series.
Transplanted Australian Claire McNab is the author of two other Kylie Kendall mysteries, The Wombat Strategy and The Kookaburra Gambit. She has also written 18 best-selling mystery novels, 14 featuring the popular Detective Inspector Carol Ashton and four featuring undercover agent Denise Cleever. She has served as the president of Sisters in Crime and is a member of both the Mystery Writers of America and the Science Fiction Writers of America. She lives in Los Angeles.
Transplanted Australian Claire McNab is the author of two other Kylie Kendall mysteries, The Wombat Strategy and The Kookaburra Gambit. She has also written 18 best-selling mystery novels, 14 featuring the popular Detective Inspector Carol Ashton and four featuring undercover agent Denise Cleever. She has served as the president of Sisters in Crime and is a member of both the Mystery Writers of America and the Science Fiction Writers of America. She lives in Los Angeles.
184 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2005
5 people are currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Claire McNab
48 books52 followersCLAIRE McNAB, 1940-2022
Claire McNab died on June 30, 2022, after a prolonged battle with Parkinson’s Disease. She also wrote under her real name, Claire Carmichael, an outpouring of children's literature, textbooks, self-help books, and plays. She became (and remains to this day) a renowned author of children’s books in Australia.
Claire McNab is the pseudonym of Claire Carmichael. She was born in 1940 in Melbourne, Australia. While pursuing a career as a high school teacher in Sydney, she began her writing career with comedy plays and textbooks. She left teaching in the mid-eighties to become a full-time writer. In her native Australia she is known for her self-help and children's books. She moved to Los Angeles in 1994 after falling in love with an American woman, and now teaches not-yet-published writers through the UCLA Writers' Extension Program. She is best known for three lesbian mystery series featuring Inspector Carol Ashton, Agent Denise Cleever and Detective Kylie Kendall. She is the recipient of the 2006 Alice B. Medal.
From the publisher's website: Claire McNab has written over 50 books and is known in her native Australia for crime fiction, children's novels, picture books, self-help, and English textbooks. Her first mystery, Lessons in Murder, was published in the U.S. in 1988. Now a Los Angeles resident, she teaches not-yet-published writers through the UCLA Extension Writers' Program. She is the author of three lesbian mystery series featuring Inspector Carol Ashton, Agent Denise Cleever and Detective Kylie Kendall. She has served as the president of Sisters in Crime and is a member of both the Mystery Writers of America and the Science Fiction Writers of America. She lives in Los Angeles and is working on the finale of the Carol Ashton series, Lethal Care.
Claire McNab died on June 30, 2022, after a prolonged battle with Parkinson’s Disease. She also wrote under her real name, Claire Carmichael, an outpouring of children's literature, textbooks, self-help books, and plays. She became (and remains to this day) a renowned author of children’s books in Australia.
Claire McNab is the pseudonym of Claire Carmichael. She was born in 1940 in Melbourne, Australia. While pursuing a career as a high school teacher in Sydney, she began her writing career with comedy plays and textbooks. She left teaching in the mid-eighties to become a full-time writer. In her native Australia she is known for her self-help and children's books. She moved to Los Angeles in 1994 after falling in love with an American woman, and now teaches not-yet-published writers through the UCLA Writers' Extension Program. She is best known for three lesbian mystery series featuring Inspector Carol Ashton, Agent Denise Cleever and Detective Kylie Kendall. She is the recipient of the 2006 Alice B. Medal.
From the publisher's website: Claire McNab has written over 50 books and is known in her native Australia for crime fiction, children's novels, picture books, self-help, and English textbooks. Her first mystery, Lessons in Murder, was published in the U.S. in 1988. Now a Los Angeles resident, she teaches not-yet-published writers through the UCLA Extension Writers' Program. She is the author of three lesbian mystery series featuring Inspector Carol Ashton, Agent Denise Cleever and Detective Kylie Kendall. She has served as the president of Sisters in Crime and is a member of both the Mystery Writers of America and the Science Fiction Writers of America. She lives in Los Angeles and is working on the finale of the Carol Ashton series, Lethal Care.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 22, 2010
This book was so dreadful I finished it because it didn't seem possible there wouldn't be a few redeeming words in in somewhere. I was wrong. There weren't.
April 23, 2023
In the third book I've read by this author, and the third in this series, we find Kylie continuing her job of learning how to be a private investigator in California.
Kylie takes on a case for a grumpy Australian scientist who is studying the Quokka. She wants Kylie to go undercover and dig up evidence that a rival stole his research and stuff.
Interesting enough mystery, though Kylie was highly distracted by her lust for Arianna Creeling who keeps rejecting the idea of getting into a relationship with Kylie, but Kylie is very persistent.
Meanwhile, people either die and/or are threatened by death and Kylie investigates that in addition to her other investigation.
This is both a step up and a step back in this series. There were certain character related issues, mystery related plotlines, and relationship issues that I both liked and disliked in this book. This kind of fell into a particular trap wherein "everyone" reacts a certain way and this is conveyed in passing. As in, there's certain things that occur in this book where everyone reacted quite childish/juvenile even if that went against their character presented up to this point in the series ()
An explanation was given for why Ariana was acting reluctant to advance a relationship with Kylie and I liked how it actually seemed reasonable and made sense.
Rating: 3.65
April 22 2023
Kylie takes on a case for a grumpy Australian scientist who is studying the Quokka. She wants Kylie to go undercover and dig up evidence that a rival stole his research and stuff.
Interesting enough mystery, though Kylie was highly distracted by her lust for Arianna Creeling who keeps rejecting the idea of getting into a relationship with Kylie, but Kylie is very persistent.
Meanwhile, people either die and/or are threatened by death and Kylie investigates that in addition to her other investigation.
This is both a step up and a step back in this series. There were certain character related issues, mystery related plotlines, and relationship issues that I both liked and disliked in this book. This kind of fell into a particular trap wherein "everyone" reacts a certain way and this is conveyed in passing. As in, there's certain things that occur in this book where everyone reacted quite childish/juvenile even if that went against their character presented up to this point in the series ()
An explanation was given for why Ariana was acting reluctant to advance a relationship with Kylie and I liked how it actually seemed reasonable and made sense.
Rating: 3.65
April 22 2023
May 19, 2021
"The Quokka Question" had me Googling madly. I all my years I have never heard of a Quokka - I now know it is a type of wombat. Thankfully, we don't learn much more about them.
Kylie is hired by Dr. Oscar Braithwaite to prevent a rival claiming his research as his own. Then Dr. Braithwaite is murdered and Kylie has her work cut out for her.
In the meantime the intensely private Arianna Creeling, Kylie's true love and occasional lover, finally comes clean about the other woman in her life, Natalie. It goes a long way towards explaining Arianna's reluctance to get involved with anyone else.
"The Quokka Question" is best read as part of the series as it is a continuing story. Each book has a mystery all its own but the background characters, and there are many, all have lives of their own in the series.
Kylie is hired by Dr. Oscar Braithwaite to prevent a rival claiming his research as his own. Then Dr. Braithwaite is murdered and Kylie has her work cut out for her.
In the meantime the intensely private Arianna Creeling, Kylie's true love and occasional lover, finally comes clean about the other woman in her life, Natalie. It goes a long way towards explaining Arianna's reluctance to get involved with anyone else.
"The Quokka Question" is best read as part of the series as it is a continuing story. Each book has a mystery all its own but the background characters, and there are many, all have lives of their own in the series.
July 19, 2020
The third in the series this book continues the story of Kylie Kendall apprentice PI in LA. This is a very light read and the story is full of outlandish characters and Kylie getting into trouble as she learns not only the PI game but her new country. It is good to see these finally being converted to e-book.
April 5, 2022
Liked this the least of the series so far but still a fun read. Needed more quokkas.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews