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.