Claire Malloy

Semiretired bookseller and former single parent to a challenging teen, the not-so-newly remarried Claire Malloy finds herself entangled in yet another case of felonious doings in this latest cozy.

Claire Malloy, for as long as she can remember, has been the local bookseller, owner of the Book Depot, and the widowed mother of teenage Caron, who frequently speaks in all caps. But her life has changed dramatically in recent years. Claire has married her longtime beau, Deputy Police Chief Peter Rosen. Still the owner of the Book Depot, Claire has passed the day-to-day running of it on to her very efficient employees. With Caron inching ever closer to college, there's but one thing that remains steadfastly unchanged - Claire's astonishing ability to attract, find, or even just randomly stumble across trouble.

Summoned for jury duty, Claire is humiliated when the prosecutor, harboring a grudge against her husband, dismisses her in a spectacular enough fashion to make the local news. As a result Claire decides revenge will be the next dish she serves. She hunts down the defendant in the case, a woman accused of murdering her husband, and offers to help prove her innocence. And not just because Claire wants to humiliate the prosecutor. There are only two problems: One, the defendant is looking guiltier by the minute. Two, the worst day imaginable has finally come - Claire's dreaded new mother-in-law is coming to visit, and life in prison is starting to look good.