Death by the Light of the Moon

What a wacky story complete with a fading mansion and all the people wanting a piece of this pie. The old home place rests in Louisiana with all the clichés of that area. The relatives meet to celebrate the birthday of Miss Justicia, only Miss Justicia drowns the night before her birthday and before revealing her new will to all her gathered relatives. Joan Hess does create a sense of foreboding and mystery, but the plot verves too off the path. The description of the setting sets the mood, but the characters flatly inhabit the pages. This series does not call me to continue reading.

Claire Malloy visits in-laws, murder in bayou

Library Journal Review: Summoned to the 80th birthday party and will reading of her eccentric mother-in-law, Claire Malloy, another series amateur, flies to the moldering Louisiana plantation home of her deceased husband. The motley assortment of greedy, shifty, and backbiting relatives she encounters there tests her patience and the limits of satire. The visit turns crazy as soon as the old woman, cackling, races her motorized wheelchair into the bayou and drowns. Then begins a frantic search for the will, for family skeletons, and for a murderer. Mostly tongue-in-cheek--as usual for the series--and mostly amusing.