Rating: 
Summary: Just so-so
Review: Potboiler; passes the time when there was nothing more interesting at the library. The cop boyfriend is a really cardboard character. A bunch of weird excentics. Won't check out any more. Try Ann Cranger or Deborah Crombie for a GOOD read.
Rating: 
Summary: Fun book to read
Review: this was a fun book to read & it kept you guessing. Claire sure knows how to get around a question when the police ask her something. She kept everyone guessing through the whole book & the ending is a surprise. Another wonderful book by Joan Hess
Rating:
Summary: a humourous and engaging read
Review: You could say that it all started about a month ago, when Claire Malloy, owner of Faberville's only bookstore, part-time amateur sleuth, and mother to sixteen year old Caron, helped deliver the baby of an (apparently) abused teenager living on the streets. But after having seen that the girl and her newborn son made it to the shelter for abused women, Claire never thought to see either them again. And yet here's the baby boy, left (literally) at her doorstep with a note from the mother begging Claire to look after her son while she tries to sort a few things out, extolling Claire NOT to contact the authorities and promising to retrieve the child in a few days. Unfortunately, the next thing Claire knows is that she's watching a newsclip on her TV of the baby's mother being arrested for murder! It turns out that the baby's mother is Daphne Armstrong, the only daughter of Faberville's own shady land developer, Anthony Armstrong. Daphne had runaway from home the previous year when she realised that she was pregnant and when her father had demanded that she have an abortion. Now Anthony Armstrong has been found murdered in his own study, and witnesses (who include Armstrong's trophy wife and her sister) claim to have seen Daphne fleeing the scene minutes after shots were fired, gun in hand. It looks like an open-and-shut case, but Claire is sure that Daphne is innocent of the crime. And so decides to investigate. (It's either that or risk being lumbered with caring for the baby for the next 16 years). But this soon proves to be a case with quite a few 'legs.' Many people had a reason to dislike Armstrong immensely -- like the members of Faberville's Green Party, who claim that Armstrong is bribing the planning commission in order to build at sites that should be preserved. Claire's good (and slightly eccentric) friend, retired school teacher Emily Parchester, has even decided (to Claire's dismay) to 'sit' in a tree until the planning commission rethinks it's decision to allow Armstrong to destroy a valueable corpse of trees. And then there is Armstrong's first wife and Daphne's mother, Sheila, whom he divorced and who received a very shabby divorce settlement. And of course one must not forget Daphne herself who had reasons of her own to resent her father... Soon, Claire is busy hanging out with Faberville's rich and trendy set as she tries to discover if anyone else in Armstrong's set could have had a strong enough motive to kill him and pin the murder on Daphne. But she also has to keep an eye on Emily Parchester, and make sure that she doesn't come to harm. As well as make sure that Peter, the police detective she's dating, doesn't get wind of what she's up to (they have a very complicated relationship)! And then there is Caron's (Claire's 16 year old daughter) strained and tempestuous reaction to what's going on... Perhaps Claire is juggling a bit more than she can take on? Joan Hess's Claire Malloy mystery series has always been a firm favourite. And I'm really thrilled that I can report with all honesty that this latest installment is as funny and as whimsical as the other books in the series. The mystery may take a little longer than necessary to unfold, and one really has to wonder about Claire and Peter's relationship, esp since she spends a lot of time hiding things from him and he spends an equal amount of time disapproving of her tendency to get involved in murder investigations, but most of the joy that one gleans from this series is in the characters -- old favourites that any reader cannot help but be engaged by, eccentric and funny (all of them) -- and in Joan Hess's wonderful and witty manner of telling a story. I loved all the sarcastic asides and ironic humour in the book. And I loved that Caron still speaks in capitol letters -- she's such a riot, and really adds colour to the plot. All in all, "Out on a Limb" was a wonderfully engaging and fun read that is bound to please (and amuse).
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