Dear Miss Demeanor

Amateur sleuth Claire Malloy heads back to school in a delightful whodunit from the author  Sharyn McCrumb calls “the patron saint of comic mystery.”

Agatha Award–Winning Author

At Farberville High, it’s reading, writing . . . and murder.

Who knows what evil lurks in the halls of Farbervilles’ high school—or what blackmail is hidden in Miss Demeanor’s Falcon Crier advice column? Certainly not bookstore owner and amateur sleuth Claire Malloy—until her daughter persuades her to substitute for disgraced column editor and journalism teacher Emily Parchester. Surely Miss Parchester cannot be guilty of embezzlement. But the petty charges graduate to murder when the principal gets his last licks from Miss Parchester’s peach compote. Miss Parchester herself, last seen at a local sanitarium, is suddenly missing. And now it’s up to Claire to find someone who’s been schooled in the fine art of murder . . .

“Hess’s books are funny, acerbic, touching, terrific.” —Elizabeth Peters, New York Times–bestselling author

“Joan Hess is the funniest mystery writer to come down the pipe since England's incomparable Pamela Branch. And oh, how well Joan writes.” ―Carolyn Hart, New York Times–bestselling author

“Joan Hess is one very funny woman.” ―Susan Dunlap, author of the Jill Smith Mysteries