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On Top Shelf
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UNTIL IT GETS REAL
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Snowbound secrets, shifter wars, family lies, and epic battles — September delivers it all.

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Some promises cost you the one you love.

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The Temple of Kronos wants her dead. The Stoneslayer wants her destroyed. Neither will have her.

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A poisoned cousin, a five-year-old's life, and a family with too many secrets.

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Betrayal runs in her blood. Justice runs in his. Together, they burn it all down.

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"ANOTHER WINNER!"
From New York Times
Bestselling Cleo Coyle

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Running from her past, she finds a killer, a protector, and her faith.

Closely Akin to Murder by Joan Hess

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Also by Joan Hess:

The Painted Queen, June 2018
Mass Market Paperback / e-Book (reprint)
The Painted Queen, August 2017
Hardcover / e-Book
Malice in Maggody, February 2017
e-Book
Martians in Maggody, June 2016
e-Book
Pride V. Prejudice, March 2016
Mass Market Paperback / e-Book
The Merry Wives of Maggody, February 2011
Paperback
Closely Akin To Murder (Claire Malloy Mysteries), October 2009
Mass Market Paperback
Poisoned Pins, April 2007
Paperback (reprint)
Damsel in Distress, April 2007
Hardcover
Dear Miss Demeanor, February 2007
Paperback (reprint)
Death by the Light of the Moon, February 2007
Paperback (reprint)
A Diet to Die For, February 2007
Mass Market Paperback
A Really Cute Corpse, February 2007
Mass Market Paperback
A Holly, Jolly Murder, November 2006
Mass Market Paperback (reprint)
The Goodbye Body, April 2006
Mass Market Paperback (reprint)
Out on a Limb, November 2003
Mass Market Paperback (reprint)
Roll Over and Play Dead, May 2003
Mass Market Paperback (reprint)
A Conventional Corpse, August 2001
Mass Market Paperback (reprint)
The Murder at the Murder at the Mimosa Inn, October 1999
Mass Market Paperback (reprint)
Strangled Prose, November 1998
Paperback (reprint)
Closely Akin to Murder, June 1997
Paperback (reprint)
Busy Bodies, May 1996
Paperback (reprint)
Tickled to Death, May 1995
Paperback (reprint)
Deader Homes & Gardens, November 0000
Paperback / e-Book

CLOSELY AKIN TO MURDER
By: Joan Hess

Claire Malloy #11
Onyx
June 1997
On Sale: June 1, 1997
Featuring: Claire Malloy
272 pages
ISBN: 0451405617
EAN: 9780451405616
Paperback (reprint)
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Mystery Woman Sleuth

Veronica "Ronnie" Landonwood is phoning from Chicago to ask Claire for help in tracking down a blackmailer who threatens to expose her past. Ronnie had been in jail for murder but has rehabilitated herself into a prestigious scientist with a shot at a Nobel Prize - unless her sordid past hits the tabloids. Now she wants Claire to go back to Acapulco, where, as a teenager, she killed a famous Hollywood producer who tried to rape her. This eerie call gives Claire some uneasy feelings about where this odyssey might lead. Taking her sixteen-year-old daughter Caron along on the trip ranks as one of her less quick-witted Ideas... especially since both mother and daughter are likely to be confronting danger and/or jail. For some mysterious person in Acapulco, Claire's investigation constitutes a clear and present threat. And the winding road past is leading her toward a truth about the murder night that may proved to be more sinister than a teenaged Ronnie's desperate act of violence. In fact, its reverberations are still being felt - as body after dead body pops up wherever Claire asks a few leading questions. It's enough to make this nosy bookseller fear that the next corpse may be her own.

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