A Conventional Corpse

Farberville, Arkansas is playing host to its first ever mystery convention. Sponsored by the Thurber Farber Foundation and held at Farber College, Murder Comes to Campus is playing host to five major mystery writers representing all areas of the field. Dragooned into running the show when the original organizer is hospitalized, local bookseller Claire Malloy finds herself in the midst of a barely controlled disaster. Not only do each of the writers present their own set of idiosyncrasies and difficulties (including one who arrives with her cat Wimple in tow), the feared, distrusted, and disliked mystery editor of Paradigm House, Roxanne Small, puts in a surprise appearance at the conference. Added to Claire's own love-life woes with local police detective Peter Rosen, things have never been worse.

Then when one of the attendees dies in a suspicious car accident, Wimple the cat disappears from Claire's home, and Roxanne Small is nowhere to be found, it becomes evident that the murder mystery is more than a literary genre.

• The Murder at the Murder at the Mimosa Inn (Claire Malloy Mysteries, No. 2)
• A Diet to Die for (Claire Malloy Mysteries, No. 5)
• Poisoned Pins (Claire Malloy Mysteries, No. 8)
• A Holly Jolly Murder (Claire Malloy Mysteries, No. 12)
• Death by the Light of the Moon (Claire Malloy Mysteries, No. 7)
• A Really Cute Corpse (Claire Malloy Mysteries, No. 4)
• Closely Akin to Murder (Claire Malloy Mysteries)
• Busy Bodies (Claire Malloy Mysteries, No. 10)
• Roll Over and Play Dead (Claire Malloy Mysteries, No. 6)
• Pride v. Prejudice: A Claire Malloy Mystery (Claire Malloy Mysteries)