“Tickled to Death,” by Joan Hess

FM's ratings:

1.      Premise 7

2.      Prose 8

3.      Plot 8

4.      Characters 7

5.      Overall 7

Comments (optional - but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

This one is not quite up to the standards of most of Joan Hess’ works.  Sure, Claire Malloy is a fun first-person narrator, as always.  The rest of the characters are too wooden, just not all that interesting.   The twist near the end of the murder victim not being dead after all is a great idea, but it doesn’t pack the punch that it could have.  There’s just not much tension in this story, even at the end.  As a whodunit, it works just fine, but the entertainment value falls short.  Not to worry; there are plenty of really good Hess novels waiting in the wings!