A Case of Imagination [Paperback]

Jane Tesh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 2007

"On this nice July morning in Parkland, North Carolina, the office of Madeline Maclin Investigations might as well have been an Egyptian tomb: hot, dusty, and dead." It doesnat help that her landlord Reid Kent, does a brisk business...and briskly hits on Mac to rejoin his agency. He maintains no one will hire a former Miss Parkland as a serious PI.

Mac has been friends forever with Jerry Fairweather. Jerry claims to be psychic and is, unlike his two brothers, somewhat screwy. And he refuses to claim a share in the Fairweather fortune. But he shares some good news with Mac--his Uncle Val has died and left him a house. The two friends drive out to Celosia, a half hour away, where they discover a local beauty pageant in trouble and a house just perfect for setting up shop. A Psychic Shop. The arrival of lawyer Olivia, Jerry's shark-like girlfriend, rouses both Mac's interest in the mystery at the pageant and the one in her own heart. And then comes the first murder....

A Case of Imagination is Jane Tesh's playful first mystery, the start of a series by an author who admires Terry Pratchett, Martha Grimes, Carl Hiaasen, and P.G. Wodehouse.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Beauty pageant tomfoolery and psychic shenanigans add comic zest to Tesh's cozy debut. Madeline "Mac" Maclin, the former Miss Parkland of Parkland, N.C., is a struggling PI and a young divorcée in hot pursuit of clients and even hotter pursuit of romance with Jerry Fairweather. When Jerry asks Mac to check out his new inheritance, a spooky old house in the nearby town of Celosia, she jumps at the chance. Soon Mac finds herself investigating the murder of a contestant at the local beauty pageant as well as the haunting of a famous romance author's neurotic husband, though her slapdash sleuthing is more reminiscent of Nancy Drew than, say, Kay Scarpetta. While Jerry renovates his new digs, he contemplates launching a haunted B and B with Olivia Decker, Mac's main rival for Jerry's affections. At times Tesh writes as if she doesn't know where she wants to go—zany, romantic, serious?—but hopefully she'll develop a more consistent tone as she hones her craft in later entries in the series. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Onetime beauty queen Madeline Maclin is trying to get her fledgling detective agency in Parkland, North Carolina, off to a good start, but it is hard when everyone thinks of her as the former Miss Parkland. When her eccentric friend Jerry Fairweather tells her that an uncle has died and left him a house in nearby Celosa, she decides to help him fix it up. When they arrive, they learn that the house may be haunted and are further intrigued to hear that the local beauty pageant is under siege. After Jerry's greedy, on-again, off-again girlfriend, Olivia, shows up to see if she can profit from his real estate, Madeline decides to put her pageant knowledge to work looking for the saboteur who is destroying sets. Then murder enters the picture, and she really gets busy. The small-town southern milieu, busy plot, and good humor--a slightly frothier version of Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott series--make Tesh's debut enjoyable reading for cozy lovers. Barbara Bibel
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 229 pages
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press; US trade ed edition (January 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590583604
• ISBN-13: 978-1590583609
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,684,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jane Tesh lives and works in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, Andy Griffith's home town, a real life Mayberry. She is a retired media specialist and the author of three mystery novels, as well as numerous plays for children. When not writing, Jane plays the piano for productions at the Andy Griffith Playhouse and teaches aerobics and kick boxing at the local gym.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read!, March 18, 2006

By 

Orion "Orion" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Case of Imagination (Hardcover)

A friend recommended this book to me and I just finished it. It turned out to be a fun and captivating mystery-romp through the world of a small-town "beauty" pageant. The reader is kept guessing throughout which of this collection of characters might have had a motive to commit a murder (it seems any one of them could). All this is through the eyes and voice of the main character--Madeline, ex-beauty queen turned sleuth--who has two concurrent agendas: find the murderer and fer God's sake profess her love and enfatuation with her best buddy, Jerry. (SAY IT, MADELINE! JUST SAY IT!). Great fun--I see that there's another in the series on the way; I look forward to it.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Read, December 19, 2007

By 

C. J. Naugle (Northwest North Carolina) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Case of Imagination (Paperback)

With the Holidays driving me crazy, this book was a fun escape. The characters are well developed and you are drawn into their wacky lives. It's a tight plot and you won't get lost if you need to put it down for a day or if you can only pick it up for a few minutes each day. I was surprised that I could get into a book about Pageants, they are certainly not of any interest to me in real life but I enjoyed the venue in the book. A fun read!