Malice in Miniature: A Miniature Mystery (Berkley Prime Crime Mysteries) [Mass Market Paperback]

Margaret Grace (Author)

Book Description

Series: Berkley Prime Crime Mysteries | Publication Date: February 3, 2009

Good mysteries come in Miniature packages.

Miniaturist Geraldine’s nephew arrests a local for murdering her boyfriend. Enlisted to help find the real culprit, Gerry comes upon criminal artists who wish she’d mind her own tiny business.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Berkley; Original edition (February 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425225585
• ISBN-13: 978-0425225585
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,226,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

As CAMILLE MINICHINO I've published eight novels in the Periodic Table Mystery series and five in the Miniature Mystery series (writing as MARGARET GRACE). As Ada Madison, I've launched a new series: the Professor Sophie Knowles Mysteries. "The Square Root of Murder" was released in July 2011.

One of my favorite things is to chat with readers. I hope to connect with many of you.

BACKGROUND: I received my Ph.D. in physics from Fordham University, New York City. I've had a long career in research, teaching, and writing. I'm currently on the faculty of Golden Gate University in San Francisco, and on the staff of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. I'm also on the boards of the California Writers Club and NorCal Sisters in Crime, and a past president and member of NorCal Mystery Writers of America.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gerry and Maddie, the budding sleuths, are at it again!, March 5, 2009

By 

D. Fowler "Dragonfly77" (Vermont) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Malice in Miniature: A Miniature Mystery (Berkley Prime Crime Mysteries) (Mass Market Paperback)

Geraldine "Gerry" Porter had been an English teacher for twenty-seven years, but since she retired she was busier than ever. The excitement and satisfaction picked up a few notches when her son Richard decided to relocate his little family to Lincoln Point. Richard was an orthopedic surgeon and his wife Mary Lou was a talented artist, but the real love of Gerry's life was that little redheaded Porter, Maddie. She was an eleven-year-old tomboy, but that didn't stop her from enjoying dollhouse miniature crafts and, as her mother claimed, solving cases with her grandmother. If anyone had dibs on big time bragging rights in Lincoln, it was Gerry.

Gerry and Maddie were seasoned sleuths and had previously solved a couple of cases in Margaret Grace's (Camille Minichino) Miniature Mystery Series. In Malice in Miniature they would be facing their most challenging one to date. Gerry was in the process of making a miniature room box for the President's Day library raffle. With Maddie helping it would be a surefire hit. If they thought the small stuff was hard she would soon in for a big surprise!

June Chinn, who knew about Gerry's reputation as a budding sleuth, would soon need her help big time. Her best friend Zoe had been arrested for the murder of her boyfriend Brad Goodman. Things got kinky really quick. Skip Gowen, homicide detective, June's boyfriend and Gerry's nephew had made the arrest. Zoe Howard's prints were on that knife and she looked guilty. Real guilty. Things were getting very strange in Lincoln Point. She'd even been caught on film slashing up paintings. More than X-acto knives were being used in town . . . there was that big one stuck in the chest of a raccoon in June's driveway too. Gerry and Maddie had to turn away from the miniature world to the big time redoubtable world of murder. It looked like Zoe would be headed for the slammer permanently, but was she really the guilty one?

Mary Grace is a wonderful writer, but I was anticipating a real thriller with many twists and turns in Malice in Miniature and was somewhat disappointed and distracted with all the extraneous detail I encountered in the book. The crime 'n grime was excellent, but the clues were so far apart the book couldn't hold my interest. There was no tension in the storyline and everything just seemed to fall into place in the last couple of chapters.