Murder as a Second Language

Claire Malloy, now a married woman of leisure, tries herhand at volunteering but instead lands right in the middle of another murderinvestigation.Longtime bookseller and single mother Claire Malloy hasrecently married her long-term beau and moved out of her less than opulentapartment into a sprawling, newly remodeled house. Her daughter, Caron, ismaking plans for college. All of this leaves Claire with something she hasn'thad in quite a while: spare time.When her attempts to learn French cooking startgetting mixed reviews, she agrees to help Caron and her best friend Inez fluffup their college applications by volunteering as an ESL tutor with theFarberville Literacy Council. But her modest effort to give back quicklybecomes a nightmare when she's railroaded onto the board of directors of thetroubled nonprofit. Vandalism, accusations of embezzlement, epic budgetproblems, and a cacophony of heavily accented English speakers are just the tipof the iceberg. Just as she decides that it might be best to extricate herself,Claire gets a frantic call from her husband, Deputy Chief Peter Rosen. One ofthe students, an older Russian woman named Ludmilla, famed for herunpleasantness, has been murdered in the offices of the Farberville LiteraryCouncil. For the first time ever, Peter actually asks Claire for her help.