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Claire Montrose #2
Square in the Face
Square in the Face is the second book in April Hnery's delightfully entertaining, acclaimed mystery series in which danger often takes an unexpected shape.
HAPYDAZEClaire Montrose can't believe her good luck. Once upon a time, she was a mousy employee in the Oregon State License Plate Devision with the odd job of deciding which vanity plate applications passed the good-taste test. Now she has a charming artist boyfriend in New York City and a quirky group of friends and family that keeps her happily settled in Portland. But when a former coworker and friend urgently needs her help, Claire agrees to do a little sleuthing.
HELLP!Years ago, Lori gave up her child to a secretive adoption agency. Now Lori's young son is ill, and the doctors say his only hope is a bone marrow transplant from a sibling. Lori talks Claire into finding her long-lost daughter. Unfortunately, as Claire scours the city for the information that could save the boy's life, she has little to go on besides her common sense and her own two feet.
MR. EThe closer Claire gets to the truth, the more twisted and perilous the search becomes. Using her wits, charm, and savvy sleuthing skills, she digs up old secrets--but someone is willing to kill to keep them buried. Meanwhile, Claire has a problem closer to home: a mother addicted to television shopping channels.
DANGRRRApril Henry's Square in the Face is a captivating, crime-solving adventure starring the inimitable Claire Montrose, a woman with the deductive powers and scrappy determination to discover the hidden meaning of any license plate and to rescue a friend from a desperate fate.
HAPYDAZEClaire Montrose can't believe her good luck. Once upon a time, she was a mousy employee in the Oregon State License Plate Devision with the odd job of deciding which vanity plate applications passed the good-taste test. Now she has a charming artist boyfriend in New York City and a quirky group of friends and family that keeps her happily settled in Portland. But when a former coworker and friend urgently needs her help, Claire agrees to do a little sleuthing.
HELLP!Years ago, Lori gave up her child to a secretive adoption agency. Now Lori's young son is ill, and the doctors say his only hope is a bone marrow transplant from a sibling. Lori talks Claire into finding her long-lost daughter. Unfortunately, as Claire scours the city for the information that could save the boy's life, she has little to go on besides her common sense and her own two feet.
MR. EThe closer Claire gets to the truth, the more twisted and perilous the search becomes. Using her wits, charm, and savvy sleuthing skills, she digs up old secrets--but someone is willing to kill to keep them buried. Meanwhile, Claire has a problem closer to home: a mother addicted to television shopping channels.
DANGRRRApril Henry's Square in the Face is a captivating, crime-solving adventure starring the inimitable Claire Montrose, a woman with the deductive powers and scrappy determination to discover the hidden meaning of any license plate and to rescue a friend from a desperate fate.
258 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
About the author
April Henry
34 books3,432 followersI write mysteries and thrillers. I live in Portland, Oregon with my family.
If you've read one of my books, I would love to hear from you. Hearing from readers makes me eager to keep writing.
When I was 12, I sent a short story about a six-foot tall frog who loved peanut butter to Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He liked it so much he arranged to have it published in an international children's magazine.
My dream of writing went dormant until I was in my 30s, working at a corporate job, and started writing books on the side. Those first few years are now thankfully a blur. Now I'm very lucky to make a living doing what I love. I have written31 novels for adults and teens, with more on the way. My books have been on the New York Times bestseller list, translated into twelve languages, and won the Edgar, Anthony, and Oregon Book awards.
If you've read one of my books, I would love to hear from you. Hearing from readers makes me eager to keep writing.
When I was 12, I sent a short story about a six-foot tall frog who loved peanut butter to Roald Dahl, the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He liked it so much he arranged to have it published in an international children's magazine.
My dream of writing went dormant until I was in my 30s, working at a corporate job, and started writing books on the side. Those first few years are now thankfully a blur. Now I'm very lucky to make a living doing what I love. I have written31 novels for adults and teens, with more on the way. My books have been on the New York Times bestseller list, translated into twelve languages, and won the Edgar, Anthony, and Oregon Book awards.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 5, 2018
Unique license plate puzzles. Filled with some humor, a bit of blunt truth, and a persevering nature until the very end
March 18, 2019
4/10 GOD SHE’S DUMB
Also it’s really dated.
Also it’s really dated.
May 15, 2020
It's been fun to read some of the first mysteries April Henry wrote.
August 11, 2020
fiction, mystery, contemporary, cozy mystery, adoption
March 21, 2024
Some implausibilities, but solid mystery with believable characters.
November 9, 2014
Henry's follow-up to last year's Circles of Confusion finds the clever, feisty Claire Montrose helping a friend, Lori Estrada, whose three year old son, Zach has leukemia. Before Lori married, she gave birth to a daughter she then gave up for adoption. Lori asks Claire to find the girl, who may be the only genetic match for a bone-marrow transplant to save Zach. So Claire returns from a visit to New York and her lover, Dante, a curator at the Met, and fakes a pregnancy to enter the Bradfor Clinic, where Lori's daughter was born. There, the mysterious Dr. Bradford provides financial and medical assistance to pregnant women who will relinquish their babies for private adoption. Claire locates Lori's records and four possible adoptive couples. Eventurally she and her housemate, Charlie, an 80 year old WWII refugee, hone the list to one -- reclusive movie stars Amanda and Kurt Price. Then Claire is threatened. Is she proving dangerous to Bradford Clinic operations? Or is the problem her invasion of the Prices' privacy?SHe finally convinces the Prices to cooperate but tests show that their daughter isn't Zach's sister. Undaunted, Claire returns to the clinic. Henry writes an absorbing and a time moving mystery with a lively heroine who is never early in danger and venal villains who are easily dispatched. Claire's bicoastal romance with Dante still must be resolved but that's for another book.
Not as good as Circles of Confusion. Very light. Not funny like Evanovich, not intriguing like Agatha Christie, not hot like Crusie. Just a plain, easy, pleasant read.
Not as good as Circles of Confusion. Very light. Not funny like Evanovich, not intriguing like Agatha Christie, not hot like Crusie. Just a plain, easy, pleasant read.
December 4, 2013
This is the second book in the Claire Montrose mystery series and it was much better than the first one. I'm definitely hooked now!
I found the adoption mystery to be a lot more interesting than the first book's art mystery, and even though I knew what was going on during a lot of parts, the actual ending surprised me.
On to the next!
I found the adoption mystery to be a lot more interesting than the first book's art mystery, and even though I knew what was going on during a lot of parts, the actual ending surprised me.
On to the next!
March 14, 2015
I really wish I liked this book more, but I don't. I liked the art theme of the first mystery. This book's young child with cancer was all too realistic for what seems to be a cozy series.
Claire continues to take people at face value and over-shares information. So, she obviously didn't learn anything from the first book. I'm also bothered by her insecurities and high school way of dealing with them. She's 37 and won't pick up the phone when her boyfriend calls? Really?
Moving on to #3 and hoping for an improvement.
(Read for library winter reading challenge)
Claire continues to take people at face value and over-shares information. So, she obviously didn't learn anything from the first book. I'm also bothered by her insecurities and high school way of dealing with them. She's 37 and won't pick up the phone when her boyfriend calls? Really?
Moving on to #3 and hoping for an improvement.
(Read for library winter reading challenge)
July 19, 2012
Really good book. I don't cry during mysteries very often, but this one had me really upset. I'll have to check out the last (first) one of the series. The plot involves adoption and leukemia in a child. Wheee!
September 6, 2012
Another good Claire Montrose mystery, with a heart-rending search and the danger that emerges because of it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews