Reviews for A Hard Bargain

From Publishers Weekly

After solving her first murder case in 2006'sA Case of Imagination, former North Carolina beauty queen and budding PI Madeline "Mac" Maclin is swamped with three mysteries in this charming but chaotic second installment in Tesh's cozy series. Mac's search for missing eccentric inventor Kirby Willet becomes ominous when she discovers that he hid a large sum of money before he disappeared. Meanwhile, a production company comes to Madeline's small town of Celosia, N.C., to film a horror movie, parts of which might feature the exterior of the house she shares with her romantic interest, Jerry Fairweather. But a death on the set makes the thrills and chills all too real. Finally, Madeline puzzles over the mysterious deaths of Jerry's parents two decades earlier. Tesh does a good job of juggling the various subplots, though the plethora of characters at times muddles the action.

From Booklist

Poor Madeline Maclin. The former beauty queen wants the people of Celosia, North Carolina, to take her seriously as a private investigator. She has already solved one case (A Case of Imagination, 2006), and she now has an office. She is also drifting toward romance with her friend Jerry Fairweather, despite his status as a relatively harmless scam artist. Things start to heat up when Madeline is hired to find eccentric inventor Kirby Willet, who left a box of money in Frannie Thomas' house. Then Voltage Films director Josh Gaskins comes to town to make a horror movie and thinks that Jerry's house is the perfect location. As if that weren't enough, the Pageantoids, rabid fans from Madeline's beauty-queen days, show up and try to recruit her for a new pageant. When Gaskins is murdered, Madeline finds herself in the middle of a murder case. Fans of Joan Hess' Maggody series will be happy to find a new sleuth on the screwball southern cozy beat.
 
Reviews for A Case of Imagination 

  Jane Tesh's debut mystery introduces a unique voice. Madeline Maclin is a North Carolina beauty queen turned private investigator. Since her career in Parkland is in the pits, she agrees to accompany a college friend, Jerry Fairweather, to the house he inherited in Celosia. Despite her distaste for beauty contests, she finds herself caught up in the local competition in Celosia, where every girl wants to be the new queen. However, this year's pageant is accompanied with disaster and tragedy, and Madeline agrees to investigate.

  In the meantime, her friend, Jerry, a fake psychic who refused his parents' inheritance, checks out his "haunted" house, and they both agree to investigate the hauntings experienced by a local poet.

  Madeline is a wonderful new character who only hides her love for Jerry from him. In the meantime, Jerry struggles with secrets of his past and a dying relationship.

  Publisher's Weekly called this a "cozy," probably because they had no other word for it. But, once again, Poisoned Pen Press has discovered a writer with an unusual character, one with depth of character seldom seen in cozies. I'll be waiting to see what happens with Madeline and Jerry.

                                                                                                                   Lesa Holstine
  
   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.  

                                                                                    Publishers Weekly 12/12/05

   In Parkland, North Carolina, her former employer and the person she leases her office from, Reid Kent blithely informs Madeline Maclin that no one would hire a former Miss Parkland as an investigator, but she plans to make Madeline Maclin Investigations a success though she has no clients. Her friend psychic Jeremyn Fairweather asks her to accompany him to inspect his new inheritance a home in nearby Celosia that he obtained from his late Uncle Val Eberlin, who the locals classified as a nut. Mac agrees while thinking Jerry looks sexy, but fears a rebound love following the debacle of a marriage to her former husband selfish Bill.

   In Celosia Jerry thinks of converting his new house into a psychic shop. Meanwhile beauty pageant director Evan James tells them he is having problems with protestors and ghosts so naturally Jerry and Mac become involved; he on the spiritual plane while she on the mundane realm. While his acrimonious girlfriend Olivia hates seeing Jerry and Mac together, they investigate allegedly otherworldly interference though the homicide seems more human spawned than supernatural.

   This is a charming regional who-done-it filled with eccentric characters including if one believes Jerry a ghost or two. The relationship between Jerry and Mac is terrific as fans will expect romance to blossom, but both also carry baggage, hers being her former husband and his being a dark secret. Once the audience meets the key players enough to understand much of their respective motivations the Celosia mystery takes charge of the story line leading the reader to wonder if there are spirits at play and will the two stars become a romantic entry or not.
 
   This is a first-class Carolina caper.