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JUST MURDERED
by Elaine Viets
Signet, May 2005
288 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 0451214927


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Helen Hawthorne, a woman who made a six-figure salary until her marriage ended in disaster, is on the lam and hiding in Fort Lauderdale. In this, the fourth installment in the Dead-End Job series, Helen finds herself working in Millicent's Bridal Salon, a boutique that caters to the rich regardless of their taste.

Helen quickly discovers that the wedding business is as crazy as any she's encountered when brides and their mothers re-enact their psychodramas in Millicent's fitting rooms. When Desiree Shenrad and her mother, Kiki, walk through the door, however, they set a new standard in bridezilla behavior.

Kiki is one of those Florida matrons you read about sometimes in the celebrity scandal sheets. She chooses her chauffeurs for her Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud based on their sex appeal, and every single one of her outrageous outfits and shenanigans seem designed especially for shock value. Her daughter Desiree, by contrast, is mousy little thing with a barbed tongue and a black hatred for her mother.

It's not much of a surprise when Kiki turns up dead as the wedding party readies itself for the ceremony. Dressed in an over-the-top Scarlet O'Hara costume complete with hoop skirt, Kiki tumbles out the bride's dressing room closet when Helen opens the door to fetch a gown for the reception.

Though there is no shortage of suspects in the murder, Helen was heard threatening Kiki the evening before and her fingerprints are, naturally, all over the crime scene. She realizes that she's a very convenient fall-woman for the murder, so she goes into overdrive investigating the homicide. Of course nearly everyone in Kiki's life is a suspect, so Helen's inquiry explores the unsavory relationships of some pretty unsympathetic characters.

The sub-plot in this book involves Helen's new love, Phil the Pothead, who lives in her apartment complex and has recently become her lover. His soon-to-be-ex-wife Kendra is inexplicably staying with him in his tiny apartment because she's playing a gig in town. Helen is hysterical over this arrangement and spends a good many pages wallowing in self-pity even though Phil offers many solutions to the problem.

This contrived story line is a great weakness in this book's otherwise smooth storytelling. Are there no hotels in Fort Lauderdale? Whining, ridiculously distraught protagonists lose my interest pretty quickly, as Helen does here.

JUST MURDERED depends on snappy dialogue and witty observations for its entertainment value, and here Viets shines. Never mind the thin plot, the savagely unlikable characters and the silly love-interest dramatics. This is an amusing cozy that will help you while away the hours of a lazy summer afternoon.

Reviewed by Carroll Johnson, July 2005

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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