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DYING IN STYLE
by Elaine Viets
Signet, October 2005
288 pages
$6.99
ISBN: 0451216792


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Josie Marcus is a single mom with an interesting job. She's a mystery shopper, which means she goes to all kinds of stores and checks to see if the service is what management expects it to be, then reports back. It's a great job for Josie because it gives her the flexibility she needs as a single mom, it doesn't chain her to a desk and a navy blue suit, and it certainly isn't boring. Personally, I'm not sure how it pays enough to support anyone, but then this is fiction.

Josie's latest job is to check out the Danessa stores at three different malls in the greater St. Louis area. Danessa Celedine, a high-profile local beauty, created exquisite purses and sells them at her three stores, along with other designer handbags. She is also a local philanthropist, giving lots of very public dollars to local charities, and is frequently seen on the society pages with her Russian lover, Serge Orloff.

Danessa's stores are in the process of being bought by a conglomerate, Creshan Corporation. Creshan has hired the firm for which Josie works to check out the service at Danessa's stores. Creshan won't like the result; all three stores are dirty, and the help is less than helpful. Danessa is mightily ticked off, and lets Josie's boss know this in no uncertain terms.

Danessa is found strangled with a snakeskin belt, which is covered with Josie's fingerprints. There is a reasonable explanation for this, although the police seem unconvinced. Serge is found dead about the same time, a nasty head wound that bled out. Josie fails the polygraph; again, there is a reasonable explanation for this, which the police don't buy.

Josie's best friend Alyce lives down the street from Danessa and Serge in an up-scale subdivision, along with some lovely minor characters like Amy the Slut and Saint Kate (does Viets read Damon Runyan?). Alyce helps Josie in her efforts to determine who the murderer is. There are lots of people with motives. Serge slept around. Danessa was a witch on wheels, hell on the help.

Naturally, Josie's life is not on hold while she is detecting. She has to work, at least a little bit. Her mother Jane keeps trying to set her up with a neighbor, Stan, who is sooooo boring and unattractive to Josie -- and Josie has the hots for a barista at the local Has Beans coffee shop. Alyce is having marital problems. Jane is not herself, although Josie isn't really paying attention until quite late in the book.

DYING IN STYLE is an amusing book, for the most part. I got a little tired of Josie's endless dithering about how she wasn't what her mother wanted, her worries about the most amazingly petty things, her almost constant justification of her lifestyle and job . . . OK, we get it. Move along.

I did like Josie most of the time, and thought that the situations in which she found herself were plausible and uncontrived. Viets does a good job keeping the characters from being too stereotyped, even Amy the Slut. The scene with Saint Kate and the burial by the 'For Sale' sign was very funny.

I also enjoyed the descriptions of the various "mystery shopper" scenarios -- the Pleasin' Pizza job, for instance, as well as the Danessa boutiques. Viets doesn't go into a great deal of detail about how the finances work in this job, which I was curious about, but being a mystery shopper will certainly give Josie plenty of plausible (well, almost) opportunities to get into more trouble in the future.

Viets also writes the Dead End Job series; if you enjoy those, I can't imagine you won't like Josie Marcus and her adventures. If Stephanie Plum and her sort are your kind of mystery heroines, then pick up Viets and enjoy yourself. Plenty of humor, some shopping tips, and a plucky heroine with some romantic possibilities -- my kind of light reading!

Reviewed by P. J. Coldren, April 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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