Reviewer: Connie Payne
Title: Murder with Reservations - #6 in the Dead-End Job Mysteries
Author: Elaine Viets
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN: 0451221117 (Hardcover)
Release Date: May 2007
Genre/Sub-genre: Mystery Romance
Year/Setting: Present day - Ft. Lauderdale FL
Overall Rating: 5.0
Sexual Content Rating: None/Subtle
Language (Profanity/Slang) Content Rating: Mild/Moderate
Violent Content Rating: Moderate
Elaine's Website:
www.elaineviets.com
Helen Hawthorne has worked at a string of dead-end jobs in order to fly under the radar so her no-good cheating ex can’t find her. For some reason with each job come dead bodies. Perhaps this time she can breathe easy, at least for a while, as a housekeeper at Sybil’s Full Moon Hotel.
Or not. When she can’t breathe easy due to the overwhelming stench of the hotel dumpster, her luck gives out. She finds fellow co-worker and chronic complainer, Rhonda, dead in the dumpster. With the find come the police, who are quite suspicious that dead bodies seem to gravitate toward her, and the media, who have the power to broadcast her whereabouts.
Those are the least of her worries, though. Her ex has arrived in town and is hot on her trail. Of course her luck is so good that he checks into the very hotel where she works. With the help of her co-workers she has to dodge and weave her way through the hotel in order to avoid him.
Helen’s nerves are frayed. Room 323 is cursed, the police find her statements suspicious, her ex seems to be getting closer to actually finding her, her friend, Peggy, has fallen in love with the wrong guy and another body pops up.
And almost more important than finding the killer, her purple-wearing landlady, Margery, has a plan to get rid of the ex that doesn’t quite sit well with her. Yet if she doesn’t have to worry about lying low, if she can get a regular job with a real paycheck, if she wouldn’t have to worry about dead bodies popping up, wouldn’t it be worth it…? Is that what she wants?
You can practically feel Helen’s tension and panic as you read Murder with Reservations. There’s a sense of urgency to finish the book in the hopes that by doing so, Helen’s mind will be at ease and the killer will be caught that much faster.
With each subsequent mystery/dead-end job, Ms. Viets never fails to continue to add layers to the recurring characters and Helen’s personal and "professional" conflicts. The Dead-End Job mysteries always include several twists and continually entertains.
Now that there’s the possibility that Helen’s husband is out of the way, what does that mean for the Dead-End Job mysteries? Hopefully Ms. Viets has something up her sleeve…
Connie
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