Half-Price Homicide
By Elaine Viets
3.5/5
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Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
When Fort Lauderdale’s wealthiest want to discreetly trade their best barely-worn threads for cash, they bring it to Snapdragon’s Second Thoughts—which is where Helen Hawthorne finds herself selling the most chic second-hand clothing in Florida.
But the usual haggling turns homicidal when a particularly petty customer turns up dead—dangling by a darling Gucci scarf—and Helen's boss Vera is eyed as a suspect.
Helen knows Vera can drive a hard bargain but can’t believe Vera would resort to murder. And while she would like to help, a sudden tragedy forces Helen to return to St. Louis—where she has the chance to face the past she’s been running from.
Now, if Helen doesn’t quickly deal with her fugitive status—as well as her own fractious family—she won’t make it back home in time to prevent the police from making a very unfashionable arrest…
Praise for the Dead-End Job Mysteries by Anthony and Agatha Award-winning author Elaine Viets
“A stubborn and intelligent heroine, a wonderful South Florida setting, and a cast of more-or-less lethal bimbos...I loved this book.”—Charlaine Harris
“Brave Viets preps by actually working the jobs she describes in loving and hilarious detail, giving her offbeat series a healthy balance between the banal and the bizarre.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Laugh-out-loud comedy with enough twists and turns to make it to the top of the mystery bestseller charts.” —Florida Today
“Fans of Janet Evanovich and Parnell Hall will appreciate Viets’s humor.”—South Florida Sun-Sentinel
“Wit, murder, and sunshine . . . it must be Florida. I love this new series.”—Nancy Pickard
“A heroine with a sense of humor and a gift for snappy dialogue.”—Jane Heller
Elaine Viets
Elaine Viets has written 33 mysteries in four series: the bestselling Dead-End Job series with South Florida PI Helen Hawthorne, the cozy Josie Marcus Mystery Shopper mysteries, and the dark Francesca Vierling mysteries. With the Angela Richman Death Investigator series, Elaine returns to her hardboiled roots and uses her experience as a stroke survivor and her studies at the Medicolegal Death Investigators Training Course. Elaine was a director at large for the Mystery Writers of America. She's a frequent contributor to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and anthologies edited by Charlaine Harris and Lawrence Block. Elaine won the Anthony, Agatha and Lefty Awards.
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Reviews for Half-Price Homicide
27 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5As always, Elaine Viets provides an enjoyable read. The story has a few twists and turns, setting the stage for more trouble from Helen's ex-husband.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Helen is once again up to her neck in murder. This time there is a murder where she works and a murder where she lives, and the police detective is bound and determined to prove that Helen is somehow involved. In the meantime, her ex has called and demanded money. When her mother dies, Helen and Phil travel back to St. Louis for the funeral and to straighten out Helen's divorce so that she will no longer be a fugitive.The Dead-End Job Mystery series has always entertained me, but this seems to be getting old. Helen is still running from the law, sort of, but certainly not like she was in previous books. Now her husband knows where she lives. Somehow, with the changes that have taken place over the last couple of books, the apprehension is no longer there.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5If it wasn’t for bad luck, Helen Hawthorne won’t have any luck at all.At least that’s the way it seems most of the time as Helen changes from one dead-end job to the next trying to stay one step ahead of her womanizing leech of an ex-husband, Rob. Helen is the heroine in HALF-PRICE HOMICIDE, author Elaine Viet’s latest installment in the Dead-End Job Mystery series.Helen’s current job is at a high-end clothing consignment shop in South Florida. Vera, the shop owner, buys and re-sales designer apparel that is to die for in more ways than one.A customer is found hanging by a Gucci scarf in the shop’s dressing room. The list of suspects includes the victim’s developer husband and a female county commissioner, as well as a neighbor from Helen’s apartment complex.With the police turning the shop upside down looking for clues and no customers browsing through the racks, Vera ask Helen to solve the murder so life can go back to normal. As Helen works on the list of suspects, another murder victim is found. This time it’s her neighbor that was in the shop and a suspect in the first murder.Helen’s unusual group of eclectic friends from the complex returns including apartment owner, Margery, whose love of outlandish outfits and chain smoking habits are a stable force in Helen’s life.To add to Helen’s stress, her mother had a heart attack with complications shortly after stopping Helen’s wedding and had to be hospitalized. When her condition takes a turn for the worse, Helen has to return to St. Louis to lay her mother to rest. While in St. Louis, Helen and her sister deal with their step father, Lawn Boy Larry, who tries to skimp on the funeral to save the money for himself.Helen starts making arrangements to get her life back on track and legal. But, before she can her ex-husband turns up. Rob’s reappearance causes Helen more heartache and worries, even endangering the future of her young nephew.Some how in the midst of all the craziness, including an attempt on Helen’s life; she and her true love, Phil, try a second time to get married.From the first introduction to the chic consignment shop to the thunderstorm on the beach at the end, author Elaine Viets takes the reader on a whirlwind ride of fun, excitement, mystery and suspense. Follow Helen as she tracks her way through the list of high society suspects, political intrigue, and porcelain pineapples.HALF-PRICE HOMICIDE is a stand alone book, although it is the ninth installment in the mystery series. First-time readers of the series won’t be left wondering what’s going on, but they will want to know all the crazy jobs Helen has had before, along with all the mishaps she finds herself in. Fans of the series will be reunited with some old friends and introduced to several new ones. In addition, they may find that the curse of Apartment 2C could be changing.For a fun time in a hot city, check out HALF-PRICE HOMICIDE. You‘ll never look at designer labels quite the same.