High Heels are Murder (Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper, Book 2) (Paperback)

by Elaine Viets (Author)
Key Phrases: housewife hooker, fantasy room, mystery shopping, Olympia Park, Soft Shoe, Detective Causeman (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
From the Agatha Award-Winning Author of Dying In Style

Every job has its pluses and minuses. Josie Marcus gets to shoe-shop-but she also must deal with men like Mel Poulaine, who's too interested in handling women's feet. Soon Josie's been hired by Mel's boss to mystery-shop the store, but one step leads to another and Josie finds herself in St. Louis's seedy underbelly. Caught up in a web of crime, Josie hopes against hope that she won't end up murdered in Manolos.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Signet (November 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451219880
• ISBN-13: 978-0451219886
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #25,638 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 2 in The Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pull Up Your Boots and Wade In, July 23, 2008

By	J. E. Stephens "Jeanne" (Florida) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Josie Marcus, professional shopper, gets in the middle of another murder. She goes into a high end shoe store and discovers the wonderful salesperson really, I mean really likes shoes.

The busybody neighbor wants Josie to help her daughter, a longtime rival of Josie's because police suspect her in the murder of "the creepy salesman."

Excellently written. This book moves along quickly through the darker side of life in St. Louis.

I highly reccommend this book. If you like Elaine Viets, you will love this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an entertainging cozy, November 13, 2006

By	tregatt (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Mystery shopper Josie Marcus returns for yet another entertaining and intriguing mystery installment, "High Heels Are Murder," which, initially, starts off innocently enough with Josie being hired to discover if there was something really nasty about Soft Shoe's top salesman, Mel Poulaine, handling of the female customers' feet and shoes. The last thing Josie expected was that her report would have repercussions that would impact on her personally.

For as long as she can remember, Josie's detestable nosy neighbour, Mrs. Mueller, has looked down her nose at her. And for as long as she can remember, Mrs. Mueller's only daughter, Cheryl (who just happens to be the same as age as Josie) has been held up as a standard of perfection to which Josie could never aspire. So that when Mel Poulaine, the shoe salesman that Josie had exposed as a foot fetishist, and who was fired from his job because of his inappropriate behaviour towards customers, is found murdered in his home, the last thing Josie expected was for Mrs. Mueller to come knocking on her door, begging for her help. Bizarrely enough, Cheryl, Mrs. Mueller's perfect daughter, is the prime suspect in Mel's murder -- and not only that, but the police are also sure that Cheryl and Mel were having a sexual relationship. Mrs. Mueller is sure that this is not the case and that Cheryl is a victim of circumstance, ands she wants Josie to help prove Cheryl's innocence. Agreeing to help only if Mrs. Mueller agrees to get her mother the chair of two committees her mother has had an eye on for decades, Josie sets off, with her best friend, Alyce, in tow, to discover who hated Mel enough to kill him, and finds herself uncovering all kinds of dark secrets, addictions and perversions that the rich and powerful would kill to protect...

"High Heels Are Murder" was a very entertaining and engaging read. The mystery plot is well thought out, even if the suspense is not always there -- this may have something to do with the pacing which while swift enough, was a tad uneven. However, Elaine Viets did keep me guessing till the end as to who-did-it and why, and I didn't feel cheated with the way she tied things up at all. All in all, this was a fun read. I found myself mentally cheering for Josie throughout the novel, and would count "High Heels Are Murder" as another mystery novel well worth the money spent.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Something's Afoot!, November 20, 2006

By	Wallaby ")" (Flint Hills) - See all my reviews

The Mystery Shopper series gets better with each installment. This time Josie, the amateur sleuth is trailing the murderer of a shoe salesman with a foot fetish. For added fun, Josie discovers that her snobby childhood rival is involved in a most embarrasing way. Don't we love to take down the Miss Perfects in our lives! Elaine Viets, a longtime St. Louis columnist, writes with authentic local flavor and humor. This is not heavy literature-- it's just a funny and entertaining page turner.