Shop Till You Drop: A Dead-End Job Mystery [Hardcover]

Elaine Viets (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Signet (2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739434594
• ISBN-13: 978-0739434598
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,422,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I write my novels with the help of Harry, a striped cat who sleeps by my computer and lashes the keyboard with his tail. He whips me into a writing frenzy.
Harry collaborates on two series, the Dead-end Job mysteries and the Josie Marcus Mystery Shopper series. He's doing a good job -- I just signed a contract with NAL/Signet for two more books in each series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique blend, May 26, 2003

By 

A. Lively "self proclaimed girly girl" (usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shop Till You Drop (Mass Market Paperback)

of shopping in a snooty, upscale Boutique and watching CSI.

The main character, Helen has traded a lavish lifestyle to working in a clothing Boutique named Juliana's in Florida for minimum wage. The door always stays locked and is only opened for the rich and beautiful.

Helen discovers that Christina (Juliana's Manager) has a special relationship with each customer. She refers the best plastic surgeons, knows how to immigrant housekeepers and the perfect hit man.

Things turn sour when Christina is found floating in a barrel in the bay. Her customers are mournful, but more desperate to retrieve their secrets that Christina was holding. It's up to Helen to solve the mystery.

I knew that this would be a great read when I saw that Jane Heller called this book, "Irrestible, a heroin with a sense of humor and a gift for snappy dialogue" since Heller is one of my favorite authors.

If you like Heller's collection, you will love Shop till You Drop.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, May 12, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Shop Till You Drop (Mass Market Paperback)

Great book with great naration style. End is a little bit too 'clear', but it is not the most important part of Elaine's mistery style. Fort Lauderdale in its 'best'. More description of area and REAL life down there would be highly recommended in future installments.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "Dead-End Job" Mystery But Not a Dead-End Series, May 7, 2003

By 

Verna Suit (Silver Spring, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shop Till You Drop (Mass Market Paperback)

Helen Hawthorne has run away from her Missouri home and her husband of 17 years to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she has taken a job selling designer clothes to skinny rich women. When the body of a skinny woman of her acquaintance is found stuffed into a barrel bobbing in the bay, Helen is forced into the role of sleuth.

SHOP TILL YOU DROP is amply populated with South Florida "characters"-some endearing to Helen, some maddening, and some just plain odd. But surprisingly, they all come across as believable. Even Helen's reason for ditching a successful career to work for minimum wage makes sense once the reason is revealed. And her new identity as a lowly shop girl gives her authentic appreciation and insight into the world at the bottom of the heap.

Elaine Viets is a seasoned writer who knows how to tell a story. She kept me reading up to the very satisfying conclusion, when Helen deftly wields the dead-ender's secret weapon. This is the first in a new "dead-end job" series, and I eagerly await Helen Hawthorne's next work adventure.