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Helen Hawthorne has a real problem. She took revenge on her deadbeat husband's vehicle when she found him in bed with a St. Louis neighbor. He had been unemployed for a number of years while Helen, with a very good job, supported him in the manner to which he had been become accustomed. The male judge believes that she should keep supporting him to the tune of half of her six figure salary. She takes off with the knowledge that she has to fly under the radar of the legal system, so dead end jobs are her only hope and southern Florida becomes her new home. Helen's first job in her fugitive lifestyle is at Juliana's, a very exclusive dress shop managed by the snobbish Christina for an absentee owner. The green front door is kept locked and admittance is only to those who have style, flair, no extraneous body fat, and the primary necessity, the money to buy the expensive clothes and accessories. The clientele could be considered both hilarious in their materialistic attitude, but there is something very sad about all of these thin, brittle women. They think only of how they look and will resort to any means to achieve the perfect body and perfect face. Their goal is to get a legal commitment from the wealthy men with whom they are involved although these men have no use for legalities in making their fortunes. Helen thinks there may be something more than the selling of clothes going on as she observes Christina and her favorite clients. Are drugs being sold? Perhaps Christina is blackmailing some of her favorites. When Christine disappears, another customer is murdered and another attacked while helping out at the store, Helen goes into amateur sleuth mode. But she has to be careful about getting too involved or even taking the reward money because she must stay out of the papers. If her picture is in the paper, she may be forced to go back to St. Louis and resume her other career because her vindictive ex-husband wouldn't be satisfied splitting her less than lucrative $7.00 an hour. In addition to the mystery and the vivid denizens of Juliana's, Viets also gives us some marvelous characters in Helen's apartment building including her most helpful, chain-smoking senior citizen landlady, Margery. There there is the parrot lady, the hunk and the unseen pot smoking neighbor. This should prove to be an outstanding series. The author has taken it upon herself to be hired for a number of these low paying with not chance to get anyplace jobs. There are some wonderful treasures, however, for readers to anticipate. SHOP TILL YOU DROP is great fun that has us laughing about the complexities and foolishness of the human race as well as wondering how we might survive when all that was available to us were dead end jobs. I must admit that I miss Viets' Francesca, St. Louis and the newspaper, but the Dead End Job Mysteries certainly help ease the pain. Highly recommended.
Reviewed by Doris Ann Norris, May 2003
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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