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Helen Hawthorne is your basic Midwesterner. She's white, a touch overweight, practical. She's stuck in a job she loathes, a job that doesn't pay much and isn't going anywhere for her. But, being your basic Midwesterner, she doesn't complain much and because she's on the run, she tries very hard to stay below the radar. Helen is a sales associate for a veddy veddy exclusive dress shop in Fort Lauderdale. So what's a woman on the run supposed to do when she learns that murders are being rather casually plotted around her, and that there appears to be some other sorts of underhanded dealing going on? Helen discovers her boss is a thief and the last thing she needs is a police investigation and the publicity attached. What follows is definitely murderous, outside the law, and threatens Helen's hard-fought anonymity. Throw into the mix a raft of odd, strange and even weird characters, some of whom are customers and some of whom are cops. There's the odd mob-connected bystander as well. Throw in some upscale cars and boats as well. This is a falling-down-laughing-out-loud novel. It's tightly crafted, wickedly funny, and definitely not something the Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce will want to promote to new arrivals. Viets is a keen observer of the foibles of today's society, she knows how to pace a story and she writes outstanding dialogue. Her protagonist, Helen Hawthorne, in spite of a meddling mother and botox and collagen-loaded customers, manages to overcome all, though not without a little derring-do, intelligent detecting and a couple of good friends. I do think the author appears to have a bit of a fixation on the female bosom -- augmented or not. But the book is a delightful romp by an author really in control.
Reviewed by Carl Brookins, June 2004
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