|
World Hotels - Accessory to Murder (Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper, Book 3)
|
List Price: $6.99
Our Price: $6.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Signet
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780451222589
ISBN: 045122258X
Label: Signet
Manufacturer: Signet
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2007-11-06
Publisher: Signet
Studio: Signet
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Someone has killed Halley Hardwicke, the hot young designer of thousand-dollar Italian silk scarves, in the mall parking lot-and police have their eye on Jake, the husband of Josie's best friend Alyce. The couple lived near the wrap maven, but it seems Halley and Jake were a little too neighborly.
So Josie decides to do what she does best to help out her friend-go undercover and see if she can find some clues. Because this time, there's a lot more at stake than a scarf, even if it's to die for...
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Best of the Rest
Comment: This installment of Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper, was the best so far. One of Alyce's neighbors is murdered and Alyce's husband Jake is charged with the murder.
This book explores true human nature. We see what Alyce's neighbors do when she is down. Some, figuratively, kick her and rub salt in her wounds. Others are still kind.
Josie has a date with someone her Mom wants her to go out with as well as someone else, who is new.
I liked this book. It was excellently written. You will like it also.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I love this series
Comment: I think this book was great. I love this series and her other series with Helen. I especially loved the article at the end about mystery shopping. Believe it or not, very helpful. The only complaint I have is Alyce is not an especially likeable character and it's hard to picture her and Josie really friendly.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Much better than the average contemporary cozy
Comment: This mystery on the light side isn't pure fluff. There's substance here. Crafted with a sure comic hand, this book is enlivened with dimensional characters, and touches lightly but firmly on serious issues including racism, snobbery, rabid ambition and greed. In case anybody forgot, we can find real life, real art, real talent, real money - and real intrigue - in America's heartland, not just on the right or left coasts.
Protagonist Josie is a single mom who works as a mystery shopper to make ends meet in her hometown of St. Louis. Josie's assignments span American socioeconomic strata: from high-end boutiques in ritzy malls to grubby discount warehouse stores selling shoddy goods, from nice chain restaurants to horrid grease-burger joints. Many of them make for comic scenes.
"Accessory to Murder" involves Josie in her best friend Alyce's family crisis, and we come to know Alyce as more than a wealthy suburban wife and mother who cooks artfully in her big dream kitchen. When Alyce's unlikable husband is charged with the murder of a neighbor, Alyce and Josie hunt for evidence to clear him. It's not looking good for the home team: Alyce's hubby's been caught on tape meeting the attractive victim at a local hotel though he vehemently denies it involved sex. And before we find out whodunit, our heroines unearth even more dirt on the guy.
Someone wants Josie off the case: her credit card info is stolen and her home literally inundated with merchandise Josie didn't order. How better to distract a 21st Century sleuth than to tie her down at home clearing up the damage from identity theft?
That's not the only clever twist in the book. I usually don't keep my contemporary cozy paperback books after reading them but this one's going onto the shelf. I may reread it some day. It was that good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mystery Shopping Plus!
Comment: Josie Marcus is a mystery shopper with motive to find the person who is framing her best friend's husband for murder. Alyce Bohannon lives in a suburb with quiet tree lined streets, serves on committees and takes care of her infant son when she is not running around with Josie finding the best and the worst in retail stores. When Halley Hardwicke, Alyce's neighbor and an up and coming artist is murdered everyone is shocked. When Jake Alyce's husband is accused of murder Josie may not be sure he is totally innocent, but she doesn't think he hired a thug to kill Halley.
As Josie mystery shops and asks questions she learns a lot about Jake that points the finger at him, but learns even more about Halley's life and how the woman treated others as her career took off. While the ending was a surprise, it certainly ended with a bang!
Elaine Viets is a talented author who wowed this reader from page one. She knows how to take ordinary people and make them into characters that readers will want on their side. And how to create villains that hide their true colors right up until the end. This reader did not suspect the true killer until after Josie was in a compromising situation that ended the story with a bang.
The background information in this story was great! For this reader it was interesting to find a tale set in the city of Saint Louis. The references to the history and surroundings were interesting and unique and gave this story just enough realism to make this reader feel right at home with the characters.
Elaine Viets is definitely an author to watch. This is the third installment of the Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper series, and will definitely not be the last that this reader seeks out. This author will definitely be on this reader's auto buy list for the future. Up next from this talented woman is Clubbed to Death from her Dead-End Job series, and this reader definitely plans to enjoy it in hardback in May of 2008.
Review Courtesy of LoveRomancesandmore
Customer Rating:
Summary: How Well Do You Know Your Friends?
Comment: Jose Marcus is a mystery shopper. She checks stores, and the staff, out to see how clean the store is and how courteous the staff is. It's a hard job even though it sounds so glamorous!
In this book in the series, Jake, the husband of Josie's best friend, Alyce, is arrested for the murder of an increasingly famous scarf designer.
While Jose has no fondness for Jake, thinking that he is a terrible husband to Alyce, for the sake of her friend, Jose starts investigating.
One of the striking events in this book is when Alyce's rich neighbors snub her. She has been branded the wife of a murderer.
Once again, Elaine Viets has written a memorable, serious but fun, adventure. Jose is a wonderful character--the kind of person I'd like to have on my side.
Actually, Elaine Viets has written not only this series but also her "Dead-End Job" series in which Ms. Viets does the research by taking the job--whether it be as a hotel maid, a telemarketer, or a sales clerk.
You can't miss if the author is Elaine Viets. --Karen Dyer, Dublin, CA
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|