Dying In Style: Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper [Mass Market Paperback]

Elaine Viets, the author of the Dead-End Jobs mystery series, has penned yet another engaging mystery series, the Josie Marcus mystery series. This series features a young, single mother who has the thankless and grueling job of being a mystery shopper, and who, in this very first installment of the series, finds herself being the prime suspect in the murder of a young socialite.

In spite of the fact that it's a grueling and thankless job, Josie Marcus rather enjoys being a mystery shopper, seeing it as doing her bit to ensure that all shoppers (and not just the rich and famous) get good service. Also, as a single mother who had dropped out of college in order to have her child, there are very few jobs that Josie is qualified for. But even though Josie is used to being cursed and threatened by employees who are not doing their job, Josie is nevertheless shocked when her latest assignment, that of checking out the services at swanky Danessa stores, ends with her being suspected of murder.

Danessa Celedine, a much beloved St. Louis socialite, owns several high-end accessory stores that sell not only her much prized handbags, but also accessories of other, much coveted designers as well. And Danessa's stores are about to be sold to the Creshan Corporation for a great deal of money. However, before the deal goes through, the Creashan Corporation has hired Josie's firm to check out Danessa's operation in order to ensure that they are paying for exactly what they believe they're buying. Josie is thrilled: in the normal course of things, Danessa's expensive stores aren't exactly the kind of stores she'd be able to afford to shop at. But Josie's euphoria soon comes crashing to the ground when her investigations provides her with evidence that Danessa's stores are poorly managed and shoddily run. And while Josie has braced herself for the fallout that her report would generate, the last thing she expected was to have Danessa personally insult her and threaten her with a lawsuit. Could things get any worse? In Josie's case, yes. Especially when Danessa is found strangled in one of her stores the very day after her acrimonious encounter with Josie, and Josie ends up as suspect number one in the murder. Knowing full well that she's innocent, but deeply afraid that she will take the fall for the murder, Josie decides to do some investigating of her own in order to save her own skin...

Whether or not you totally enjoy Elaine Viets' latest offering is going to depend very much on whether or not you enjoy the manner in which she constructs her novels. "Dying in Style" follows set patterns that she usually uses -- a mystery subplot that tends to be a little on the "light" side -- i.e. it's not that suspenseful, and lacks the kind of cunning plot twists that would make it a thrilling page turner, and that focuses, quite often, on the trials and tribulations of the protagonist's life. What I liked about "Dying in Style" was that it was a very pleasing and absorbing read: it possessed gentle humour (I really enjoyed Josie's ruminations about brunch), two engaging characters (plucky Josie and her supportive best friend, Alyse) and had its moments of poignancy (as when the book explores Josie's loving yet troubled relationship with her mother, and when Alyse reveals how unhappy her marriage is). What I didn't like so much was the scant number of clues and how Josie was able to suddenly solve the mystery. However, pacing was even and the prose style smooth and fluid. So that all in all, "Dying in Style" turned out to be a fun 3 1/2 star read.

Josie Marcus shops for a living. She is a single mom and has an exciting job. She goes to different retail and service businesses and checks out their merchandise and service. Sometimes she wears disguises and always seems to have fun.

Josie gets a very interesting top secret assignment. She is to visit a high end handbag store. Based on her report all heck breaks loose. Josie has to solve the mystery to clear her own name and get her life back to normal.

This seems to be an entertaining series. I look forward to reading more.

"Dying in Style" is the first of Elaine Viets' books I've picked up, and while I enjoyed myself enough to try one or two more, I don't think she's going on my auto-buy list yet for a few things.

The characters are lively, the writing moves quickly and smoothly, but...several times times Viets telegraphs what's coming next with lines of "If she'd known three people would die within the next few days, perhaps she would have answered differently" or "Tomorrow, she would meet with betrayal." She's laid in some lovely forshadowing, building tension and leading us toward something bad happening -- then breaks it by holding up a sign that says "Look! Bad things ahead!"

It's a personal quibble, but one that really did affect my rating and keep it from being higher. Aside from that, fun book and worth the time.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 18 reviews  3.7 out of 5 stars