Elaine Viets Murder Between the Covers Review

Overall Rating

Murder Between the Covers
Elaine Viets
Signet, Dec 2003, $5.99, 288 pp.
ISBN 0451210816

Once upon a time Helen was happily married, living in a mini-mansion and earning over six figures a year as a number cruncher. One day she came home early and discovered her husband in bed with their next door neighbor. After divorcing him she went on the run because she wouldn't obey a court order involving alimony.

She now lives in a tall old building in Ft Lauderdale working dead end jobs that pay her in cash. Her latest job is at Page Turners as a bookseller. The owner is a slimy married man who cheats on his wife in the back room of the bookstore. It comes as no surprise to anybody that somebody kills him but what shocks Helen is that his body is found in her neighbor and good friend Peggy's apartment. The police arrest Peg because she once had an affair with him and she vowed to get even with him for cheating on her. Helen is positive that Peggy is innocent and goes to some outrageous lengths to prove it.

Elaine Viets is a great writer whose characterizations are simply superb. In MURDER BETWEEN THE COVERS, she has created a tough, independent yet very vulnerable heroine who comes across as a believable person who stands by her principles even when they cost her everything. The victim in this case is so evil readers will wonder why someone didn't kill him sooner.

Harriet Klausner