Elaine Viets, High Heels are Murder

High Heels are Murder

Elaine Viets

Signet, November 2006, $6.99, 288pp.

ISBN 0451219880

Josie Marcus is a single mom who lives with her own mother for a reduced rent, and she has a job she loves, even if it doesn't pay well. She is a mystery shopper, one of those anonymous customers who visit a store to learn why an employer gets too many complaints. An employer calls the firm Josie works for, and her boss assigns her to investigate Mel, a salesman at Soft Shoe. When she follows him to the back room and sees what he is about to do to her shoe, she files a bad report and he is fired.

A couple of days later Mel is found murdered at his palatial estate. Mrs. Mueller, Josie's nosy neighbor tells her that her daughter Cheryl has been questioned by the police because evidence shows she was there. Her neighbor hires Josie to prove her daughter is innocent. Josie finds Cheryl is a gambling addict, and is part of a slave fetish ring by Mel to make money for women who need extra money. When Mel's housekeeper is killed and Cheryl is connected to Mel's murder, Josie finds her life in danger from a killer who is protecting someone else and doesn't want Josie finding out and revealing that secret.

Elaine Viets has written one of the funniest amateur sleuth mysteries to come along in ages. Her protagonist is a thoroughly likeable person, a great mother, daughter and friend who does the right things for the right reasons, even when they make her uncomfortable. There is a lot of action in HIGH HEELS ARE MURDER, but the strength and the freshness of the tale lies in the characters who are realistic and believable.