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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN num: 9780451214928
ISBN number: 0451214927
Label: Signet
Manufacturer: Signet
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: May 03, 2005
Publishing house: Signet
Sale Popularity Level: 245066
Studio: Signet
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Helen Hawthorne's new job at a bridal salon becomes downright funereal when a bride-to-be's mother is murdered. Now, Helen must find the killer before this turns into another dead-end position for her-literally.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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This is the very first book I have read in this series. I thought I'd really like it, but I was extremely disappointed. It was dull and predictable. The vocabulary seemed odd like a person from other than the gold coast was speaking. Either the vocabualry was overworked or the author is British. It just didn't fit with the setting.
After reading other reviews, I am not giving up on the series, (I have already bought 3 others)Maybe the rest will be better.
Rated by buyers 
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Ruth Rendell and P.D. James write murder mysteries that are dead serious. M.C. Beaton (real name Marion Chesney) writes mysteries that are tinged with humor. Elaine Viets writes humour with a touch of mystery
added. At least this is so with her "dead-end job" series two of which I have read so far. Viets lived and
worked in St. Louis, Missouri before moving to Florida. So did her sleuth in this series, Helen Hawthorne. Helen is educated and had a high paying job in St. Louis; but she is now on the lam in Florida avoiding 'justice' back at home for reasons the reader will sympathize with. She takes dead-end, 'off the books' jobs in order to keep a low profile. In Just Murdered she works at a bridal salon where she meets a certain 'Kiki' Shenrad who is mother of a bride. Kiki is also the soon-to-be murder victim. We know early on about the moral character of Kiki. On pg. 2 readers learn that she wears no panties. On pg. 5 we learn that her pubic hair is shaped into a dollar sign.
Helen Hawthorne feels that she must solve the murder mystery in order to avoid being herself a prime
suspect. This she does after various twists and turns in the story.
Having lived in St. Louis and Florida myself I can say that Viets accurately if humorously describes some of
the mores of citizens of both places. Speaking of St. Louis, when we both lived there I always enjoyed
reading her columns in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, before she took up murder mystery writing.
Because reviews are subjective I shall set out my pre-existing biases. I prefer the works of Georges Simenon,
Colin Dexter, and the aforementioned P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. Were I rating Viets' work as pure
mystery writing I would give Just Murdered a 2 or thereabouts. Were I rating it as pure humour and for excellence of style I would give it a 5. Comparing Viets' work with my preferred mystery authors' work product is admittedly like comparing apples to oranges; but this explanation is the best I can give for my rating of 3 stars. It might help to say that I have already bought more of her books and expect to enjoy
reading them for the humour they contain.
Rated by buyers 
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These lite-mystery series books are a delightful change of pace from the usual books I read. This book moved along swiftly with just the right balance of intrigue and humor. I really enjoyed this story, felt sorry for Desiree, and did not figure out the crime until the solution was revealed!
Rated by buyers -
Many years ago I enjoyed Elaine Viets' columns in the local St. Louis newspaper and I was delighted to find her talents had expanded into fun mystery fiction. The "dead-end jobs" series is funny and engaging and always good for a quick read. This, the 4th in the series i think, has really developed. The characters are more real and believable and because of that I care more about them. I'm looking forward to the next!
Rated by buyers -
Helen Hawthorne's new job is at Millicent's Bridal Salon. Somehow Helen thought a Bridal Salon would be a nice place to work. Happy brides wanting to make their special day perfect.
That was before she met a running stream of Bridezilla's and their mothers. The worse is Desiree Shenrad, a true mouse and her tyrannical, rich and obnoxious mother Kiki, who not only makes all the decisions on the wedding, but seems to have even picked out the groom.
It doesn't seem that big of a loss when Kiki winds up dead, stuffed in a closet at the wedding. Except that Helen's fingerprints seem to be all over the place and the police are giving her a second look.
To prevent them from finding out who she is, Helen decides to investigate and discover who really wanted this mother-of-the-bride dead. Her ex-husband, her daughter, the prospective son-in-law, an actor that she wouldn't let take a part because it was degrading? What about Millicent, the bridal shop owner who had threatened her, or the chauffeur who thought she was leaving him a lot of money in her will, but was actually getting ready to dump him.
With this list of suspects, Helen hoped it wouldn't take too long to find the killer, or the police may just uncover her hidden identity first.
Highlights:
The mystery was pretty good, a lot of suspects and Helen does actually investigate and finds clues which lead her to the killer.
The romance of Margery - Helen's landlady and new resident Warren who teaches dancing.
We didn't have to read the long drawn out version of why Helen's hiding.
Lowlights.
This series has been improving since the very first book which I disliked, but this one is a set-back.
The mystery was ok, but not only is Kiki such a horrible person that you don't care that she gets killed, you also don't care about anyone else. I hated them all.
Phil - formerly Phil the pothead whose true identity came out in the last book and is now Helen's new boyfriend. I think Phil was a better character when he was unseen and only talked about.
Why do so many people in these books always have to be ridiculously polite, Phil letting his ex-wife, who is trying to get him back move in with him while she's in town, even though he knows it upsets Helen and he can hear her crying about it. "She doesn't have anywhere to stay, so I have to let her stay here." In real life you'd tell her to get a hotel and maybe, just maybe pay for a few nights there if she's pleading poverty.
I'm hoping that the subsequent book will be better.
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