Elaine Viets - Dying in Style (Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper, Book 1)

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Table of Contents

Praise for Elaine Vietss novels

Elaine Viets has come up with all the ingredients for an irresistible mystery: a heroine with a sense of humor and a gift for snappy dialogue, an atmospheric South Florida backdrop... and some really nasty crimes.

Jane Heller, author of An Ex to Grind

Wit, murder, and sunshine... it must be Florida. I LOVE THIS NEW SERIES BY ELAINE VIETS.

Nancy Pickard, author of The Truth Hurts

Elaine Viets is fabulous.

Jerrilyn Farmer, author of The Flaming Luau of Death

[An] intelligent heroine.

Charlaine Harris, author of Dead as a Doornail

[An] entertaining new series with just the right touch of humor.

The Miami Herald

Its Janet Evanovich meets The Fugitive.

Tim Dorsey, author of Torpedo Juice

Dying to Call You

Viets writes a laugh-out-loud comedy with enough twists and turns to make it to the top.... In fact, shes been nominated for a truckload of awards this year.... There is a good reason why Viets is taking the mystery genre by storm these days... she can keep you wondering whodunit while laughing all the way to the last page.

Florida Today

Stars one of the liveliest, [most] audacious and entertaining heroines to grace an amateur sleuth tale.... Cleverly designed.... Elaine Viets is a talented storyteller.

Midwest Book Review

Murder Between the Covers

Wry sense of humor, appealing, realistic characters, and a briskly moving plot.

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

A great writer... simply superb.

BookBrowser

Shop Till You Drop

Fans of Janet Evanovich and Parnell Hall will appreciate Vietss humor.

Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel

Elaine Vietss debut is a live wire.... Helen Hawthorne takes Florida by storm. Shop no furtherthis is the one.

Tim Dorsey

I loved this book. With a stubborn... heroine, a wonderful South Florida setting and a cast of more-or-less lethal bimbos, Shop Till You Drop provides tons of fun. Six-toed cats, expensive clothes, sexy guys on motorcyclesthis book has it all.

Charlaine Harris

Fresh, funny, and fiendishly constructed, Shop Till You Drop gleefully skewers cosmetic surgery, ultra-exclusive clothing boutiques, cheating ex-husbands, and the Florida dating game, as attractive newcomer Helen Hawthorne takes on the first of her deliciously awful dead-end jobs and finds herself enmeshed in drugs, embezzlement, and murder. A bright start to an exciting new series. This one is hard to beat.

Parnell Hall, author of The Puzzle Lady crossword puzzle mysteries

A smashing success [that] contains wit [and] local color.... The heroine is a delightful mix of grit, determination and stubbornness.... Electrifying.

Midwest Book Review

This book is dedicated to the American shopperthose brave women who line up at the Target stores in the chilly dawn the day after Thanksgiving, the veterans of the August White Sales, and the fearless souls who face their peers seminaked in the dressing rooms at Loehmanns.

Acknowledgments

I live in Fort Lauderdale now, but setting my new series in my hometown of St. Louis gave me a terrific reason to visit my favorite friends and places.

So many of you helped with this book. I hope I can remember everyone.

Special thanks to Jinny Gender and Janet Smith, who gave me their valuable local expertise. Photographer Jennifer Snethen took detailed pictures of Maplewood and the surrounding areas.

Thanks also to Susan Carlson, Karen Grace, Diane Earhart, Rita Scott, and Anne Watts for their help and advice. Also, thanks to Valerie Cannata, Colby Cox, and Kay Gordy.

Special thanks to the law enforcement men and women who answered questions on police procedure and lie detector tests. Particular thanks to Detective RC White, Fort Lauderdale Police Department (retired). Some of my police and medical sources had to remain nameless, but I want to thank them all the same. Any mistakes are mine, not theirs.

Thanks to the librarians at the Broward County Library and the St. Louis Public Library who researched my questions, no matter how strange.

Thanks to public relations expert Jack Klobnak, and to my friend, Carole Wantz, who loves books and bookselling.

I also want to thank Emma, a special friend and expert on nine-year-olds, since she used to be one last year. Emma gave me deep background on what its like to be nine years old in St. Louis: what you wear, where you shop, what you eat and study in school. I wish I could use her name, but the world is a dangerous place these days for young women.

I also wanted to thank the many moms who generously took time to answer my questions about their hopes, needs and fears for their children. Their replies were useful and touching. They include author Laura Burdette, romantic suspense writer Allison Brennan, Amy, Cindy Bokma, Stephanie Elliot, Jennifer, Kelly, Kristin Billerbeck, author of the Ashley Stockingdale books, Lisa, Chris Redding, author of The Drinking Game.

Thanks also to Susan McBride, author of The Good Girls Guide to Murder.

Special thanks to my agent, David Hendin, and Kara Cesare, one of the last of the real editors, as well as the Signet copy editor and production staff.

Last but never least, I want to thank my husband, Don Crinklaw, for his extraordinary help and patience.

Chapter 1

Youre going to kill me, he said.

He was young, maybe twenty-five. Hed followed her outside with a sensual swagger, his Armani suit clinging to him like a wicked woman.

Fear wiped away the ugly sneer hed had five minutes ago in the store. Now he was alone with Josie Marcus in a mall parking lot in suburban St. Louis. They were lost in a sea of empty cars baking in the fall sunshine. The auto audience didnt care what happened to the man. Neither did Josie.

Im begging you, he said. Dont do it. His full lips trembled. They were such nice lips when they pleaded for mercy.

Josie tried to feel sorry for the man. But she remembered the way hed scorned her in the store. His upper lip had curled like a salted slug when hed noticed her cheap jeans. Hed made her feel sexless and unfashionable. Hed practically elbowed her out of the way to chase after a bottle blonde with jacked-up boobs.

How many other women had he treated the same way? Josie wondered. He deserved what was going to happen to him. A quick, painless termination was too good for him.

Im sorry, Josie said. Youve made too many mistakes. I have my orders.

He grabbed her hand. He reeked of fear, sweat and cologne.

Josie snatched her hand back, but not before she noticed his was softer and smoother. Dont touch me, she said, or it will be even worse.

Wait! he said. Sweat slid down his forehead. I dont know what they pay you, but I can pay you more. How much do you want? You want my next commission check? Its yours. And the one after that. Please, please, dont write that report. Theyll terminate me for sure.

She looked at his Save Chic name tag. Im sorry, Patrick, she said, but you know the rules. You are supposed to wait on every Save Chic customer, no matter what we wear. Save Chic knows that the modern jewelry buyer may not dress like a millionaire, but she could spend like one. I deliberately wore cheap jeans and a T-shirt, as the company instructed. But I had a Movado watch. Thats quality merchandise, Patrick. You should have noticed.

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