Clubbed to Death

Dead-End Job Mystery #7

by Elaine Viets

Helen Hawthorne's latest dead-end job is in a country club's complaint department, dealing with the gripes of the rich and spoiled. Then Rob, her deadbeat ex-husband, sails back into her life aboard the yacht of his new lady, Marcella - known as the Black Widow for her string of dead spouses. The next day Rob's reported missing. If the Black Widow has such a murderous reputation, then why is Helen led from the club in handcuffs?

When Marcella helps Helen get released, the two form an uneasy alliance to find out what really happened. Helen's barely begun digging when a club patron is discovered beaten to death with a golf club - his membership permanently expired. Someone got more than a little teed off and it's up to Helen to get to the truth - without getting clubbed herself.

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, Cozy, Humor, Chick Lit, Mystery Thriller

272 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2008

About the author

As a young girl, Elaine Viets was taught the virtues of South St. Louis: the importance of hard work, housecleaning, and paying cash. She managed to forget almost everything she learned, which is why she turned to mystery writing.

Living in South Florida has not improved her character. But it has given her the bestselling Dead-End Job series. Like her amateur detective, Helen Hawthorne, Elaine actually works those rotten jobs. Perhaps her early training has given her a lifelong fascination with jobs. She and Helen both know working for a living can be murder.

To research her novels, Elaine has been everything from a salesclerk to a survey taker. Her first book in the series is SHOP TILL YOU DROP, a novel of sex, murder and plastic surgery. It's set at a fashionable dress shop that caters to kept women. Book two, MURDER BETWEEN THE COVERS, takes place at a bookstore. Elaine worked at a Barnes & Noble in Hollywood, Florida, for a year.

For the third, DYING TO CALL YOU, Helen works as a telemarketer. Elaine sold septic tank cleaner and did telephone surveys. She actually asked women if they shaved their armpits. In the fourth Dead-End Job mystery, JUST MURDERED, Elaine and Helen explore big-money matrimony for better or worse. Elaine did her research in Zola Keller’s posh bridal salon in Fort Lauderdale.

For the fifth novel, Elaine and Helen go to the dogs. MURDER UNLEASHED is set at a high-end dog boutique, where people spend two hundred dollars for canine cuisine, women sneak illegal pets into condos using high-priced designer purses, and the dogs at the store have bigger wardrobes than the salesclerks. MURDER UNLEASHED is Elaine's first hardcover mystery. Publishers Weekly calls it “wry social commentary.”

Although Elaine lives in Fort Lauderdale, her heart – and her viewpoint – remain in the Midwest. Like Helen Hawthorne, another transplanted St. Louisan, she observes the outrageously rich Florida culture (and lack thereof) with wide-eyed fascination.

Elaine’s second series takes her back to work in St. Louis. It features Josie Marcus, a mystery shopper and single mom. The debut novel, DYING IN STYLE, tied with Stephen King on the bestseller list for the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.

Elaine won both the Agatha and the Anthony Awards for her short story, "Wedding Knife," in CHESAPEAKE CRIMES.

Some honors don’t come with plaques and award banquets. Elaine was thrilled when her short story, "After the Fall," was featured on the same cover of the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine as the master, Ed Hoch.

Her short story, "Red Meat," is in BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS, the Mystery Writers of America anthology edited by Lawrence Block. "Blonde Moment" is in the MWA anthology, SHOW BUSINESS IS MURDER, edited by Stuart Kaminsky. "Sex and Bingo" is featured in the HIGH STAKES gambling anthology. And if you've ever wondered about the early life of purple-loving landlady Margery Flax, read "Killer Blonde" in DROP-DEAD BLONDE.

Elaine has served on the national boards of the Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. She lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with her husband, actor Don Crinklaw, where they collect speeding tickets.

Please buy her novels so she can pay her MasterCard.

Series:
* Dead-End Job Mystery
* Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper
* Francesca Vierling Mystery

Reviews

[Gail · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have gotten a little annoyed with Helen, the heroine of the Dead-end job mysteries. She has a great, handsome boyfriend who thinks Clapton is god, a lot of good quirky friends, and a good life. All she does is obssess about her asinine ex-husband. Her dead-end job is a little better paying which means she's more in debt because of the clothes and car. She works for the Superior country club in the customer care unit, fielding complaints from rich, spoiled people.
Anyway, there's a happy ending and if Helen had any guts at all, she'd go back to St. Louis (as her boyfriend says) and clear up her legal woes. But then she wouldn't have to worry about being caught and made to pay by her deadbeat ex-husband. She won't and what was once fresh and quirky has now become a tiresome "return of Rob-the-ex-husband" series.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Helen is on the lam and in a dead-end job. She works at a country club in the customer care office, dealing with insults, demands, and impossible members. One day, her ex (Rob) walks back in to her life, and the next day is believed to have been murdered. Naturally Helen is the prime suspect. But then, there's the new wife, who has 5 dead husbands. Is Rob the 6th?

This book is classified as a cozy on some web sites, but I disagree with that. Helen has so much anger and it shows throughout the book. From wishing people were dead to being happy that they are to beating the heck out of Rob's car - the book doesn't have the humor and lightness that many cozy mysteries have. While the book is well written, it's a bit dark for my tastes.

[Becky]

Finally finished this book. It was not very good, and I should have abandoned it long ago, but I kept reading. There were a few good chapters in the last third of the book, but everything was so dragged out. The book should have ended about 100 pages before it did. Not recommending it to anyone.

[Emmalynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I refuse to believe Helen is the highly educated woman the author tries to make us believe she is because wowwww. The fact that EVERYONE who hears why she’s hiding gives her solid advice and she refuses to see reason is just mind boggling. Ughhhh

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking for a light, fluffy mystery and this fit the bill. I didn't realize it was part of a series, but it didn't seem to matter that I hadn't read the earlier books. This is no P.D. James novel in terms of complexity or writing, and the mystery was easy to solve, but it provided a fun mindless read.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helen has been hiding from her former husband for several years but it appears he has found her. As happens with Helen people around her begin to die. Maybe her former husband has been murdered, or maybe he hasn't.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished the first time October 10, 2011. Enjoyed it just as much the second time around. Great cozy mystery series.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun. I am looking for the other books in the series as we speak.

[Missi Martin (Stockwell) · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Dead-End Job Mystery series by Elaine Viets is one of my favorite series. Clubbed to Death is the seventh book in this series and even though there are 16 books in this series I am going to continue to read them in order. There is something about reading books in a series in order, you get to know the characters and fall in love with them, or dislike them, you get to know the town and the area where everything takes place and you develop a strong feeling of belonging. You are not just reading a book or a group of books, you are taking up residency, developing a bond.

And the Dead-End Job Mystery series is a great series to get lost in. You are hanging out with the main character, Helen, at her apartment complex in Florida, next to the pool with her landlord, Margery, her boyfriend, Phil and her friend and neighbor Peggy and her parrot. You get to watch the sunset while eating snacks and drinking cheap wine. And you get to go with Helen to all her different dead-end jobs that she works to stay under the radar of her ex-husband, Rob, that she ran away from and will do whatever she can to not have to pay him one penny of her hard earned money.

Unfortunately for Helen nothing is easy and it seems that murder and death seem to follow her to whichever job she takes. In Clubbed to Death Helen is working in the customer care office of an exclusive country club. Even though she loves her co-workers and the view out of the office window, she does not like one of the bosses and all of the members of the club that call or show up to complain. Helen knows what it is like to have money, her previous live with her ex-husband, Rob had the money and everything it came with and she does not miss any of it. This job teaches Helen that valuable lesson. Sadly she doesn't come to that conclusion until her one boss and a member end up dead and Helen is poisoned and left for dead........

With the help of Phil and Margery Helen again gets in the middle of the investigation and will not stop until she gets to the bottom of things...... And when Rob is reported missing and Helen is the last one to see him alive and his wife, The Black Widow, wants Helen to find out what is going on, you will not want to stop reading !!! So I recommend having a drink and a snack handy when you begin reading Clubbed to Death or any of the books in this series, you will not want to stop !!!

[Lissa Smith Reads'~A Bookaholics Bookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

It seems luck finally landed on Helen in the job front and the ex-hubby department. This is the best paying job Helen has ever had. The cherry on top Rob is now some other woman problem.

Unfortunately, for Helen she spoke to soon. Not only does she still have that pesky problem of dead bodies showing up, this time she finds herself in teal hot water.

Her ex-hubby is missing, and for the first time she finds herself arrested with a world of problems on her shoulders and no reason to believe in the justice system.

It's A long bumpy ride fore Helen in this installment. But trust me, reading to the end is worth it!

[Janet Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elite Club Leads to Murders
This book is the seventh in a series. The books do need to be read in order to understand all of the nuances. In this episode, our main character is working customer service at an elite country club. Although it is still a dead-end job, it pays much better than minimum wage. And then the murders begin with our main character as a witness and/or suspect. It is a fun tale with many twists that all work out in the end. I enjoy that the reader can't really guess who did what before it is revealed. I have enjoyed ready this series and hope to binge-read the next group of episodes.

[Phair · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as much fun as earliest books in the series. Less of the antics centered around the motel where Helen lives among a cast of quirky folk. Helen’s life is now seems too settled and ordinary despite all the murders that continue to pop up. I still don’t quite understand why she is still on the run and trying to live under the radar. Maybe I read this one too fast under pressure of a f2f book group deadline. Not sure I’ll read any more of series unless I am particularly drawn to the type of dead end job Viets is writing about.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick and easy read! Helen takes us into a club for the rich. It’s a story about how money really doesn’t buy happiness in many different ways. I am enjoying how Helen’s story is progressing! Looking forward to see what come next!

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed Helen's wacky coworkers and the crazy customers at the country club, but I didn't particularly enjoy the prevalence of Helen's ex-husband in the story. His new wife, the Black Widow, is also a strange character that I thought had too large of a role in the story. This installment of the series is good, but not the best.

[Joyce Burk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Dead-End Job Mystery

I liked this mystery because it reminded me that I've never had such a pitiful job. I'm also excited that the author has finally introduced a good man for Helen to marry.

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Customer service can be murder

Another enjoyable Dead-End Job Mystery. This is 7th in a series, but can stand alone. I like all the quirky characters in this series. In this particular book the snooty, rich, but unhappy country club set echoes some people I have met.

[Catherine Childs · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect weekend read.

I really enjoyed the characters and the setting details. It was light enough to not get too gritty, but there were enough twists to not be predictable. I will watch for more of her books.

[Lucille Bransfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this quirky series. Helen is a great character and makes for some laughs. Even if she’s surrounded by dead bodies, she finds a way to give you a giggle. If you like a funny mystery this series is it. Quick, easy read.

[Lindsay InAustin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Helen’ adventures have gotten more sordid, she still won’t deal with her past, and will continue to stay on the run from a loser of an ex-. This series has run its course. Two stars for some interesting side characters.

[Jan Norton · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the series better books. Helen is working at an exclusive country club where people pay $20,000 a year just to belong. She works in the customer care department and has to deal with all the complaints and meanness of people. Her ex Rob shows up in this story.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again Helen and her crew have more murders and thief on there hands, It seems that maybe Helen is finally wising up to the fact that she needs the village to exist.
Such profound concepts are presented in the end. Will we ever know the truth......

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first book from Ms. Viets and it was a fun read.
I plan on reading more!
The characters are engaging and the romance is sweet.

I don't plan on retiring in Florida!
Or to any 'resort' community!

[E'Who'Reads'a'Thousand'Mysteries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Club pandemonia!

Another hilarious mystery in a high quality series! This varied cast of characters is wildly entertaining, the comedy is many giggles, and the storytelling is well done.

[Dominika Seichei · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun easy read. Amusing and a murder! Great book to read by the pool or at the beach if you're looking for a dark comedy.

[Dorothy Timm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually a 3 1/2 star, funny in spots, but kind of slow near the end.

[Grandma Mush · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the humor. Will read more by Viets.

[Lynn Gates · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gave it the thumbs up because it's just SO darn entertaining!!

[Kathryn Rothermel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun read, something a little different for me. When I just want some light entertainment, I will seek out other books by Elaine Viets.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this one, too. What a gal, that Helen, for putting up with the snotty rich folks.
Many LOL moments, too.

[Danae Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished my 7 book box set!