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Francesca Vierling Mystery #1
Backstab
BACK STAB is a mystery about the newspaper business--which has always been murder. Now someone is killing off readers, and the St. Louis City Gazette can't afford to lose circulation. Gazette columnist Francesca Vierling takes these deaths personally--reliable sources are hard to find--and Francesca's search for the killer takes her into the strange side streets of St. Louis, including a visit to the Miss Gender Bender Pageant, a beauty contest for female impersonators. Along the way Francesca must determine if her own blood soaked past is clouding her view of the future.
320 pages, Paperback
First published September 8, 1997
34 people are currently reading
359 people want to read
About the author
Elaine Viets
81 books569 followersAs 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
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
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 19, 2017
I like to read crime fiction about newspaper reporters.
I've now read two of the four novels in this series.
I'm going to read the third book next.
I've now read two of the four novels in this series.
I'm going to read the third book next.
July 27, 2019
A departure from her more lighthearted series, but still a wonderful read.
May 17, 2020
Well, I was lucky to score a paperback edition of this title, since it is currently only available as an e-book. Thank goodness for online used bookstores!
It was worth the effort to find this book and it is vintage Viets. I love her descriptions of St. Louis and I had forgotten I had spent a day there on my trip back east in 2019. I went there purely to see the Arch and also to try the best ice cream in Missouri--Ted Drewes' Frozen Custard. It was a beautiful, sunny day (my last one for a long time on that trip) and the ice cream was worth the time it took to find a shop open in March. But I digress (though, Elaine, you do need to mention this shop in one of your books sometime!). I could really identify with the independent Francesca and I thoroughly enjoyed the drag queen contest scenes. The ending ensures there will be much more conflict in Francesca's professional life.
It was worth the effort to find this book and it is vintage Viets. I love her descriptions of St. Louis and I had forgotten I had spent a day there on my trip back east in 2019. I went there purely to see the Arch and also to try the best ice cream in Missouri--Ted Drewes' Frozen Custard. It was a beautiful, sunny day (my last one for a long time on that trip) and the ice cream was worth the time it took to find a shop open in March. But I digress (though, Elaine, you do need to mention this shop in one of your books sometime!). I could really identify with the independent Francesca and I thoroughly enjoyed the drag queen contest scenes. The ending ensures there will be much more conflict in Francesca's professional life.
May 29, 2017
I was in the mood for a cozy when I spotted this one. I knew the author is from St. Louis, which is my hometown as well. Although written 20 years ago, I still enjoyed the charm as well as the mention of many familiar places. I had no idea that Malden MO was ever considered a "rich" area. My husband's family hails from there, and the downtown Malden I know is far from prosperous! Think I'll go to breakfast at Uncle Bill's Pancake House!
March 1, 2020
I enjoyed Viets’ Dead End Job series and this has some of the same elements—a strong female character who is pretty cynical about human nature. Francesca, and the plot in this book, are a UT earthier than the Helen Hawthorne books but the story is good and kept me guessing until near the end.
August 8, 2017
Pretty Good
I enjoyed reading Backstab by Elaine Viet's. The plot is interesting and so are the characters. I will read the next book.
I enjoyed reading Backstab by Elaine Viet's. The plot is interesting and so are the characters. I will read the next book.
October 4, 2017
Fun read! Elaine Viets is from St Louis and the mystery takes place all over the city. I loved the use of the local areas.
December 14, 2013
#1 in the Francesca Vierling series. This 1997 entry is Elaine Viets mystery debut and predates her Dead End Job and Mystery Shopper cozy series. Newspaper columnist Francesca Vierling is drawn into the mystery surrounding the deaths of two of her friends in the same week. Her love of St. Louis shines through and there are some great vignettes within this novel. Having all the clues blatantly point to the same place, although it takes Francesca much longer than the reader to interpret one of them, is a bit of overkill. An enjoyable read, but a mixed bag on style and technique. I'm looking forward to a tighter construction in the balance of this short (4 entries) series.
Francesca Vierling series - The newspaper business has always been murder. Now someone is killing off readers, and the St. Louis City Gazette can't afford to lose circulation. Gazette columnist Francesca Vierling takes these deaths personally--reliable sources are hard to find--and Francesca's search for the killer takes her into the strange side streets of St. Louis, including a visit to the Miss Gender Bender Pageant, a beauty contest for female impersonators. Along the way Francesca must determine if her own blood soaked past is clouding her view of the future.
Francesca Vierling series - The newspaper business has always been murder. Now someone is killing off readers, and the St. Louis City Gazette can't afford to lose circulation. Gazette columnist Francesca Vierling takes these deaths personally--reliable sources are hard to find--and Francesca's search for the killer takes her into the strange side streets of St. Louis, including a visit to the Miss Gender Bender Pageant, a beauty contest for female impersonators. Along the way Francesca must determine if her own blood soaked past is clouding her view of the future.
December 5, 2016
Entertaining murder mystery that kept me guessing most of the time. But what I really liked was the St. Louis location. The author painted a very clear picture of the South Side which I really enjoyed having lived there for several years. I also enjoyed the side stories she told. True or not, I found them very entertaining and believable. What I didn't like was the way she told, rather than showed so much about Francesca and other characters. I certainly helped me understand why Francesca was so broken but it seemed like the easy way out. Still, I enjoyed story and might read another book in the series.
August 21, 2008
This is one of Elaine Viets' older series. This is the first of four books about Francesca Vierling, a reporter in St. Louis. Two people she knows are killed and while it appears like it could be random or natural causes, she just doesn't think that they could be and that someone must have killed Burt & Ralph....but who?
I thought the books was good, I think I like her dead end job series better but this was a good book and I have the other three to read so we shall see!
I thought the books was good, I think I like her dead end job series better but this was a good book and I have the other three to read so we shall see!
July 2, 2015
I like Viets' dead-end job mysteries, but Backstab is from an earlier series (dated 1997 and I had to buy it second hand). Excellent St. Louis atmosphere from the newspaper reporter-protagonist's perspective, and darker, more ironic, than Viet's later work, which felt genuine but not too heavy. Surprisingly contemporary plot involving murder of a transvestite and two other locals. Didn't take off until about half-way through, but it's not an especially fast-moving book.
June 20, 2016
Coincidentally, the day a family member was moving to St Louis, an entry from this series showed up in a BookBub email for 99 cents, so I thought, "What the heck?" I bought the four novels, of which this is the first, to get some St Louis flavor, and I did. (I've learned a great deal about the whole mostaccioli v ziti thing.) As a crime novel, it's ridiculous, but I expected that.
May 29, 2010
St. Louis author
November 10, 2010
I enjoyed this book. An easy read. Very similar to Sue Grafton's books, only with a journalist instead of a private detective. A fun break from serious non-fiction fare.
May 1, 2017
There were passages in this mystery which I really enjoyed, the descriptions of characters like the staff at Uncle Bob's and the drag queens taking part in the Gender Bender pageant. (If there isn't a pageant with that name there certainly should be.) I loved the detail of the bow on the back of Maria's dress to emphasize the "ass with class". There was a feeling of "here's someone I met while writing my columns and I just have to get him/her into the story" sometimes so that I wonder if the high number of characters was partly due to a desire to include favourite vignettes.
The gay relationships were very well drawn and the sadness resulting from broken partnerships created solid sympathy for the people involved, even when you fear that you're dealing with suspects. I would certainly look for any others MS Viets has written, especially since the St. Louis I have read about is much much older than hers and I enjoy journalism based characters, especially when you feel there might actually be some truth behind the writing.
The gay relationships were very well drawn and the sadness resulting from broken partnerships created solid sympathy for the people involved, even when you fear that you're dealing with suspects. I would certainly look for any others MS Viets has written, especially since the St. Louis I have read about is much much older than hers and I enjoy journalism based characters, especially when you feel there might actually be some truth behind the writing.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews