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The open road. The wind whipping in your face. For both serious riders and the wanna-bes called RUBs--Rich Urban Bikers--riding a Harley is only part of the thrill. Putting on leather and acting out is the rest. Even Francesca Vierling, a St. Louis reporter who is a little too tall, smart, and sexy for her own good, is dressed to kill--for a biker's ball that will lead straight ahead to murder.
The victim is a woman who lived well, married bad, and divorced hard. For Sydney Vander Venter, going from high-society wife to tough-talking biker chick was only a phase. One she didn't survive. Now Francesca must find out who ruined the annual Leather and Lace Ball by killing Sydney. But with her career crashing, her love life sputtering, and another murder waiting down the road, Francesca finds out firsthand how dangerous it can be when you're born to be wild--and dare to live that way too. . . .
The victim is a woman who lived well, married bad, and divorced hard. For Sydney Vander Venter, going from high-society wife to tough-talking biker chick was only a phase. One she didn't survive. Now Francesca must find out who ruined the annual Leather and Lace Ball by killing Sydney. But with her career crashing, her love life sputtering, and another murder waiting down the road, Francesca finds out firsthand how dangerous it can be when you're born to be wild--and dare to live that way too. . . .
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 11, 1998
12 people are currently reading
227 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
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 13, 2010
3.5 This one opens with the heroine attending a biker's ball.
"A couple strolled by in a jaw-dropping getup. She was wearing nothing but black leather boots and a black lace body stocking. It was obvious -- in that outfit -- that she was a natural blonde. It was also obvious she had serious muscles.
'Who's that?' I said, awed by the raw display.
'That's Stephanie, Ms. Gypsy Tour,' he said. 'She's the woman who handled her bike best at the trials. She comes by her skills naturally. She's an over-the-road trucker.'
'That's quite a pair,' I said.
'She -is- built like a brick shithouse,' Sonny said, and his crooked grin slipped into a leer.
'I meant Stephanie and her escort make quite a pair,' I said.
'Oh, him. That's her boyfriend, Crazy Jerry,' he said, and shrugged.
Crazy Jerry was nobody I'd shrug away. He had almost as many muscles as she did, plus a flawless tan. I could tell because he was wearing only a black vest, black leather chaps, and a black Harley G-string. I looked, then quickly looked away. Almost every woman in the room did the same thing. It wouldn't be good for our health to stare too much at Jerry's stuffed G-string. Stephanie looked like she'd decked more than one man and wouldn't hesitate to hit a defenseless woman."
Francesca Vierling is a columnist for the St. Louis City Gazette, hoping to get a story out of the biker's ball (but I think she wanted to go anyway). Judging the "leather and lace" contest just adds to the fun, and the evening is a delight until she ends up at a murder scene.
Sydney Vander Venter could not have been more out of place among the bikers, and after causing trouble on several fronts is found dead in the alley outside. Now Francesca must find out what really happened, both to help her friends and because of her own need for the truth.
This is the second book in an excellent new series. Francesca is a fun narrator because in addition to following her investigation of a well-constructed mystery, we also get many stories and anecdotes about everyday life. I suspect the author's background as a columnist is coming out here, and I enjoy it.
"A couple strolled by in a jaw-dropping getup. She was wearing nothing but black leather boots and a black lace body stocking. It was obvious -- in that outfit -- that she was a natural blonde. It was also obvious she had serious muscles.
'Who's that?' I said, awed by the raw display.
'That's Stephanie, Ms. Gypsy Tour,' he said. 'She's the woman who handled her bike best at the trials. She comes by her skills naturally. She's an over-the-road trucker.'
'That's quite a pair,' I said.
'She -is- built like a brick shithouse,' Sonny said, and his crooked grin slipped into a leer.
'I meant Stephanie and her escort make quite a pair,' I said.
'Oh, him. That's her boyfriend, Crazy Jerry,' he said, and shrugged.
Crazy Jerry was nobody I'd shrug away. He had almost as many muscles as she did, plus a flawless tan. I could tell because he was wearing only a black vest, black leather chaps, and a black Harley G-string. I looked, then quickly looked away. Almost every woman in the room did the same thing. It wouldn't be good for our health to stare too much at Jerry's stuffed G-string. Stephanie looked like she'd decked more than one man and wouldn't hesitate to hit a defenseless woman."
Francesca Vierling is a columnist for the St. Louis City Gazette, hoping to get a story out of the biker's ball (but I think she wanted to go anyway). Judging the "leather and lace" contest just adds to the fun, and the evening is a delight until she ends up at a murder scene.
Sydney Vander Venter could not have been more out of place among the bikers, and after causing trouble on several fronts is found dead in the alley outside. Now Francesca must find out what really happened, both to help her friends and because of her own need for the truth.
This is the second book in an excellent new series. Francesca is a fun narrator because in addition to following her investigation of a well-constructed mystery, we also get many stories and anecdotes about everyday life. I suspect the author's background as a columnist is coming out here, and I enjoy it.
February 13, 2014
#2 in the Francesca Vierling series. This 1998 series entry by the author of the long running Dead End Job and Mystery Shopper series is a great read. The novel has a great sense of place, and that place is St. Louis, MO. Our protagonist is a compassionate columnist for a daily newspaper where she has to contend with sexist, elitist bosses and absentee owners. Oh, and the Leather and Lace Ball is a hoot!
Francesca Vierling series - The open road. The wind whipping in your face. For both serious riders and the wanna-bes called RUBs--Rich Urban Bikers--riding a Harley is only part of the thrill. Putting on leather and acting out is the rest. Even Francesca Vierling, a St. Louis reporter who is a little too tall, smart, and sexy for her own good, is dressed to kill--for a biker's ball that will lead straight ahead to murder. The victim is a woman who lived well, married bad, and divorced hard. For Sydney Vander Venter, going from high-society wife to tough-talking biker chick was only a phase. One she didn't survive. Now Francesca must find out who ruined the annual Leather and Lace Ball by killing Sydney. But with her career crashing, her love life sputtering, and another murder waiting down the road, Francesca finds out firsthand how dangerous it can be when you're born to be wild--and dare to live that way too. . . .
Francesca Vierling series - The open road. The wind whipping in your face. For both serious riders and the wanna-bes called RUBs--Rich Urban Bikers--riding a Harley is only part of the thrill. Putting on leather and acting out is the rest. Even Francesca Vierling, a St. Louis reporter who is a little too tall, smart, and sexy for her own good, is dressed to kill--for a biker's ball that will lead straight ahead to murder. The victim is a woman who lived well, married bad, and divorced hard. For Sydney Vander Venter, going from high-society wife to tough-talking biker chick was only a phase. One she didn't survive. Now Francesca must find out who ruined the annual Leather and Lace Ball by killing Sydney. But with her career crashing, her love life sputtering, and another murder waiting down the road, Francesca finds out firsthand how dangerous it can be when you're born to be wild--and dare to live that way too. . . .
May 14, 2013
As much as I really like the author's characters and plots, there comes a point when it reaches complete idiocy. I think I found that point. This book (although better than the mystery shopper series) could've been decent if the foreshadowing and maladies were toned down. Every chapter ends with some cliche about how things were going to go wrong. The main character has too much baggage and none of it unique. Terrible tragedy as a kid? Check. Dysfunctional relationship? Check. Crappy job with an unbearable boss and annoying co-workers? Check. Hunky cop? Check. It's like a chicklit whodunit checklist. Instead of being something readers can relate to, it feels contrived and annoying. I figured out the murderer and the motive within the first 100 pages, but kept reading to see how the rest of it turned out. Overall, not a terrible book (God knows I've read worse) but not great either. Just ok.
August 23, 2008
This is the 2nd in the series of Francesca Vierling, a reporter in St. Louis. This time a socialite has been killed at the Leather and Lace Ball that the bikers hold each year.
Francesa is in the thick of things again, nearly gets killed and almost loses her job. But she solves the murder (and I actually figured out who just not why!)
Francesa is in the thick of things again, nearly gets killed and almost loses her job. But she solves the murder (and I actually figured out who just not why!)
Read
September 9, 2011Francesca Vierling is quite the reporter; tough, savvy, and sentimental. She also managed to solve a puzzling mystery which started at the Leather and Lace Ball. I wonder if there is actually such a dance in St Louis.
February 4, 2016
Acerbic newspaper reporter sets out to solve biker killings. I thought some of the best parts involved the progatonist's conflicts with her supervisors and their toadies at the paper. Written in 1998, it incidentally captures the downturn in printed media. Includes a hilarious love scene.
January 15, 2012
A 40+ reporter who solves mysteries.., just don't overlook the obvious
February 6, 2013
Slow reading...Could not finish
June 22, 2016
Good info about St Louis, but really stupid crime novel, although better than the first one. I actually feel like I'm learning something,though, or I wouldn't waste my time.
June 17, 2012
boring, contrived, juvenie, I gave up. No more from this author.
Currently reading
March 18, 2018stopped reading when something better came along....will try again now
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews