High Heels Are Murder
Read High Heels Are Murder Online
Authors: Elaine Viets
Tags: #Fiction, #Mystery & Detective, #Cozy, #Women Sleuths, #Amateur Sleuth, #General
Praise for the Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper series
Dying in Style
“Fun … a fine, unique murder-in-the-mall thriller.”
—The Best Reviews
“I found myself rooting for Josie…. Oh yes, a really interesting mystery plot along the way, too.”
—Roundtable Reviews
“Will keep readers guessing until the end.”
—The Romance Reader’s Connection
Praise for the Dead-End Job Mystery series
“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.”
—Nancy Pickard, author of
The Virgin of Small Plains
“[An] intelligent heroine.”
—Charlaine Harris, author of
Shakespeare’s Landlord
and
Grave Surprise
“[An] entertaining new series with just the right touch of humor.”
—
The Miami Herald
“It’s Janet Evanovich meets
The Fugitive
.”
—Tim Dorsey, author of
Big Bamboo
“Elaine Viets is fabulous. I fell in love with her dead-on funny Dead-End Job mysteries, and so will you.”
—Jerrilyn Farmer, author of
Desperately Seeking Sushi
Murder Unleashed
“Elaine Viets knows how to turn minimum wage into maximum hilarity. With such a fast-paced story and nonstop wisecracks, never has a dead-end job sounded so downright funny!”
—Nancy Martin, author of
Have Your Cake and Kill Him Too
Just Murdered
“Helen herself is such a strong and likable heroine, readers won’t be able to keep themselves from cheering her on.”
—
Mystery News
Dying to Call You
“Viets writes a laugh-out-loud comedy with enough twists and turns to make it to the top…. In fact, she’s 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 ‘who done it?’ 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.”
—BookBrowser
Murder Between the Covers
“Wry sense of humor, appealing, realistic characters, and a briskly moving plot.”
—
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
“A great writer … simply superb.”
—
Midwest Book Review
Shop Till You Drop
“Fans of Janet Evanovich and Parnell Hall will appreciate Viets’s humor.”
—
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
“Elaine Viets’s debut is a live wire…. Helen Hawthorne takes Florida by storm. Shop no further—this 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 motorcycles—this 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…. 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
Also by Elaine Viets
Dead-End Job Mystery Series
SHOP TILL YOU DROP (May 2003)
MURDER BETWEEN THE COVERS (October 2003)
DYING TO CALL YOU (September 2004)
JUST MURDERED (May 2005)
MURDER UNLEASHED (May 2006)
Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper Series
DYING IN STYLE (October 2005)
HIGH HEELS ARE MURDER (November 2006)
HIGH HEELS
ARE MURDER
JOSIE MARCUS, MYSTERY SHOPPER
Elaine Viets
A SIGNET BOOK
SIGNET
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, USA
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published by Signet, an imprint of New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
First Printing, November 2006
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Copyright © Elaine Viets, 2006
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-1-101-58920-5
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
Printed in the United States of America
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
For my sole sisters
For
Dying in Style
, the first book in this series, Josie and I received the key to the city of Maplewood. We were honored. The key is framed and hangs in my office. Maplewood is indeed the right home for Josie.
Many people helped with this book. I hope I haven’t left anyone out. Thanks to my St. Louis experts: Jinny Gender, Karen Grace and Janet Smith. St. Louis public librarian Anne Watts did extensive research on various subjects, including gambling in Missouri. Jennifer Snethen took photographs of Maplewood to remind me that it is a storybook city.
Thanks also to Valerie Cannata, Colby Cox, and Susan Carlson, and to Kay Gordy, who knows all about two-year-olds.
I also want to thank Emma, my expert on nine-year-olds. She used to be one last year. Emma gave me deep background on what it’s like to be nine years old. I wish I could use her real name, but the world is a dangerous place these days for little girls.
As always, thanks and love to my husband, Don Crinklaw, for his extraordinary help and patience. It’s not easy to live with a writer, but he manages.
My agent, David Hendin, is still the best.
Special thanks to my editor, Kara Cesare, who devoted long hours to editing and guiding this project, to copy editor Jan McInroy and the Signet production staff, and to publicist Julie Samara.
Many booksellers help keep this series alive. I wish I had room to thank them all. Thanks to Joanne Sinchuk
and John Spera at South Florida’s largest mystery bookstore, Murder on the Beach, in Delray Beach, Florida. Thanks to Pam Marshall at the Hollywood Barnes & Noble, and to Susan Boyd in Plantation and Helen La-Forge at Fort Lauderdale. Thanks also to Mary Alice Gorman and Richard Goldman, to Barbara Peters at Poisoned Pen, to Bonnie and Joe at Black Orchid in New York, and David and McKenna at Murder by the Book in Houston. Kim, Jamey, Jim, and the gang maintain a book shrine for my novels at the Waldenbooks in Pompano Beach.
Special thanks to the law enforcement men and women who answered countless questions on police procedure. Some of my police and medical sources have to remain nameless, but I want to thank them all the same. Particular thanks to Detective R. C. White, Fort Lauderdale Police Department (retired). 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, and always answered with straight faces.
Thanks to public relations expert Jack Klobnak, to Patti Nunn, and to my bookseller friend, Carole Wantz, who can sell swimsuits in Siberia in January.
Killer Information About Shoes
“Josie, please, can I come in?” Josh was kissing her neck and her right ear.
Josie Marcus kissed him back. There was a deep silence, broken only by heavy breathing. “Sorry, Josh. It’s a school night,” she panted. “I have to be in by ten.”
Josh unbuttoned the tiny pearl buttons on her shirt, then kissed the tops of her breasts. “I’ll be very quiet,” he said.
More silence. More kissing. More panting.
“My mother’s upstairs,” Josie said breathlessly. “She’s got ears like a bat.”
“Come to my place,” Josh said. “There are no old bats. Just a big bed with fresh sheets and some very nice wine.” He flicked open the front closure on her bra and said, “Oh my God.”
Josie was glad the porch light was out. Her knees were weak. That must be why she was clinging to Josh. “I can’t,” she whispered frantically. “There’s my daughter, Amelia. I have to be home for her.” Josie refastened her bra.