Book Review: Dying To Call You

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Dying To Call You     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Elaine Viets
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Amateur Sleuth   Woman Main Character
Series: Dead End Job Mysteries
Signet, Oct 2004, $6.50, 288 pp.

Helen Hawthorne caught her unemployed husband having sex with their next door neighbor and in a rage she wrecked his SUV. The Judge ordered her to pay alimony because her spouse spent the last few years taking care of her and their home while she earned a six figure income. An irate Helen refuses to pay one cent so she leaves St. Louis relocating in Fort Lauderdale where she accepts dead- end jobs that pay under the table.

Her current job is a telemarketer at Tank Titan System Cleaner where the callers who pick up curse, hang up, and general humiliate her because they think she is as a low life. During a phone survey with Hank Asparth, he places the instrument down without hanging up; thus she overhears him arguing with a woman until she realizes that he strangled her. Helen calls the police, but they find nothing suspicions. She can’t let it go so she calls the victim’s sister Savannah to only to learn her sibling has been missing for several days. Helen believes that Savannah’s sister Laredo is dead and plans to learn the truth.

DYING TO CALL YOU stars one of the liveliest audacious and entertaining heroines to grace an amateur sleuth tale. She chose to become a fugitive because she believes in justice and opts to expose herself for the same belief. From going topless to stealing from the mob, this protagonist will do whatever it takes to prove Hank killed Laredo

The investigation is cleverly designed adding to the proof that Elaine Viets is a talented storyteller who keeps her readers engaged.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner