BOOK & BLOG

September 17, 2005

Book of the Week: JUST MURDERED: A DEAD-END-JOB MYSTERY by Elaine Viets

Before I tell you why I enjoyed this book, I have to tell you that Elaine Viets (pronounced ‘Veets’) is one of my favorite people in the world. And if you think that’ll influence my comments on her books – sure, it will. But I don’t think I’d ever recommend a book to you that I didn’t genuinely enjoy myself. The concept behind Elaine’s dead-end-job mysteries is simple but brilliant. Elaine’s protagonist, Helen Hawthorne, takes a series of terrible jobs, where she’s getting paid under the table, in order to hide from her husband and the courts. Helen is a wanted woman because her deadbeat husband got the courts to give him a proportion of her (at the time) much higher income. She’s determined he’ll never make a cent out of her again, so she’s flying under the radar. Since she can’t risk paperwork, her jobs are at the very bottom end of the job spectrum. In “Just Murdered” Helen is working at a bridal salon, at the beck and call of every temperamental bride who wanders in the door, and Helen’s also at the mercy of her employer. If this sounds miserable, it is. And that’s not all; everywhere Helen works, there’s a murder.

Helen is a likeable character, though she’s not exactly a straight arrow. She’s stubborn beyond belief, too. But Helen is someone we always root for, because it’s easy to see why she’s picked her course of action. Any of the books in the series are good, and those of you who’ve had to take some of these jobs will enjoy Helen’s adventures. Helen’s been a chain bookstore clerk, a telemarketer, a dress-shop attendant, and next she’ll be a hotel maid. These are light-hearted books, but Elaine makes a point with each one.

Blog

My husband asked me what I’d do if I had more time to write each book. “More research,” I answered, without a pause. There’s something fun about doing research. It’s like working without the actual work. At least, it is, the way I do it.

Elaine researches her books by taking the jobs she writes about, herself. This is invaluable to her books, because the lives some of the people lead are revelations in and of themselves. Elaine feels she’s become a better person through examining the travails of the working poor. I can’t say the same of myself.

I like to look up things like costumes the vampires in the Sookie books would have worn in their human lives, where Bill’s regiment would have been stationed, what names Saxons had in the early centuries. Of course, this is passive research, but it’s fun, and you never know what by-way you’ll find to wander along. I spent one morning reading accounts of wolf-watchers in Yellowstone National Park, and I was happy as a clam. How this pertains to the Sookie books is a great stretch, but I was so interested I decided someday the knowledge would come in handy. It’s pretty easy to justify almost any messing around on the Internet I do, in that manner. After all, someday I might need to know about Goth jewelry, right? And you never know when the details of the findings in King Tutankhamen’s tomb will come in handy.

However, all this is the research of a dilettante. My hat’s off to Elaine, and to all the people who live what they do, even when they don’t absolutely have to. That’s a true learning experience.