Elaine Viets Books In Order

Backstab

Columnist Francesca Vierling knows that reliable sources are hard to find, and now it’s harder than ever, as her sources are suddenly coming up dead. Francesca’s search for the killer takes her into the seamiest sidestreets of St. Louis and back into a blood stained past that threatens to cloud her future.

Rubout

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…
. From the Paperback edition.

The Pink Flamingo Murders

Whacked with a lawn flamingo? A reporter wants to know who killed with kitsch…
The rehabilitation of North Dakota Place is a feel good story the kind St. Louis City Gazette columnist Francesca Vierling likes to write. Grand houses restored to former glory. Pride in a neighborhood and, like all good stories, this one has a hero, the woman who made it all happen, the city’s guardian of good taste. Some call her a rehabbing saint, others a fanatic. The first death on North Dakota Place was certainly shocking but not entirely unwelcome after all, the victim was a cranky old man who had been painting his house purple. The second death, of a drug dealer, brings tacit approval and growing suspicion. But all bets are off when another victim is found, a socialite unceremoniously whacked with a pink lawn flamingo. Now the neighbors want Francesca to investigate. But her boyfriend wants her to commit to marriage, not crime. Soon the gutsy reporter is experiencing a deepening personal crisis and something more heinous than vinyl siding: the dark secrets of heart, home, and blighted dreams. From the Paperback edition.

Doc in the Box

Did the doctor’s callous bedside manner give a patient the urge to kill?

It takes a truly sneaky person to keep a secret in a newsroom. St. Louis City Gazette columnist Francesca Vierling is just the woman to do it especially to help hide her editor’s bout with breast cancer. Now she’s surreptitiously shuttling the editor to chemotherapy while finishing a column on gorgeous male stripper Leo D. Nardo. And it’s all going without a hitch…
.

Until Leo disappears and somebody starts shooting the worst doctors in St. Louis. The first M.D. to go has a callous bedside manner that gives all his patients the urge to kill.

The next victim is a master of misdiagnosis. As long as bad doctors are targets, the public isn’t shedding a tear. But when Francesca herself is nearly gunned down, is it because she’s hunting for Leo’s hot body or a cold blooded killer? Either way she has an adverse reaction to dying. The antidote? Discover the truth…

Shop Till You Drop

Once on the fast track to success, Helen Hawthorne is now going nowhere fast. She traded in her chic life for a shabby one. And now she’s on the run, jumping from city to city and dead end job to dead end job, trying to stay one step ahead of her past…

After two weeks as the new salesclerk at Juliana’s, Fort Lauderdale’s ultra exclusive clothing boutique, Helen still feels out of fashion. And since the only crime likely to be committed around here is being old or worse, looking old Helen figures she’s safe. Until she discovers the manager has been embezzling money and selling designer drugs along with the designer clothes. Add murder to the mix and Helen’s dead end job is downright deadly.

Murder Between the Covers

Helen has a new job ‘off the books’ at Page Turners bookstore in Fort Lauderdale…
until the owner is murdered. But since the arrogant Page Turner III had so many enemies, Helen will have to read between the lines to uncover the truth about a clever killer.

Dying to Call You

Helen Hawthorne has just found her new calling as a telemarketer, and before long she’s disrupting dinners all over the country. But during a phone survey to the home of Henry Asporth, she’s the one who gets an earful when she overhears an argument, followed by a scream and then dead air. Available only in Mystery 4.

Just Murdered

Helen Hawthorne’s new job at a bridal salon becomes downright funereal when a bride to be’s mother is murdered. Now, Helen must find the killer before this turns into another dead end position for her literally.

Murder Unleashed

With a r sum that includes attempted assault and alimony evasion, Helen Hawthorne has no choice but to take on a series of dead end jobs to make ends meet. At the Pampered Pet Boutique, Helen hustles a selection of canine cuisine and couture that beats anything in her own fridge or closet. And when Helen goes to deliver a dog to a client, she finds the blonde trophy wife stretchedout naked by her pool, a pair of ten inch grooming scissors sticking out of her chest. Later that same day, a valuable labradoodle puppy is kidnapped from the boutique. All eyes turn to Helen as the main suspect, and with a hurricane headed straight for South Florida, Helen’s got to find the killer and come clean, or else her new life will be gone with the wind.

Murder with Reservations

Helen Hawthorne has a knack for keeping a low profile. But in South Florida, it’s going to get a lot harder to fly under the radar…

Working at Sybil’s Full Moon Hotel in Fort Lauderdale keeps Helen safe and sane. But when a maid is found dead in a Dumpster, those days just might be over. Dead bodies mean another chance for the cops to find her. To make matters worse, her ex husband is hot on her trail. Sadly, the cops don’t seem to care much about a murdered maid but they take notice of her coworker’s shady story. If Helen doesn’t manage to dodge their questions and shake off her ex, it could be checkout time.

Clubbed to Death

The national bestselling author who turns minimum wage into maximum hilarity Nancy Martin, author of Murder Melts in Your Mouth reveals the lifestyles of the rich and murdered

Helen Hawthorne’s latest dead end job is in a country club s complaint department, dealing with the gripes of the rich and spoiled. Then Rob, her deadbeat ex husband, sails back into her life aboard the yacht of his new lady, Marcella known as the Black Widow for her string of dead spouses. The next day Rob s reported missing. If the Black Widow has such a murderous reputation, then why is Helen led from the club in handcuffs?

When Marcella helps Helen get released, the two form an uneasy alliance to find out what really happened. Helen s barely begun digging when a club patron is discovered beaten to death with a golf club his membership permanently expired. Someone got more than a little teed off and it s up to Helen to get to the truth without getting clubbed herself

Killer Cuts

The national bestselling author who turns ‘minimum wage into maximum hilarity’ Nancy Martin, author of Murder Melts in Your Mouth presents a hair raising murder mystery of do or dye…
Helen Hawthorne’s latest dead end job is in Miguel Angel’s Fort Lauderdale hair salon, where a trim can cost as much as a car payment and a blowout can wipe you out. But when one of the salon’s most famous clients, gossip blogger and cable TV show host Kingman ‘King’ Oden is murdered at his own wedding, things get a little hairy and King becomes the prime suspect. To save her boss and her job Helen is determined to find the murderer. When she finds herself the target of threatening notes, it’s more imperative than ever that she figure out who at the wedding was dressed to kill.

Half-Price Homicide

The national bestselling author presents a high society murder mystery…

At Snapdragon, a high-end designer consignment shop, Helen is at the beck and call of snobby- yet frugal-customers. That alone is a deadly combination, especially with Chrissy, a drool-worthy fashionista who walks in with a purse to sell, and ends up screaming at her husband and another customer.

Helen is used to dealing with snobby women, controlling husbands, and fashionable politicians. But she’s about to have to handle a brand new type of unsatisfied customer-a murderer. Chrissy is found dead in Snapdragon’s dressing room, with the hand-painted scarf Helen was just holding tied around her neck. And Helen goes from being low on society’s totem pole to high on the police’s suspect list.

Pumped for Murder

The latest Dead End Job mystery from the national bestselling author of Half Priced Homicide. Helen Hawthorne and her new hubby Phil have opened their own P.I. agency and their very first client is Shelby, who thinks her husband is developing a killer body for another woman. To keep track of the suspected cheater, Helen gets a dead end job at Fantastic Fitness, where she has to pump iron to stay employed. Then the budding agency takes on a murder case, and Helen has to move her workouts to the early morning just to keep up. With so much weight on her aching shoulders, will Helen catch a killer or just drop dead from exhaustion?

Dying in Style

Mystery shopper Josie Marcus’s report about Danessa Celedine’s exclusive store is less than stellar, and it may cost the fashion diva fifty million dollars. But Danessa’s financial future becomes moot when she’s found murdered, strangled with one of her own thousand dollar snakeskin belts and Josie is accused of the crime.

High Heels are Murder

From the Agatha Award Winning Author of Dying In Style

Every job has its pluses and minuses. Josie Marcus gets to shoe shop but she also must deal with men like Mel Poulaine, who’s too interested in handling women’s feet. Soon Josie’s been hired by Mel’s boss to mystery shop the store, but one step leads to another and Josie finds herself in St. Louis’s seedy underbelly. Caught up in a web of crime, Josie hopes against hope that she won’t end up murdered in Manolos.

Accessory to Murder

Someone has killed Halley Hardwicke, the hot young designer of thousand dollar Italian silk scarves, in the mall parking lot and police have their eye on Jake, the husband of Josie’s best friend Alyce. The couple lived near the wrap maven, but it seems Halley and Jake were a little too neighborly.

So Josie decides to do what she does best to help out her friend go undercover and see if she can find some clues. Because this time, there’s a lot more at stake than a scarf, even if it’s to die for…

Murder with All the Trim*mings

A humbug of a Shopping mystery…

Includes insider shopping tips!

Mystery shopper Josie Marcus doesn t get the appeal of the year round Christmas shop. But when three such holiday houses pop up within two blocks, she’s assigned to rate them anonymously.

Easy enough, Josie thinks, until she realizes that shoppers at one store are finding a strange even deadly secret ingredient in their holiday cake. And Josie must get to the bottom of it all before someone else becomes a Christmas spirit.

The Fashion Hound Murders

Josie Marcus has been hired to check out a big pet store’s involvement with puppy mills. When an employee who clued her into the mills’ existence shows up dead, Josie realizes that sinking her teeth into this case could mean getting bitten back…

An Uplifting Murder

On Josie’s latest assignment, her former teacher now working in a lingerie shop is in need of some serious support when a customer is found murdered. Unfortunately, the teacher’s alibi is flimsier than the camisoles she sells, so Josie will need to bust out her sleuthing skills to expose the real killer…

How to Commit Monogamy

A humorous look at what’s usually viewed as a serious subject. Elaine traces the historical changes in the perception and reality of monogamy.

Lifeblood (By:P.N. Elrod)

Jack Fleming was an investigative journalist in Prohibition era Chicago until he got shot by an unknown assassin, bitten by his vampire girlfriend, and then became one of the undead. Now, this nice guy nosferatu has a bunch of crazy vampire hunters on his trail, armed with crosses, silver bullets, and sharp wooden stakes. He doesn t know how they found out about him or why they are out for his blood, but it’s not a problem for this street wise gumshoe, until someone starts shooting. Jack himself may be bulletproof, but his friends are not. And Jack is determined to get some answers, even if it kills him again. It s a case of the living versus the undead. But who s hunting whom?

Bloodlist (By:P.N. Elrod)

I ve always had a weak spot for strange ladies. One very beautiful girl had even warned me that she was get this a vampire. But did I listen? No. Before you know it, I m being chased by an ugly thug with a gun, and a bullet blasts its way through my back, and believe it or not nothing happened. I survived! How? You guessed it. I, Jack Fleming, ace reporter, have been transformed into a vampire. Which has its advantages. You never die, you never grow old, you sleep all day…
and best of all, you can hunt down your own murderer. This is the first book in the exciting vampire adventure series, The Vampire Files.

Art in the Blood (By:P.N. Elrod)

Being a vampire isn’t as glamorous as it sounds…
Jack Fleming, Anerican journalist, was bitten by the wrong girl and Jack joined the living dead. Eccentric detective Charles Escott helps Jack solve any strange cases that happen along…
and now Jack and Charles investigate the case of the talented young artist whose life is suddenly cut short.

Blood on the Water (By:P.N. Elrod)

As a journalist in Capone controlled Chicago, Jack Fleming is used to the sight of blood, but when he becomes a vampire, his addictive thirst for it puts him between the cops and the mob in a pulsating fight for his life.

A Chill in the Blood (By:P.N. Elrod)

In the series that Science Fiction Review called ‘fast…
intriguing’ and Mystery Scene dubbed ‘very entertaining,’ P.N. Elrod’s Vampire Files have blended the macabre humor of vampire lore with the hard boiled storytelling of detective fiction to create a series that has achieved both cult status and critical acclaim. Now the hero who has thrilled thousands of readers returns for his most dangerous adventure yet. Jack Fleming was a man of many trades. When he was alive, he was a reporter with a nose for the grittiest news. Now that he’s dead, he’s a private eye with a thirst for justice and blood. But being a vampire with morals is no midnight stroll on the mean streets of post prohibition Chicago. There’s a cold wind blowing off the lake. It smells of death. And even Jack can feel its chill. For in the city of sin, the gangs still rule and they’re on the brink of an all out war. No one not the crooks or the cops cares how much blood, innocent or otherwise, flows during the fight. No one except a certain undead P.I. caught between the local hoods and the boys from New York. Can Jack stop the battle before it starts? And how much of his remaining humanity will he have to give up to do so?

The Dark Sleep (By:P.N. Elrod)

The novel that vampire fans have been thirsting for…
the newest addition to P.N. Elrod’s popular series The Vampire Files. Called ‘fast…
intriguing,’ by Science Fiction Review, and ‘good natured fun’ by Locus, P.N. Elrod’s series The Vampire Files has captured the imaginations of vampire fans and mystery readers alike. Jack Fleming, a vampire detective, makes his ‘living’ on the mean streets of post prohibition Chicago. As he struggles to fight the gangsters at large, he is also trying to sustain an ordinary life. At least, as ordinary as it can get when you’re a vampire…
Death hasn’t ended Jack Fleming’s problems. His girlfriend Bobbi has caught the attention of a famous radio star, who promises to open doors for the lovely singer including the one to his bedroom. His current case retrieving incriminating letters from the ex lover of a rich, foolish young socialite, looks simple until bullets start flying. Now Jack’s mortal partner is in the hospital. Who’s behind the gun? The ex lover? The radio star’s goons? An old enemy? Jack has to find out the truth before the lives of those he loves are put at risk…
‘Well done…
original. You won’t want to miss this series.’ Cemetery Dance

Lady Crymsyn (By:P.N. Elrod)

Spiked with ‘a flavor of the supernatural’ Science Fiction Chronicle, P. N. Elrod’s series, The Vampire Files, goes one step beyond detective noir. Its hero is Jack Fleming, a private detective on the right side of the law but on the wrong side of the living in post prohibition Chicago. This vampire turned gumshoe will take on mobsters, monsters, and everything in between. Now, in Lady Crymsyn, Fleming tries to find a good time girl gone bad, who may have been the victim of a premature burial…
Praise for The Vampire Files series:’Elrod’s treatment of the practical aspects of vampirism is clever and refreshing.’ Booklist ‘Echoes of Hammett and Chandler abound…
an entertaining exercise in supernatural noir.’ Publishers Weekly’Plenty of action, full of twists and betrayals, and the quirky characters and many touches of period flavor keep things amusing.’ Locus’Snappy vampire with a conscience yarn, laced with blackish humor.’ Kirkus Reviews

Cold Streets (By:P.N. Elrod)

P. N. Elrod’s novels of The Vampire Files turn the seductive shadows of the noir novel into sanctuary for fiction’s most unusual private investigator vampire Jack Fleming. In Elrod’s newest novel, Jack takes to Chicago’s cold, violent streets to find a blackmailer who’s onto the detective’s unnatural secret…

Song in the Dark (By:P.N. Elrod)

P. N. Elrod’s novels of The Vampire Files blend the seductive shadows of classic noir into a sanctuary for a most unusual private investigator vampire Jack Fleming. In Elrod’s newest novel, Jack is under the gun when the New York mafia wants his hide, and the love of his life is wanted for murder.

Many Bloody Returns (With: Jim Butcher,Carolyn Haines,Kelley Armstrong,Charlaine Harris,Bill Crider,Sandra Burr,,,Rachel Caine,Toni L.P. Kelner,Christopher Golden,Jeanne C. Stein,Tanya Huff,P.N. Elrod)

Never before published vampire stories by Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, Kelley Armstrong, and many others. Suspenseful, surprising, sometimes dark, sometimes humorous these all new stories will ensure that readers never think of vampires or birthdays in quite the same way again. In New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris’s ‘Dracula Night,’ Sookie Stackhouse is the only human at the annual commemoration of Dracula’s birth. But this year, the Prince of Darkness actually shows up and finds Sookie to be a tasty looking present. New York Times bestselling author Jim Butcher’s crime solving wizard Harry Dresden, of the Dresden Files novels, heads to a role playing party to give his vampire brother a birthday present in ‘It’s My Birthday Too,’ only to discover there are some bloodthirsty party crashers who don’t share their brotherly love. In ‘Twilight,’ Cassandra DuCharme, who appeared in New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong’s Dime Store Magic, knows she has to kill to live as a vampire another year but finds herself disturbingly disinterested in the hunt. Plus ten more bloody good birthday stories that take the cake.

Dark Road Rising (By:P.N. Elrod)

The first new Vampire Files novel in four years! Vampire P.I. Jack Fleming is playing babysitter to Gabriel ‘Whitey’ Kroun, a dangerously unstable mobster and newly created vampire with deadly secrets to hide. As Jack tries to unravel the mystery surrounding Kroun’s undead state, he gets caught between his charge’s violent outbursts and some syndicate torpedoes looking to rub them both out, leaving him vulnerable to an even deadlier threat the return of an old enemy desperate to unlock the secrets of Jack’s vampire immortality.

Show Business is Murder

The Mystery Writers of America take center stage…
…
with twenty tales of mayhem in the entertainment world. Contributors include: Carolyn Wheat Edward D. Hoch Annette Meyers John Lutz Elaine Viets Angela Zeman David Bart Bob Shayne Mark Terry Gary Phillips Parnell Hall Susanne Shaphren Libby Fischer Hellman Stuart M. Kaminsky and others

Drop-Dead Blonde

Do blondes have more fun? Four beloved authors with all new fair haired mysteries to dye for do. They’re blondes with style, money, and men falling at their feet. But now these perfect women are perfect victims. In Drop Dead Blonde, four of today’s top mystery authors Nancy Martin, Denise Swanson, Elaine Viets, and Victoria Laurie spin four all new tales of fair haired sirens, secrets, and seduction.