Help Elaine Viets: Buy her new book

[Writers Plot]

Posted by Lorraine Bartlett

Of course everyone here at Writers Plot wants you to buy OUR books. (They are quite wonderful, after all.) But today we're asking you to support one of our fellow authors.

Several weeks ago, author Elaine Viets (a friend of Leann's) had a devastating stroke. Emergency surgery has given Elaine a good shot at recovery, but not in time to promote her newest book, which goes on sale today. So, just about the entire mystery writing community is pitching in to do just that for her.

This Agatha- and Anthony-winning novelist has exposed what life is like as a dog groomer, a telemarketer, a bookseller, a marriage coordinator, and a shop clerk at a boutique dress shop. Helen Hawthorne, her heroine is trying to survive on a cash-only basis. She needs to stay below the radar of the police. They would like to track her down for giving her ex-husband a concussion when she found him with a neighbor's wife.

Murder With Reservations is the 6th book in the Helen Hawthorne "Dead End Job" series. Here's the book's full description:

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.

The Dead-End mysteries are wonderful. I think I've read--and own--them all by now, and I've already ordered my copy of Murder With Reservations. The amazing thing about Elaine is that she works these jobs before writing about them, so her books are both funny and very realistic.

To make it easy for you, we here at Writers Plot have added a links (everytime you read her title in this post) to make it easy for you to help us help Elaine. (Or you can go straight to your favorite independent or chain bookstore to buy it!) Won't you pitch in and help make Murder With Reservations Elaine's best-selling book to date?

(P.S. Thanks to author David Skibbens for some of the information used in this post.)