Search - Shop Till You Drop (Dead-End Job, Bk 1)

Great book. Neat start to a neat series. I hope to read the rest.

First in the "dead end jobs" series and just a charming read ...

The first book in the "Dead End Jobs" series. A quick, funny read.

Not my cup of tea. I really didn't like the main character all that much and certainly disliked the subject area. It was hard to develop any sympathy for the main character. That said, it is still a typical cozy mystery and a very quick read.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought it would be a fluff book, like Janet Evanovich or the Flower Shop mysteries, which are nice light reads, good for reading at bedtime. But this had some fascinating elements to it: the women who shopped at the store in question were "kept" women who had to have plastic surgery to stay young and starved themselves to be thin and attractive or their boyfriends would find "better" girlfriends. Wow, does this happen in real life? It was rather sad and pathetic, but very interesting. Oh, and the mystery part was good too.

This one should have 5 stars!!! Literally, I did not stop reading it until I finished it!! I loved her characters, even the "unloveable" ones!! The main character Helen Hawthorne has moved to South Florida from St. Louis to avoid her ex-husband. Working in a stylish shop selling clothes to ladies with model figures for mucha money, she meets some strange people and works with some, too. Just enough suspense and humor scattered throughout kept me happy and very interested!!!

Cute first book in a new series. Helen Hawthorne used to have an upscale lifestyle, but she's now in hiding from something in her past, and is living in southern Florida. A co-worker from her dead-end job ends up dead, and she works to solve the mystery with several of the ritzy shoppers at her high end boutique coming up as suspects.

Perfect for a lazy afternoon read! It was funny, charming, and a terrific mystery!

Much better than I expected

1st in the series of A Dead-End Job mystery. Very good.
This book is from a house that includes a smoker and animals

I really enjoyed reading this book. The plot developed quickly and something was always happening to move the story forward. Lots of quirky characters. A quick, fun cozy. I look forward to the rest of the series.

I like both of Elaine Viet's series very much. This is the first in The Dead End Job books. The main character, runaway Helen Hawthorn, is very believable as she struggles through jobs without being found. The stories in all of the books give you a close view of the downside of some of these while being amusing and entertaining. Viet's Mystery Shopper is excellent, also.

Helen Hawthorne, the lead character, used to have a great job and a great marriage, until she found her husband in bed with the neighbor... She destroyed the car, divorced the man and is on the lam since her ex-husband wants to sue her for alimony.

She has to take jobs off the books so she cannot be traced. In this first book, she’s working at an exclusive women’s clothing store – all clothing sized zero, two or four – all high end. When she starts to find illegal operations, she starts to think about getting another job.

When someone dies, she stays to get enough evidence to solve it.

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Once on the fast track to success, Helen Hawthorne is going nowhere faster. Forced to trade in her chic life for a shabby one, she's now 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 ultraexclusive clothing boutique, Helen still feels out of fashion. But in a shop where the customers' collagen lips are bigger than their hips, who wouldn't? 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 is in deep trouble. To protect her secrets, she will have to solve the case herself--before her dead-end job turns deadly...

Really like this DEAD END JOB mystery series

I loved the quirky characters and I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series!

Funny!
First in Series

Quick light read, humerous and engaging. I'll look for more in this series.

Once on the fast track to success, Helen Hawthorne is going nowhere faster. Forced to trade in her chic life for a shabby one, she's now 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 Julianna's, Fort Lauderdale's ultraexclusive clothing boutique, Helen still feels out of fashion. But in a shop where the customers' collagen lips are bigger than their hips, who wouldn't be? 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 is in deep trouble. To protect her secrets, she will have to solve the case herself -- before her dead-end job turns deadly....

Very enjoyable, first book in series. Helen is on the run and working low-paying jobs "off the books." A little matter of finding her hubby in bed with the neighbor & Helen finding a crowbar handy.... Wonderful characters, locale (sunny Florida), snappy dialogue. Can't wait to read the rest of the series and others by this author.