The Pink Flamingo Murders

Rating:
Summary: Interesting characters
Review: Columnist reporter Francesca Vierling makes her third appearance in THE PINK FLAMINGO MURDERS. Most readers can sympathize with Francesca, who is chronically unable to control her temper and tongue. Consequently, she finds herself in hot water both at work and in her personal life.

Always looking for a good story, Francesca starts covering her own neighborhood when less than desirable characters start dying after arguing with wealthy real estate owner Caroline. As the body count starts climbing, and all are murder victims, Francesca is positive Caroline is the killer and tries to find enough proof for the police. When Caroline herself is killed, Francesca is stumped--but then, so are the police.

Viets provides the reader with an intimate look at St. Louis, especially the proud old houses suffering from neglect and in need of "rehabbing". She also provides the reader with an up-close and personal view of a reporter's daily life, but I hope this isn't how a typical newspaper is run. Francesca's boyfriend Lyle can't understand why Francesca doesn't quit, as she and the other reporters are treated extremely poorly and aren't allowed to write any real news stories. I don't think Francesca herself knows why she stays and takes the daily punishment dished out by managing editor Charlie.

I was able to figure out the killer's identity early on. In spite of that, the book held my interest all the way to the end, mostly due to the interesting characters.

Rating:
Summary: Bad Taste In Murder
Review: Francesca Vierling, 37 year old columnist for the St. Louis City Gazette thinks the rehabilitation of the North Dakota Place area of town would be a good story. Especially since it's only a block from her house.

Francesca meets many of the occupants of the neighborhood, Margie, Dina, Patricia and Kathy and her husband Dale. They're all working at rehabing their homes and their neighborhood and would be happy about it, except for the Caroline.

Caroline is the all time champ rehaber, she not only did her own house, but buys other houses and has them rehabed and sold. She even takes care of the city's property, planting new grass and flowers and taking care of the fountain. She also tries to take care of everyone else's property. Telling people what they need to do what they need to plant and when they have to do it, failure may result in city inspectors showing up and fines being levied if you don't comply immediately.

Otto Brumbaw isn't going to be pushed around by Caroline. She insists he repaint his house and he gets a promise from her that she will stop screaming at him and leave him alone if he paints. She agrees and Otto starts painting. Caroline, doesn't count on the purple with turquoise trim that he decides on.

Caroline fumes when Otto reminds her of their agreement, but his eyesore of a house doesn't stay that way long, as poor Otto manages to electrocute himself on the Christmas Tree lights he still has hanging on his house. Caroline quickly buys the house and has it repainted to more suitable colors.

Francesca is suspicious when Detective Mark Mayhew declares it to be murder. Someone had deliberately killed Otto.

Then a local drug dealer is burned to death in his house, after arguing with Caroline and destroying some of her newly planted trees, Francesca starts to wonder if Caroline will do anything to keep her neighborhood looking good. She even had Otto's yappy dog sent to the pound because it was a disgrace to the neighborhood.

A gorgeous jogger, who has all the women swooning and who is legally running across city property is threatened by Caroline if he doesn't stop. He informs her that he will run where he wants since he isn't doing anything wrong. His running days are over when he winds up dead in an alley.


Francesca is certain Caroline is killing everyone who disturbs the neighborhood. That brilliant deduction goes out the window when Caroline herself ends up dead with her head bashed in and stabbed with a plastic pink flamingo.

Now things are very confusing, who would have killed all those other people and Caroline. Francesca is determined to figure this out before everyone on the block winds up dead.

Highlights:

Good mystery. Keeps you guessing until the end.

Very funny. The description of Kathy and Dale's sanding accident had me laughing out loud. As did Francesca's digging up a garden in search of a body.

Francesca has become a more likable character, but needs therapy badly. Her childhood trauma's have really warped her outlook on life and she'd be a much happier person if she'd get some help to get over it.

Lyle Donnegan, Francesca's boyfriend, a college professor is a nice guy. He wants to marry her, he's agreed to let her keep her apartment if she wants to. (This is her grandparent's apartment and she hasn't changed anything in it since they died over a decade ago). He thinks she is a talented writer and should take that talent somewhere where it is appreciated and not at her paper, where management hates her and constantly wants to get rid of her, despite the fact that she's the most popular writer in the paper.

Lowlights:

Francesca's destruction of her relationship. It's so sad and so unnecessary.

The paper. Once again Charlie and the rest of the staff are almost insufferable. I hate these people and I don't even find them funny. I think it's because, like so many people, I work with people like them, but unlike Francesca, we don't have a talent that we can take somewhere else, skills, but not talent. Francesca is such a good writer, she could probably free lance columns to other papers.

This is the third book, where Francesca does not solve the crime. She is either talking or interviewing the killer, without knowing it and the killer starts to suspect that she has guessed their identity. They then try to kill her.

But until they try to kill her, Francesca doesn't have a clue as to who the killer is. These scenes in the books are actually very funny as Francesca has had to resort to everything from hot water to filing cabinet drawers in her attempts to avoid being murdered.

Despite all the problems, with Francesca and the storylines, these books are very well written and keep you interest. I just wish they didn't make me so mad.


Rating:
Summary: Too light
Review: I really hated this book! Everthing was lighter than air- the characters, the writing, the plot. It was a total waste of my time.

Rating:
Summary: The Pink Flamingo Murders
Review: No one has her finger on the pulse of St. Louis more than Elaine Viets. Her descriptions of St. Louis and its charm and its people--and its quirks--are dead-on. Just when you think there are no new ways to commit murder, Viets shows us there is always a new idea. She throws just enough hints at whom the murderer is to cast suspicion on everyone and lets the reader make his or her own guesses. The Francesca Vierling series is top notch, and this is the best yet. After 200 pages I hated this book...because I knew I was approaching the end. I'm counting the days until the next book is released.

Rating:
Summary: The Pink Flamingo Murders
Review: No one has her finger on the pulse of St. Louis more than Elaine Viets. Her descriptions of St. Louis and its charm and its people--and its quirks--are dead-on. Just when you think there are no new ways to commit murder, Viets shows us there is always a new idea. She throws just enough hints at whom the murderer is to cast suspicion on everyone and lets the reader make his or her own guesses. The Francesca Vierling series is top notch, and this is the best yet. After 200 pages I hated this book...because I knew I was approaching the end. I'm counting the days until the next book is released.

Rating:
Summary: Too light
Review: St Louis in all it's quirky individually is back-ground for Francesca to solve the mystery. A wealth of wonderful characters (some reoccurring from previous books) that you really care about and that have personalities. A good mystery that keeps you guessing until the end. Francesca is a wonderful sarcastic, sympathetic character. I hope there are lots more in the series.