Rubout (Francesca Vierling Mysteries)

Rating:
Summary: Three Cheers for Francesca and St. Louis
Review: Francesca Vierling, an in-your-face, sharp-tongued, "St. Louie Woman" is someone you'll want to get to know. "Rubout," the second of her adventures, following "Backstab," is a cleverly written, fast-paced mystery that takes you on a wild ride from St. Louis's biker culture to its cultured elite in search of a brutal killer. A great read that's hard to put down.

Rating:
Summary: A lot of fun
Review: I grew up in St. Louis and was familiar with Elaine Viets' funny Post-Dispatch columns about city life, so when I saw she had written a mystery I was eager to see what it was like. I wasn't disappointed. It was fun to read a mystery with references to my home town, and the satire about the newspaper where her heroine works was especially funny since I've worked on newspapers for quite a number of years. My only criticism is that it was fairly easy to figure out who the killer was, but I still enjoyed the book immensely and highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Leather And Laced To Death
Review: It's the annual Leather and Lace Biker's Society Ball and Francesca Vierling, 37 year old columnist for the St. Louis City Gazette is going

Francesca was shocked, when at the ball she sees Sydney Vander Venter, a rich, soon to be divorced socialite from St. Louis's upper class. She was with her new boyfriend, a biker named Jack.

Sydney manages to get everyone ticked off at her when she flirts with the other men and ends with Stephanie, the girlfriend of Crazy Jerry threatening to beat her up.

Leaving the ball, Francesca has the unfortunate luck of stumbling over Sydney's body. She had been beaten to death with a bike chain.

Detective Mark Mayhew suspects everyone at the ball, but Francesca wonders if it might not be someone closer to home. After all, Sydney was going through a bad divorce. Could it be her husband who was dumping her for a younger woman. Or maybe her son, who had a drug habit and was resentful of his mother's attempt to put him in rehab.

Then Sydney's new boyfriend, Jack is killed in a motorcycle accident after calling Francesca and saying he would tell her the name of Sydney's killer for $25,000. If she didn't buy, he knew someone else who would. Was this someone else the person who killed Sydney and maybe Jack?

Once again, Francesca's investigation leads her to a showdown with the killer that almost leaves her dead.

Highlights:

I enjoyed Francesca much more in this book than I did in the first book, but she is still a somewhat irritating person. I still think she needs therapy.

Her boyfriend Lyle is a nice guy, but Francesca treats him horribly. Why? Because this dog has the nerve to want to marry her, take care of her and thinks she could get a better job somewhere else. He say's he'd go anywhere to make her happy, but he's sick of listening to her complain and gripe constantly about her job.

Marlene, a waitress at Uncle Bob's Pancake House is a very funny character. Once again, Francesca doesn't listen to any of her advice.

Humor. There are a lot of funny parts in this book. Especially, everything dealing with the "Voyage Committee" that Francesca gets put on at the paper and their "Voyage Captain, Jason."

Lowlights:

Ruining the character of Detective Mark Mayhew. who in the first book appeared to be a happily married cop, who was good friends with Francesca.

In this book, he turns out not only not to be faithful, but a real creep on top of it. Francesca may be able to "forget" about their interlude on her stairwell and stay friends, but how she can forgive him for the way he acts over her car is beyond me. And there was no reason for it. It didn't help the story, it didn't do anything except turn a good character into a creep.

The Killer. They might as well have hung a sign around their neck saying "killer" you know who it is the instant they show up.

The staff at the St. Louis City Gazette, this group of losers are, if possible, even worse than in the first book. You get to meet more of them and there isn't anything redeeming about any of them. This includes Georgia, who Francesca considers her mentor, but spends her entire time telling Francesca not to make waves and shut up. A true mentor would tell Francesca that with her talent she should not be working at such a low life paper.

Even though I have a lot of problems with this book, the writing is so good, that it keeps your interest, even after you figure out who the killer is and wonder through the rest of the book, how Francesca doesn't see it.



Rating:
Summary: A must read for mystery fans!!
Review: Viets gives us savy, sharp witted Francesca Verling and a great read! An inside look at the world of the newspaper game, suspense and characters to easily become attached to/or despise. They are honest, gritty and her descriptions are priceless!