Fixing to Die (Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper)

This would be a good book -- except pages are missing! Pages 229 through 260 are missing! And it's the part of the book that tells how they found the killer. Not good. These need to be recalled and replaced.

I just love this book series!!! it took me 3 hours from start to finish to read this book!!! I couldn't put it down!!!

We really see Amelia growing up in this book. Not only is she taking on more tasks--cooking dinner, consulting on the kitchen redo, staying home alone, etc--but she heads her own secondary mystery plot. We also see Josie thrust into a “rescuer” role instead of her usual “next potential victim” role at the book’s end. It’s so easy for authors to follow a cookie-cutter plot in a series, and I’m pleased to see Viets shake things up this time around.

Love this series!

Love this series

Wonderful mystery in the Josie Marcus mystery shopper series. You will get attached to Josie and her family through the wonderful dialogue and descriptions of everyday life. This is light hearted so good to read before bed or when you want to relax. Read these books in order to get the most out of the character development. Buy the whole series at one time or after you read the first one to see if you like it.

... and you will not be disappointed.

The first chapter was witty, and fun, but my delight soon evaporated as the book began to slog along under the weight of clumsy repetition, unbelievable characters, and improbable dialogue peppered with either unnecessary facts, or extraneous information to convey what a more skillful writer would in description. ("Showing" the reader that the head mistress is an insufferable snob through characterization, rather than having her utter outlandish statements about caliber and class, is far more preferable to this reader.)

The author also seems to use many conversations as opportunities to lecture the reader on midcentury modern "rehabs" ("renovations" to the rest of us), thus making parts of the prose a tad dry. Too much of this -- she's redoing a house, we get it.

Many of the characters are so cartoonish, stereotyped, and over the top, it's quite impossible to find them believable: the overbearing snob of a mother-in-law, the detective whose behavior would not have been tolerated under any circumstances, the news reporter's cross examination of a potential witness on a remote broadcast just minutes after the body is discovered, and countless slimy men -- to mention a few.

As other reviewers have mentioned, the story is rife with repetition. One of the students is always described as the red-headed Palmer, for example, as if we'd forget. (Why would we care?) And, as others pointed out, every time Josie's daughter, Amelia, uses the word "sick," the author seems compelled to remind us that it means "good."

The victim is described as a hippie, or dirty hippie, at every turn and by everyone -- and I do mean everyone. (Who uses that term these days, unless it's to describe someone of a certain age as in "old hippie"?) This is where a Thesaurus would have been useful.

Dialogue doesn't ring true, for the most part, especially that of Amelia: syntax and phrasing are all wrong for one of her age, and when she is does use "tween" slang, it's in terms and phrases that were hopelessly out of date when this book was written.

And, lastly, are we seriously expected to believe that Amelia will be able to attend four years of undergraduate school PLUS four years of veterinary school for the grand sum of $125,000? By my calculation, her freshman year would begin roughly in 2020. Where is this world they live in? I want to live there, too.

The author can construct a sentence, and does have a lively way with words, but one can't help wonder if she is incapable of careful observation and dutiful research, or simply too lazy to bother.

Looks like brand new book.

Another fun installment in the Josie Marcus series. This time she's renovating the kitchen in the house she and Ted have bought, but when they tear down the ugly gazebo they find a body buried under it. Amelia gets involved in her own investigation when she's bullied by the mean girls at her private school. Viets is as entertaining as ever.

great