"A telemarketer overhears murder"

Helen Hawthorne is working another dead-end job with payment in cash so she can evade her ex-husband and the law. This time she's doing telemarketing. While she's good at it, she gets plenty of hang-ups and people cursing her out. But then she overhears a murder during a phone survey she's conducting to the home of Henry Asporth. She reports it to the police, but after their investigation, they tell her it was just a show on TV.

Helen is convinced she heard a murder. So she does some research through the computer at work to determine whether a woman lived at that address. Once she determines that Laredo lived with him, she contacts her sister Savannah and they begin investigating. Helen likes to stay as far away from police as possible.

Disrupting her enjoyable life at home are Fred and Ethel Mertz that moved into the apartment building. They are difficult to get along with and soon none of the neighbors are hanging out around the pool so they can avoid them.

As Savannah and Helen dig deeper and deeper into Henry Asporth and his friends, Helen finds herself in some sticky situations. Can they find the murderer without Helen being the next victim?

I always enjoy books in this series. Helen is a fun character and the people she works with and the other tenants in the apartment building are such great characters. They really add to the story.

While I sometimes have trouble believing anyone is really after Helen, I think the stories are well constructed and such a fun read. I highly recommend this book.

Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle
Posted September 23, 2005

Summary

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...

Helen Hawthorne has just found her new calling...as a telemarketer. And it's not long before she's disrupting dinners all over the country with her pesky calls. But during a phone survey to the home of Henry Asporth, she's the one who gets an earful when she overhears an argument, followed by a scream—and then, dead air. Was someone being strangled? Or was it just a loud movie? Helen searches the office computer database to learn more about Asporth and the much younger woman he allegedly lived with... before she disappeared. And soon, Helen's in over her head and soon chasing clues, and trying to avoid a close call... with a killer.