"charming amateur sleuth"

After catching her husband cheating on her with their neighbor, Helen Hawthorne destroyed his SUV. The Judge directed her to pay her former spouse half her salary in an alimony settlement. Rather than remit one dime to this louse, Helen went on the lam and accepted low paying dead end jobs in the Ft. Lauderdale area. Her sister calls helento tell her that Rob the rat is now in the Fort Lauderdale area looking for her. When Helen goes to her maid job at the Full Moon Motel she learns Rob is a guest there looking at her employment record.

While eluding the despicable Rob, Helen finds the murdered corpse of another maid in the motel dumpster. The last time Helen saw Rhonda was three days ago when the woman was talking about her wealthy boyfriend giving her several fifty dollar bills so that she could purchase an airline ticket for her mom to vacation in Mexico. When Rob visits Helen's home, he meets his ex-wife's landlady who sets him up with an affluent sexagenarian widow, whose husbands died under mysterious circumstances. When someone else dies at the motel, Helen goes on red alert sleuthing to the point of potentially lethal consequences.

MURDER WITH RESERVATIONS is the best mystery in this charming amateur sleuth series as Elaine Viets adds wit and humor into her characters. The heroine continues to earn the respect and admiration of the audience with her efforts to make a new life for herself. The continuing support cast is a colorful eccentric mob with hearts of gold as they look out for one another including Helen. The whodunit is fun to follow as Helen pursues clues while eluding her ex. Fans of Ms. Viets should also read her other jocular series starring Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 27, 2007

Summary

Helen Hawthorne has a knack for keeping a low profile. But in South Florida, it's going to get a lot harder to fly under the radar...

Working at Sybil's Full Moon Hotel in Fort Lauderdale keeps Helen safe and sane. But when a maid is found dead in a Dumpster, those days just might be over. Dead bodies mean another chance for the cops to find her. To make matters worse, her ex-husband is hot on her trail. Sadly, the cops don't seem to care much about a murdered maid—but they take notice of her coworker's shady story. If Helen doesn't manage to dodge their questions and shake off her ex, it could be checkout time.