Elaine Viets Books in Order

A collection of columns and essays on city life, local politics, and everyday absurdity. It captures Viets in her sharp, funny newspaper mode.

A breezy collection of humorous pieces on sex, travel, and whatever else could catch a reader's eye. It's playful, topical, and full of Viets's newspaper voice.

An affectionate portrait of St. Louis, with history, neighborhood texture, and the kind of local detail a longtime columnist notices. It's a smart, lively snapshot of the city that shaped Viets.

In a hard winter St. Louis setting, newspaper columnist Francesca Vierling looks into two murders, a bartender and a rehabber. Her search for answers quickly makes her a target too.

A light, humorous nonfiction look at long-term love, commitment, and the small absurdities of staying together. It shows Viets's newspaper wit before her mystery series took off.

Francesca investigates a killing tied to St. Louis's Leather and Lace Biker Ball, where image and reinvention matter almost as much as loyalty. The deeper she digs, the more dangerous the night becomes.

A neighborhood comeback story curdles into multiple murders, including one victim felled with a pink lawn flamingo. Columnist Francesca Vierling steps into the clash between civic pride and dark private motives.

Francesca Vierling is helping her editor hide a breast cancer diagnosis when a stripper disappears and bad doctors start dying. The case mixes newsroom pressure, anger, and black humor.

Helen's off-the-books job at a Fort Lauderdale bookstore ends in chaos when the arrogant owner is killed. With suspects everywhere and danger closing in, she has to read the people around her fast.

A sharp, unsettling short mystery in which a disturbing double turns an ordinary situation into something far more dangerous. Identity and deception are at the heart of it.

A darkly funny short mystery about desire, money, and the quiet ferocity of a bingo crowd. Viets takes an ordinary pastime and makes it feel wonderfully dangerous.

Hiding out in Fort Lauderdale, Helen takes a cash job at an upscale boutique serving the rich and Botoxed. Theft, scams, and a fashionable murder make it clear her new life is anything but safe.

Helen takes a telemarketing job and thinks she hears a murder happen over the phone. With only a voice, a scream, and her instincts to go on, she starts chasing a killer who may already know about her.

This award-winning short mystery turns wedding nerves and family grudges into something much sharper. Viets finds both humor and menace in the rituals around marriage.

Josie's negative report on a handbag empire becomes a real problem when the designer and her lover are found murdered. Framed as the obvious suspect, Josie has to shop, snoop, and survive.

Working in a bridal salon, Helen expects tears and tantrums, not murder. When a domineering mother of the bride is found dead, Helen becomes a suspect and must solve the case without exposing her own past.

This darkly funny short mystery looks back at younger days in the world of beauty, ambition, and trouble. It also gives readers a glimpse of Margery Flax before she became Helen Hawthorne's unforgettable landlady.

Josie lands a dream assignment at a trendy shoe store, then the creepy star salesman is murdered after her report helps ruin him. A stylish St. Louis mystery with plenty of dirty secrets.

Helen's job at a pampered pet boutique turns ugly when a delivery drops her into a murder scene. Between rich dog owners, a missing pet, and a hurricane closing in, the case gets stranger by the hour.

When a hot young scarf designer is killed, police focus on the husband of Josie's best friend. Josie goes undercover in an upscale gated community where gossip travels fast and nobody tells the whole truth.

As a hotel maid, Helen finds an employee's body in the dumpster and soon another guest is murdered. With her ex-husband back in town and the police circling, staying invisible is no longer an option.

A job at an exclusive country club puts Helen among rich members with oversized egos and messy secrets. When two people are bludgeoned and her ex-husband disappears, the police start looking hard in her direction.

Christmas cheer turns sour when Josie's ex, back in town and fighting for custody, is poisoned. Between holiday shops and old grudges, she has to find out who wanted him dead.

Helen is working at a glam hair salon when a loud, powerful bully turns up dead around his own wedding. Her boss is the obvious suspect, so Helen has to cut through gossip and vanity to find the real killer.

Josie digs into the designer dog business and finds puppy mills, pet glamour, and a lot of money at stake. The closer she gets to the truth, the nastier the world of canine couture becomes.

Josie's assignment at a lingerie store brings an unexpected reunion with the teacher who once helped her survive high school. When an old classmate is murdered, that mentor becomes the prime suspect.

At a high-end resale boutique, Helen's latest case starts when a difficult customer ends up dead, suspended by a designer scarf. The murder also pulls Helen back to St. Louis and the life she thought she'd escaped.

Mystery shopping a St. Louis food tour sounds fun until a customer is poisoned at a neighborhood restaurant. Josie investigates to save a family friend and untangle a case seasoned with local rivalries.

Helen's new PI life starts with undercover work at a gym and a second case tied to an old South Florida killing. Fitness obsessions, cheating suspicions, and buried secrets keep both Helen and Phil off balance.

Working undercover as a yacht stewardess, Helen expects smugglers, not murder. When a crew member vanishes, she has to untangle luxury, lies, and danger at sea before she becomes the next person overboard.

Josie is trying to plan her wedding, but her future mother-in-law gets arrested for murder first. Between family clashes and cake tasting, Josie has to find the real killer.

Helen and Phil are hired to protect a South Florida paddleboard business from sabotage. Then a customer dies on the water, and the case opens onto corruption, competition, and a beach town with plenty to hide.

Josie and Ted buy a dream house that needs work, then a body turns up under the gazebo. With Ted's clinic partner accused and Amelia dealing with school drama, the case hits close to home.

Josie Marcus is assigned to inspect a popular doggy day camp and quickly learns its lovable image is a sham. When the owner is killed and her mother's boyfriend is blamed, Josie starts digging.

A simple job, retrieving a prized show cat, becomes murder when Helen and Phil find the owner dead and the cat gone. Helen goes undercover in the cutthroat cat-show world to learn who had reason to strike.

Helen volunteers at an exclusive private library to hunt for a missing watercolor said to be hidden in a book. Ghost stories, demanding patrons, and a million-dollar secret turn a quiet assignment into a dangerous case.

Death investigator Angela Richman survives a series of strokes just as the doctor who saved her is accused of murder. Recovering her mind and solving the case become the same fight.

When an artist dies after a class at Fort Lauderdale's Bonnet House Museum, Helen Hawthorne goes undercover among painters and patrons. With Phil busy on another case, she has to sort out jealousy, money, and a very calculated murder.

After a seventy-year-old tycoon dies in a mansion fire, the town rushes to blame his much younger girlfriend. Angela sees how quickly wealth, gossip, and prejudice can turn suspicion into a death sentence.

A darkly funny collection of crime stories that shows Viets working in shorter form. The book ranges from sly domestic tension to outright murder, with introductions that highlight her love of the genre.

A wealthy teenager vanishes after a winter party and a fight with her boyfriend, leaving Angela Richman racing through snow, rumor, and class prejudice. The search feels urgent from the first page.

An aging Hollywood diva collapses after a Missouri performance and later dies from poison. When Angela's friend is accused, she has to dig through grudges, vanity, and old scandal to find the truth.

In this sharp short thriller, a rich man's young wife weighs what freedom might really cost. Viets builds a tense, intimate story about power, money, and the violence hiding inside a marriage.

Eight months after a popular track star vanished, Angela Richman helps examine her body in a muddy creek. A clue hidden in the girl's shoe points toward a wealthy town built on secrets and silence.

The Ghost Burglars have terrified Chouteau Forest, but Angela's next case is worse, a wealthy man slaughtered in his own mansion. Burglary may be the surface story, yet family secrets push the investigation deeper.

Sterling Chaney seems to die in a fiery crash, then shocks everyone by showing up at his own funeral. When another fatal wreck follows, Angela Richman has to decide whether someone was trying to kill him twice.

On Halloween, Angela finds two bodies in a university crypt tied to an old Chouteau Forest legend. What looks supernatural soon starts to resemble a very human power struggle.

A prominent man is found dead in a secret love nest, marked with a scarlet A. As Angela investigates the scandal, the case grows messier and more personal than it first appears.

Norah McCarthy becomes the prime suspect when an adult film star's body is found buried beside the pool at her South Florida apartment complex. Then older remains surface, with eerie ties to Norah's past.

A body on the beach sparks fears of a killer stalking young blonde women, and Norah McCarthy is drawn in again when Gil Shecker is stabbed. The sun-soaked setting hides some very dark secrets.