Dying to Call You (Dead-End Job Mysteries, Book 3)

by Elaine Viets

Book Overview

Helen Hawthorne has just found her new calling as a telemarketer, and before long she's disrupting dinners all over the country. But during a phone survey to the home of Henry Asporth, she's the one... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451213327
• Release Date: October 2004
• Publisher: Berkley
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 0.8" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

Dying To Read More

I was very entertained with this book. Helen's gig as a telemarketer brought back memories of my college days when I gave away free cemetary plots as a telemarketer. It was before computers and we used the phone book. My favorite comeback was, "I don't need it, I am immortal." This story was exciting to the last page. Imagine hearing a murder taking place on the phone. Helen was brave to investigate this murder. She is quite a talented sleuth. I am glad to have discovered this series by Elaine Viets and I look forward to reading more by her.

Nosey Telemarketer

The interesting part of this amateur sleuth, Helen, is her dead end telemarketer job. Good insight into the telemarketers world: predominantly abusive calls received by telemarketers, their low self-esteem, poor working conditions & low pay. You feel sorry for them & wish you can be kinder to them next time round when they call on you. As for the mystery factor in this book, its average with quick turning action so you won't get bored. Helen is simply too nosey to stay put in any one place at a time so the mystery unravels in many places with quick wit. The repartee between Helen & Margery, the landlady is always entertaining.

A telemarketer overheard 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.

a good read

Once she was earning a huge salary and had a big corporate job, but now all that's changed: on the run from her cad of an ex-husband, Helen Hawthorne (not her real name) has severed all ties with her family and her past and is living in Florida and working at dead end jobs (hence the title of the series), working off the books and for pennies in order to make ends meet. Currently, Helen is working as a telemarketer, attempting to sell Tank Titan Septic System Cleaner to the unwary public. One night, however, while conducting a 'phone survey to the home of Henry Asporth, Helen overhears a woman being strangled. And even though calling the police might mean that her past may be uncovered, Helen does so anyway. The police, when they do make it to Asporth's house, find nothing; and Asporth manages to persuade the police officers that Helen had overheard an old movie that was playing on the TV. Helen, however, is adamant that she really did hear a woman dying. And indignant that the police have brushed off her concerns, decides to do some detecting of her own. Soon, Helen finds herself skulking about in the playpens of the rich and the decadent; she may be in over her head, but she's determined to nail the murderer of the unfortunate young woman she overhead die... Fast paced and compelling, "Dying to Call You" proved to be a riveting read. Elaine Viets does a wonderful job of vividly bringing to life the hellish life of a telemarketer. I liked her portrayal of the series heroine (Helen Hawthorne) and the storyline was a rather good one too. Also well done was the credible manner in which the author allowed for Helen to uncover info/clues and solve the mystery. All in all, "Dying to Call You" was a really enjoyable 4 star read.

superb amateur sleuth

Helen Hawthorne caught her unemployed husband having sex with their next door neighbor and in a rage she wrecked his SUV. The Judge ordered her to pay alimony because her spouse spent the last few years taking care of her and their home while she earned a six figure income. An irate Helen refuses to pay one cent so she leaves St. Louis relocating in Fort Lauderdale where she accepts dead- end jobs that pay under the table. Her current job is a telemarketer at Tank Titan System Cleaner where the callers who pick up curse, hang up, and general humiliate her because they think she is as a low life. During a phone survey with Hank Asparth, he places the instrument down without hanging up; thus she overhears him arguing with a woman until she realizes that he strangled her. Helen calls the police, but they find nothing suspicions. She can't let it go so she calls the victim's sister Savannah to only to learn her sibling has been missing for several days. Helen believes that Savannah's sister Laredo is dead and plans to learn the truth. DYING TO CALL YOU stars one of the liveliest audacious and entertaining heroines to grace an amateur sleuth tale. She chose to become a fugitive because she believes in justice and opts to expose herself for the same belief. From going topless to stealing from the mob, this protagonist will do whatever it takes to prove Hank killed Laredo The investigation is cleverly designed adding to the proof that Elaine Viets is a talented storyteller who keeps her readers engaged. Harriet Klausner