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Feminist Mystery Reviews BACKSTAB Reviewed by Harriet Klausner St. Louis City Gazette columnist Franchesca Vierling is on intimate terms with Death, having met the persona up close when she was nine. She walked in just as he was leaving behind the dead bodies of her parents, the victims of a murder- suicide. Since that time, Franchesca looks Death square in the eye without flinching. She is determined that he will never best her again. When two of her informants are killed within a week of each other, Franchesca becomes suspicious that their deaths are related. She explains her theory to a friend in homicide, who insists that, though the victims knew each other, there is no other link between their deaths. One of the deceased died from an asthmatic attack and the other was the victim of a botched robbery. Franchesca intuits that there is more to these deaths than first appears and begins to investigate both incidents. Her suspicions are circumstantially confirmed when someone deliberately tries to run her over in a deserted parking lot. This only makes the intrepid reporter more resolute to ferret out the killer's identity before he strikes again. As the feisty Franchesca gets closer to discovering the name of the killer, she places herself in a position of becoming the next victim of a clever and dangerous murderer. BACKSTAB is a fascinating glance into the backroom policies of a big city newsroom as well as a glimpse into the underground network of informants. Elaine Viets has written a gritty and earthy hard boiled amateur detective novel that is not for the faint of heart, but for readers who want their fiction exploring all aspects of human existence, especially the dark side. This is not fun novel, but draws readers under its spell. |
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