Richard M. (algernon99) - , reviewed on 6/13/2007 + 418 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 7

I like Elaine Viets' books. Really, I do. So bear that in mind while I complain a bit here.

First, as an experienced mystery shopper in today's world (I've done maybe a thousand shops over the last ten years for about 50 different mystery shopping companies), I have to tell you that this is not how mystery shopping works in today's world. This is pre-Internet stuff, the way it used to be done in the old days. It's much more streamlined these days. There may be a few of the old-line, local companies still in the business as described in this book; I have no way of knowing that. But the vast majority of mystery shopping now is done in a totally diffent way. (Viets says that her mother was a mystery shopper, and this is the way she did it. That's undoubtedly true.)

So I was disappointed to find that my favorite moonlighting job was not represented here.

My second disappointment was the that larger-than-life oddball characters just didn't ring true for me. The whole situation was over the top--for me.

I'm going to read the second one in the series and hope for some improvement in the plotline, but this one was a disappointment.

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