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Doc in the Box |
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 Doc in the Box byElaine Viets Dell Publishing 242 pages, 2000 ISBN 0440236207 Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart Someone is killing doctors in St. Louis. And not just any doctors. Someone is killing doctors whose bedside manners are akin to that of medieval torturers. Author Elaine Viets brings her acerbic columnist, Francesca Vierling, back for a fourth mystery, Doc in the Box. Francesca is a weekly columnist for the St. Louis City Gazette. She’s trying to juggle her column, researching a story on the day in the life of a male stripper, and taking her editor to treatment for breast cancer without alerting the staff to Gloria’s condition. Our heroine isn’t just any reporter. She’s a six-foot dynamo with a heart of gold and a yearning for more than just a passel of devoted fans. Everything is going along hunky-dory until the stripper, Leo D. Nardo (The Titanic Lover) disappears, and the doctors where Gloria gets her treatment start getting killed. Francesca, with her bloodhound nose, surreptitiously tries to solve the crime and winds up getting her own set of death threats. From the South Side to the East Side and all points in between, Viets (a St. Louis hometowner and former columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) knows the city and all its quirks. From the Whispering Arch at Union Station to White Castle* hamburgers at three in the morning (they’re not called Belly Bombers for nothing) to St. Louis-style bodyguards, Viets offers a deftly unique view of the city and its inhabitants, with a wit that is both razor-sharp and gentle. With Doc in the Box, Viets pulls off writing in both comedy and mystery genres with a sure hand that seems as natural as planting flowers in the spring. *Be sure to have a pen and paper handy so that you’ll be able to jot down the recipe for White Castle Pate, probably the only dish Francesca can make. |
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