Review and Giveaway: Pumped for Murder by Elaine Viets

Hardcover, 272 pages

Expected publication: May 3rd 2011 by NAL Hardcover 

ISBN 0451233204 (ISBN13: 9780451233202)

Starting a new detective agency is not an easy task, as Phil and Helen Hawthorne, newleyweds, are finding out. Fortunately, their landlady at the Coronado apartments in Miami is more than willing to help out. She manages to get them their first two clients; Gus, whose brother committed suicide more than 20 years ago, wants them to prove it was homicide instead and Shelby wants them to prove her husband, Bryan, is cheating on her.

One way for the duo to work on the suspicious husband case is for Helen to get a job at the gymn where Bryan spends most of his time. This way she can see if he is having an affair with another gym rat. While trying to find out more about Bryan, Helen is on the premises when a corpse of Debbie, a local bodybuilder, is found.  Another gymn member, Evie, is arrested but Helen is convinced she is innocent and that solving this particular case would bring the new agency a lot of publicity. How to prove it? That takes some doing!

Phil has his hands busy with the other case and it leads him in some mighty interesting directions.

What I liked about this mystery  is the use of a married couple as main characters. They work well together as each has different strengths. The flavor of Miami  was well portrayed throughout the story.

 Pumped for Murder is the 10th in the series with this being a new-to-me author, I know I will be going back and starting the series from the beginning just to see how their relationship started out.

Disclosure: A Review copy of the book was provided by Berkley Prime Crime in exchange for my honest opinion.

To celebrate the release of Pumped for Murder, Penguin Group is allowing me to host a giveaway for one copy of the book. US only. Deadline to enter is May 20th at 5 PM. Be sure to include an e mail address in your comment. Good luck!

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