GRIPPING RESEARCH

I said my first words in a bar—“orange sody.” I eventually outgrew my love of Whistle orange soda, but I have a lifelong interest in bars.

- Elaine Viets

Bars are part of the American class system. The rich hang out in wood-paneled watering holes. Working people prefer neon-signed neighborhood saloons, and the so-called lower rungs of society congregate in dive bars.

Death Grip, my new Angela Richman, Death Investigator mystery, is set in mythical Chouteau County, Missouri, home of the one-percent. In this novel, a wealthy CEO, who dates beautiful women and gives millions to charity, has a dark secret: He hunts down poor young women, strangles them, and buries them deep in the woods. Death investigator Angela Richman is called to the scene of his latest victim, who left behind a clue identifying her killer.