Fitness Kills (Wheeler Large Print Cozy Mystery) | 
 enlarge | Author: Helen Barer
Publisher: Wheeler Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $19.95
You Save: $5.00 (20%)
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 3904037
Format: Large Print
Media: Paperback
Pages: 297
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9
ISBN: 1597226394
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9781597226394
ASIN: 1597226394
Publication Date: November 14, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Riveting! Could not put it down! September 18, 2007
AVid Reader (Michigan)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a riveting FIVE STAR story, masterfully told. Hellen Barer is a wonderful writer and I'm already eagerly awaiting her next one. From the opening chapter, I could not turn the pages fast enough to find out what happens next. Fitness Kills is set in a spa ranch, and Hellen will leave you guessing until the final end.
Buy this book!
Catchy title, gripping mystery September 11, 2007
Reader Views (Austin, Texas)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Reviewed by Olivera Baumgartner-Jackson for Reader Views (09/07)
When I received Helen Barer's "Fitness Kills" in the mail one Tuesday, I had my day all planned out. There were things I didn't particularly want to do, but they needed to be done. But every new book is like a Christmas gift to me, so I opened this book in a striking green dust jacket, thinking I'll read a page or two and then get going. Four hours later I got up, absolutely enchanted with the book I've just read - and could not put down.
Where should I begin? I loved the book on so many levels... The heroine, Nora, is somebody I would love to meet in real life. She is brave and spunky and funny - and 30 pounds overweight after her recent "sort-of-a-break-up-and-then-maybe-not." Ms. Barer's portrayal of the New York food writer, turned into a sleuth, is absolutely brilliant and seeing the life in a posh spa in Baja California through Nora's eyes is a candid and colorful experience. We get to see, feel and definitely smell it.
The story line is engaging and Nora's quest for the killer produces a fair share of nail-biting moments. The best part of it is probably Nora's refusal to take herself too seriously and her refreshing lack of cunning as well as the refusal to believe that people are anything but good. Some would probably call her naive, but I prefer to think of her as good and honest.
Then there are Ms. Barer's wickedly funny descriptions of spa staff and guests, the daily routine of the spa's "torture" (Liquid fast, anybody? How about a hike at dawn?) and Nora's daily struggles to fulfill her role as a menu consultant for the ranch. Some of my absolutely most favorite pages are those where Nora tries to deal with the unsurprisingly temperamental chef or when she cooks or thinks of food. And while I probably won't be tempted to make almond milk - and yes, you should read the book to find out why - I have already made a spicy pumpkin soup.
"Fitness Kills" was a wickedly funny and intelligent read, which I would wholeheartedly recommend to lovers of good mysteries and strong female characters. You will not be sorry that you picked it up and if you are anything like me, your only regret will be that it is not longer. But then the notes on the dust jacket inform the reader that Ms. Barer is already writing the next Nora Franke mystery. I've learned my lesson already - I will know better than to schedule anything else on the day I receive it.
A visit to a Spa, is a vacation--Right? September 5, 2007
Robert E. Keesey (Harrisburg, PA)
A temporary job at a Mexican Spa is just the thing Nora Franke needs to take her mind off her teetering personal relationship.
The work isn't difficult; menu changes, receipt suggestions, lectures, and demonstrations. Her time is more a vacation than work. Nora enjoys the guests and all the perks that the facility offers. At least until a missing guest is found dead from a fall. When a second guest dies mysteriously, all the fun is taken out of her holiday job.
Nora's editor asks her to do an article on the spa and the deaths which turn out not to be from natural causes.
Helen Barer lets you follow Nora as she searches for clues and the truth, and finds lots of both. This book is a good, fun read.
Reviewed by Wanda C. Keesey
Fitness Kills September 2, 2007
V. Kennedy
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A food writer named Nora Frank takes a job in Baja to get away from her former boyfriend and to shed a few pounds. She's been on an eating binge since they broke up and she wants to feel better about herself again.
The job she takes is in a spa. Not long after she arrives there, there's an accident and someone dies. Nora makes several new friends, all of whom hung out with the deceased. One of them, Ce Ce insists that there's something fishy going on. She doesn't believe the victim would have climbed a mountain by himself and fallen off. No one pays much attention until Ce Ce herself dies of poison.
Nora is upset and decides to find out the motives behind the murders and the culprit, whoever he or she may be. There are plenty of suspects to go around and Nora starts checking each of them out.
Max, her ex- boyfriend arrives to try to help, but Nora manages to get herself in hot water with some of the locals as the suspense keeps mounting. Can Nora find the killer before he or she kills her?
I enjoyed reading Fitness Kills and think it's a great beginning for Barer's series.
 3 stars August 31, 2007
Amanda Killgore (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Spending time at a health spa and getting paid to do so might sound like a dream job. However, food writer Nora Franke, who has landed that job as part of an assignment to make over the resort's menu while she writes an article on them, finds it less than dreamy. First, fitness is tough work. Secondly, people are dying and as she starts to probe the murders, she becomes a potential target.
*** Nora's strong, honest voice leads readers through the maze of clues to a surprising ending that only the most savvy armchair sleuths will even begin to guess at. The conclusion is one that will haunt you. On a side note, Nora's trouble relationship with Max is also an intriguing aspect to the plot, one that readers will enjoy seeing developed as the series grows, I predict.
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