Over Her Dead Body

Starred review from May 30, 2005
Sharper than a stiletto heel, funnier than a bad dye job and full of fuchsia herrings, White's fourth Bailey Weggins murderfest (after 2004's 'Til Death Do Us Part
) brings back the glitz of the Cosmo
editor-in-chief's bestselling debut, If Looks Could Kill
, and features yet another she-devil magazine editor. After getting the pink slip from her gig at Gloss
("kind of Cosmo
for married chicks"), the sexy sleuth takes a job reporting on celebrity crime for Buzz
, a gossipy magazine helmed by Mona Hodges, who wears Dolce & Gabbana, not Prada, and is notorious for her "verbal bullwhipping." When Bailey discovers Mona's body in the editor's office after hours, Bailey's friend and fellow Buzz
staffer, Robby Hart, becomes a key suspect in her murder. Soon after acting editor Nash Nolan taps Bailey to do the Buzz
investigative article on the crime, Bailey uncovers a zillion other suspects. White keeps the reader guessing whodunit to the end, but the book's main attraction is Bailey herself, with her musings on train-wreck journalism and the perils of falling in love in between worrying if she's next on the killer's list. Catty and bitchy at times, she's all the more appealing because she's not too much of a goody-goody. Agent, Sandra Dijkstra.

May 1, 2005
Trust White, editor in chief at " Cosmopolitan," to know when something needs a makeover. The last entry in her successful series starring true-crime reporter Bailey Weggins, who works at a " Cosmo"-like magazine called " Gloss," felt a little tired." "In a world of $1,000 shoes, how many murders can even an intrepid reporter find to investigate? So, just in the knick of time, Bailey is fired from " Gloss "(and breaks up with her boyfriend), giving the series a jolt of needed energy. Bailey quickly lands a new job, this time with a " People"-like magazine, " Buzz," whose much-despised editor in chief is found murdered days after Bailey is hired. The acting editor assigns our gal the murder story, and Bailey is off and running once more. It's common in the mystery genre for sleuth to outweigh story or vice versa. Not here. Readers, especially those who have followed Bailey through the three previous books, are every bit as interested in her welfare (and personal life) as they are in finding out who killed Mona and why. Bailey's back!(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)