Over Her Dead Body

Would-be authors are often advised to "write what you know", and former Cosmopolitan magazine editor Kate White has done just that with her series featuring Bailey Weggins. In Over Her Dead Body, Bailey has just lost her job at Gloss and lands on her feet with a new one as crime writer for a celebrity rag. She's happy to have it, despite warnings from a co-worker about what a *itch her new boss, Mona, is. But someone bashes Mona in the head, and Bailey's assigned to write an on-the-scene article about the murder from an insider's point of view. There is an entire roster of possible suspects, all of who had axes to grind with Mona.

This is a light, brisk mystery, with the reader following Bailey as she works at solving the case during the day, and at building a new romantic relationship in the evening. She's definitely a Devil Loves Prada, Sex and the City sort of career woman, never hesitating to get down and dirty. The plot is a simple one, but loaded with red herrings (scarlet/vermilion/puce???). There are two neat twists at the end, one for the murder case and the other for the romance, the latter a teaser to entice readers into picking up the sequel. But I like my mysteries a little less chick-litty.

The problem with audiobooks is that if there is a editing screw-up or a phrase that the author uses repeatedly it is more obviously on an audiobook. For instance that space down the middle of a multi-lane highway is a "median" not a "meridian". And by the time Baily had finished her interview I was very, very tired of hearing "I just have one more question". I was complaining about the "one more question" to a friend who said she did that when doing cross and recently the judge had looked at her sardonically and said "No you don't-- you have a lot more." Which is what I wanted to say to Bailey.

Anyway the audiobook was quite well read although the narrator was different from the first Bailey Weggans book I listened to a year ago.

These books are a guilty pleasure to me. The only glossy magazine I read on a regular basis is Vanity Fair-- for the crime stories, yah know. I don't think I've ever read a Cosmopolitan magazine. I'm nowhere near the demographic that I believe Bailey Weggans is geared to and I doubt if I have any idea what a pair of Blahniks would look like. In fact it is a lot like reading a fantasy novel where the author has to do world building-- a skill Kate White has, as she makes me believe that this is what a glossy, gossip magazine would be like under these circumstances.