A Body to Die For
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4.3 • 102 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
New York Times bestselling author Kate White returns with another mystery for true crime writer, Bailey Weggins as victims seem to be getting a little too relaxed at a spa, and Bailey is the only one who can figure out the truth.
Bailey Weggins, the very clever and the very irreverent true crime writer for Gloss, a leading women's magazine, is in desperate need of a little R&R after solving the murder of her boss' nanny. A trip to the Cedar Inn and Spa seems like the perfect remedy. Bailey, totally full of Zen after her deep tissue massage, looks forward to all of the other treatments. Getting ready for bed, she realizes she forgot the Rolex that her father gave her before he died. She and Piper, her massage therapist, go back, only to discover a dead body getting a seaweed wrap. The body turns out to be Anna, another massage therapist.
Detective Beck arrives, and against her better judgment, Bailey becomes infatuated with him, forgetting her tepid relationship with her boyfriend. Bailey learns that one of Anna's clients died of heart failure after she worked on him. Then the spa owner's second husband, who was clandestinely pursuing Anna, becomes suspect number one. But Anna's past also provides numerous suspects. Was she killed by a client who'd been rebuffed? Or by a male therapist who she'd apparently spurned? Or the son of the heart attack victim who blames the spa for this father's death? Or by someone from her deeper past? Bailey keeps digging, getting closer to the truth. Then there's a second horrifying murder at the inn, and it's clear that Bailey's life is in danger. Nothing prepares her for the answer she finds as she finally discovers who the murderer is.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bailey Weggins, the heroine of Cosmo editor-in-chief White's bestselling debut, If Looks Could Kill (2002), proves that her sleuthing ability was no fluke in this solid follow-up. Depressed by her nonexistent love life, Bailey, a freelance true-crime writer for Gloss magazine, leaves Manhattan for some R&R at the Cedar Inn and Spa in Warren, Mass., owned and run by an old friend of her mother's. Her first night there, however, she stumbles on the corpse of one of the inn's female therapists wrapped in silver Mylar paper. Anna Cole's murder, on top of the accidental death of a male client months earlier, could spell doom for the inn, unless Bailey can get to the bottom of things. Meanwhile, Jack Herlihy, the smooth shrink from her prior outing, surfaces with a plausible excuse for his earlier disappearing act, while "dashing" Jeffrey Beck, the local detective who's looking into Anna's murder, also attracts, despite his cool professional demeanor. Bailey bravely deals with threats (a dead mouse wrapped in Mylar in the mail), deftly pumps people for information (a scene with a local waitress is a gem) and comes to a startling conclusion after the murder of a second therapist just before the heart-stopping, heroine-in-peril climax. Though the glamorous New York magazine world has only a small role here, fans will find Bailey's sassy wit as engaging as ever and are sure to admire the skill with which White pulls together all the threads. Literary Guild, Doubleday Book Club and BOMC; Mystery Guild alternate.
Customer Reviews
English teacher
God, she is an incredible writer! I live in New York, I teach English and that familiarity makes it even more vivid to me, but her subtle references to actual places and states of being put the reader into the shoes of the protagonist. I am dizzied by her writing and cannot put her books down!