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Title: A Body to Die For
Score:
Author: Kate White
Rating: Not available
Hits: 106

Review of A Body to Die For

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Comments for A Body to Die For

• Posted on 2008-12-18
  A Mystery to Die For
  
  Magazine writer Bailey Weggins gets invited to spend a free weekend at friend's spa in Warren, Massachusetts. Down in the dumps a bit, she accepts. Upon arrival late in the evening, she gets a massage. Back in her room Bailey realizes she's left her Rolex in the massage room. A normal person might wait till the next day, but this was her father's watch and she's very attached to it.
  
  In a panic Bailey goes for the phone and finds out from a woman named Natalie, that Piper, the woman who gave her the massage has gone to town and Bailey decides to wait for Piper's return. When Piper gets back they find a body wrapped in silver paper on the floor.
  
  Bailey puts her magazine writing detective hat on. She wants to solve this case as does police detective Jeffrey Beck, who just might be the cure for what had Bailey down in those dumps. Then someone else is murdered and maybe Bailey's the next on the list.
  
  Okay, I read this book in one evening. It was very easy to get into and I cared about the characters right from the start, which is always a good sign in a mystery. Kate White is an excellent writer and knows her way around an intriguing mystery.
  
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• Posted on 2008-11-29
  About what I expected...
  
  This book was a pleasant, quick read. I read it after a gripping Sandra Brown book, so it paled a bit in comparison, but held my attention and had me trying to guess "who done it". I would recommend and will read more of Ms White's books.
  
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• Posted on 2008-10-24
  Wouldn't recommend
  
  I read this book at the suggestion of a friend. Although the plot was interesting, it couldn't keep my attention. I prefer Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series to this. I will not read any more of Kate White's books for the simple fact that I can't get into them as well.
  
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• Posted on 2007-11-12
  A book hits rock-bottom ... clunk!
  
  Kate White, the author of "A Body to Die For," has a day job. She is editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan the best selling women's magazine in the world. On her website, Editor-in-Chief White has this to say about writing: "Cosmo's the largest magazine in the world and we don't think of it as a starting point for writers. You need to have experience writing for smaller publications and gradually work your way up."
  
  Now, what would Editor-in-Chief White say to someone who submitted a piece to Cosmo that started off with this leaden clunker, an all but classic "had-I-but-known"?
  
  "When I think back on everything terrible that happened that autumn--the murders, the grim discovery I made, the danger I found myself in--I realize I probably could have avoided all of it if my love life hadn't been so sucky." [Page 1 of the paperback edition]
  
  There is a kind of twisted genius in that opening sentence. Who, while wincing at the consecutive dull thuds of "the grim discovery I made" and "the danger I found myself in," would ever anticipate the approaching awfulness of "if my love life hadn't been so sucky"?
  
  And what would Editor White say--on the vastly unlikely chance that she continued to read beyond that initial catastrophe--about a writer who dropped one of the hoariest, most moss-bearded mystery story clichés into the middle of her story?
  
  "Shouldn't we tell this to the police?" Danny asked eagerly. "This could help them stop focusing on [another character]."
  Not yet. There's not enough evidence, and they'd only scoff at my little theory. Besides, Beck [the lead investigating officer] would be pissed off that I was butting in. Let me pursue it on my own for a bit." [Page 241]
  
  Bad as that is, it's easily matched by a scene in which the intrepid heroine, Bailey Weggins, is assaulted, very likely with homicidal intent, by a method virtually identical to that by which the first victim (whose dead body said intrepid heroine had discovered) was slain. Does Bailey scream bloody murder? Does she call the cops? Does she leap promptly out of harm's way? Does she take any rational measure to protect herself? Why, bless you, no, of course not. Bailey says, "It's clear I've pushed someone's buttons, but I promise I'll be more careful." [Page 261] Yeah, that'll do it!
  
  The old hard-boiled detective stories established a tradition of the shamus cracking wise. This is no hard-boiled story, but mystery writers and readers are still attracted to the notion. Here is author White struggling to make Bailey crack wise: "I was up by seven-thirty Friday morning, after a shortage of REM sleep so severe that it would have been illegal for me to operate heavy machinery." [Page 266] As wisecracks go, that tin-eared passage makes Bailey pretty feeble competition for Spade and Marlowe.
  
  Author White is undoubtedly game, and clearly there's no cliché she doesn't love. Here's another one. A new dead body has just been found. The police have come. Bailey doesn't talk to the cops; she ruminates.
  
  I should have spoken up. Yes, I'd wanted to protect Danny's business, and that was the main reason I hadn't come clean to Beck ..., but I had also been caught up in playing Nancy Drew and the Cedar Inn Corpse. Because of my pride and my ego, I was partly responsible for [her] death. [Page 312]
  
  At last, and I fear inevitably, we come to the cliché of clichés. Bailey is talking to Cordelia, a masseuse at the spa which has been the scene of multiple murders.
  
  "I think [another employee] did those things to you during the wrap," [Cordelia] said.
  "Think?"
  "I mean I'm almost positive he did...."
  "Okay, well, take me through it, then."
  "I can't right this second. But I thought if you wanted to meet me in a little while, maybe around seven, I could explain everything I found out."
  I didn't like Cordelia much, and she'd never seemed to like me.... But I said yes, I would see her. I needed to learn what she was up to. She said she was staying at a friend's place and gave me directions. [Page 329]
  
  Now I ask you, is there any mystery reader in the world who thinks those directions to a friend's place are going to lead anywhere but to trouble?
  
  The mystery story genre, by and large, does not aspire to the status of high literature. Its sub-category, the cozy mystery, aims lower still, and the sub-sub-category containing all those female, part-time sleuths who are employed in glamorous New York jobs, aims lowest of all. Nevertheless, there are standards to be upheld, however humble and lowly they might be. And this lazily-conceived, slovenly written, over-long, hackneyed, passionless, humorless, improbably plotted, by-the-numbers, job-lot of cloth-eared verbiage huddled under the wholly uninspired title of "A Body to Die For" fails on every point.
  
  This book is a waste of time that contrives to sink almost to the level of some Dan Brown-like effusion hag-ridden with background music from Andrea Bocelli. Self-respecting mystery fans, flee from this book! And if you see someone possessed by it, cry Beware! Beware! / his flashing eyes! his floating hair! / weave a circle round him thrice, / and close your eyes with holy dread!
  
  One star.
  
  (And yes, you bet your sweet patootie I'm holding Editor-in-Chief White to a higher standard than I'd apply to some actual writer ernestly attempting to tell a story to the best of his or her ability. Go read Christie or Sayers or Doyle or Hammett or Spillane, or about crime-solving cats or dabbling homemakers or reformed vampires or anything or anybody else.)
  
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• Posted on 2007-09-23
  The epitome of a beach book
  
  I picked this up when I had some time to kill on a hot summer afternoon and was pleasantly surprised. It exceeded my expectations which is not saying a lot, but it was still a satisfying read. Like an episode of Murder, She Wrote with a younger sleuth at the center of the story, it was a perfect book for reading outside in the shade. It took me longer than anticipated to finish it since it dragged a fair bit, but was still worth the effort, especially since it had a quite thrilling climax, considering much of what came before was far from a page-turner. I was mostly interested in reading this because of the author's relationship to Cosmopolitan magazine, and it proved to be a fun diversion, much like the magazine itself. I wouldn't be opposed to reading another book in this series, as the author has a fun writing style and the narrator is charming and relatable.
  
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