Kate White, Over Her Dead Body - In a Greenwich Village caf , Gloss magazine editor Cat Jones informs her human interest-crimes contributor Bailey Weggins that they no longer want her services as the publication is going to concentrate on bliss not buzz. Desperate, Bailey asks her friend Robby Hart, senior editor at Buzz magazine, if he has any leads for a job. To her amazement he hires hire to provide articles on celebrity crime.

Bailey is taken aback at Buzz when she first encounters the big boss Mona Hodges, who yells, curses and demeans her staff before eating her chicken salad sandwich and then goes back to yell, curse and demean her staff again. Not long after Bailey starts, Mona stunningly fires Robby. Soon after that, Bailey finds Mona's battered corpse late at night in the office. The police suspect Robby killed Mona in a fit of unemployment rage. Bailey knows her friend could not harm anyone, so using her journalistic investigative skills; she begins her own inquiries into who killed the she-devil boss.

OVER HER DEAD BODY is an entertaining, journalistic, investigative tale starring a likable heroine (see 'TIL DEATH DO US PART, A BODY TO DIE FOR and IF LOOKS COULD KILL). The storyline is fast-paced at first in a breezy manner but quickly turns into a dangerous sleuthing endeavor for the intrepid reporter. Mona is a stereotype of the "queen of mean" so that everyone within her circle of ugliness wants her dead. Thus Bailey's efforts to prove someone other than Robby committed homicide seems overwhelming for her, but not for series fans who will enjoy Kate White's latest tale refreshed by a new magazine cover.

Warner, Jul 2005, $24.95
ISBN: 0446531766

Harriet Klausner