When Bailey Weggins receives a phone call from Ashley Hanes, she assumes Ashley needs a fashion or publishing related favor. After all, Bailey only met the woman once when they were both bridesmaids in a wedding, and they didn't have anything in common. But Ashley needs more from Bailey than help getting into a Chanel sample sale. It turns out that two of the bridesmaids from the wedding have died in what appear to be freak accidents. One was electrocuted in her bathtub and the other had a fatal reaction to antidepressants. Ashley is sure the two cases aren't just a horrible coincidence and convinces Bailey to investigate. Before you can say "'Til death do us part," Ashley's lifeless body is found at the bottom of a flight of stairs, and Bailey realizes that she easily could be next on the killer's list.
From Publishers Weekly
The third cleverly plotted Bailey Weggins mystery from Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief White (after 2003's A Body to Die For) provides a juicy inside look at the well-to-do matrons of tony Greenwich, Conn. Lounging at home one winter evening in Manhattan, the 30-something Bailey gets an unexpected call from one of her fellow bridesmaids from "the infamous Cross-Slavin wedding" held the previous spring. Ashley Hanes wants the Gloss magazine true-crime reporter/amateur detective to look into a bizarre coincidence: two bridesmaids have died, both seemingly by accident. So Ashley and Bailey travel to Greenwich to talk with the star of the wedding herself, Peyton Cross. Through her heroine's funny, self-deprecating voice, the author deliciously conveys the milieu of moneyed Greenwich-ites (and their New York counterparts). One has to wonder, though, why the refreshingly down-to-earth Bailey is even friends with the likes of Peyton Cross, a "Bridezilla" unpleasantly obsessed with perfection. White keeps everything light, but she also sustains a real sense of mystery, with less than obvious motives and a positively suspenseful denouement. Ultimately, the pleasures here are more gossipy than criminal.
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Bailey Weggins, the brainchild of Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief White, seems a little tired. Who wouldn't be at the rate she's solving murders: If Looks Could Kill debuted the popular series in 2002 and was followed by A Body to Die For in 2003. Weggins' main job is writing true-crime stories for a Cosmo-like magazine called Gloss, but she seems to stumble across as many dead bodies as she does ideas for articles. Here the deceased are all bridesmaids of a Martha Stewart wanna-be, Peyton Cross. Weggins was in the wedding party, too, so it seems natural for one of the maids left standing to get in touch with her, both for her amateur-sleuthing skills and because she, too, may be marked for death. There are lots of circumlocutions here, but sometimes Weggins (and White) appears to be just going through the motions--it's that time of year, she seems to be saying, so bring on another murder. Despite the signs of fatigue, though, there's still plenty to be entertained by here. The unveiling of the murderer has some bite, and Bailey is as endearing as ever, proving again that, in mysteries, it's not so much what happens as who it happens to that matters. This isn't as strong as its predecessors, but that won't keep it from drawing a crowd. It won't hurt that an hour-long ABC pilot is in the works called Bailey Weggins. Ilene Cooper
Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved
ฯก์ฏฆ๋