Lethally Blond (Bailey Weggins Mysteries, No. 5) [Paperback]

Kate White (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 29, 2008

New York Times bestselling author and Cosmopolitan editor in chief Kate White delivers a sensational mystery that sends her gutsy, single, thirty-something sleuth Bailey Weggins behind the scenes of a hot new TV show--now available in trade paperback.


Do old flames burn brightest? Now that the TV show Morgue is shooting in Manhattan, the crime journalist for Buzz is remembering her fling with its gorgeous star, Chris Wickersham. But when Chris does contact Bailey Weggins, his intentions are all too honorable: It's to tell her that an actor from the show has gone missing.

Delving deep into the glamorous yet crazy world of TV, Bailey soon finds herself in the middle of a killer story--literally. And as the case gets hotter, so does the action under the covers--especially the moment Bailey's crush Beau Regan comes back to town. With a dead body on the scene, ominous phone calls, and a stalker targeting her, it's clear that this reporter must unearth the truth now--beforeshe becomes the inspiration for Morgue's next episode.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this stylish, funny fifth caper (after 2005's Over Her Dead Body) from Cosmopolitan magazine editor-in-chief White, Buzz gossip mag reporter Bailey Weggins takes a moment off from tracking celebrity crime to hunt down a missing actor. Her one-time hunky fling, Chris Wickersham, calls on her for help finding his friend Tom Fain, who appears with Chris on the TV show Morgue, a C.S.I.-type drama shooting in New York City. Bailey and Chris learn that Tom had been having an affair with the producer's girlfriend and that he withdrew $7,000 in cash before he disappeared. Bailey's dogged pursuit of Tom's trail leads to his family home in upstate New York, where she discovers his rotting remains. Even when another member of the Morgue cast is murdered and Bailey also becomes a target of a very theatrical killer, her lively love life continues with a renewed flirtation with Chris and lingering attraction to another fling, documentary filmmaker Beau Regan. White's flair for pop culture and affection for single career women make this trendy romantic suspense cocktail an addictive read. (May 23)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Bailey Weggins, crime reporter for Buzz magazine, makes her fifth appearance in a mystery where the premise is weak, but the execution is as clever as it is hot. When former fling and sweet stud Chris Wickersham asks Bailey to look into the disappearance of a fellow actor on his TV show, Morgue, she agrees. Someone else might make a couple of phone calls, but rather inexplicably Bailey drives upstate to the missing man's country home. He's there, dead in the bathtub, where he's been for a couple of weeks. Not pretty. That puts Bailey right in the middle of a mystery teeming with TV types, actors, producers, and PR people, one of whom seriously wants Bailey dead. The pace is frantic, but fortunately Bailey has time to have some serious sex with not one but two gorgeous guys, giving her the option to worry about who she should be with as well as who is trying to kill her. Author White, Cosmopolitan editor in chief, continues her winning Weggins' streak. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 323 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (April 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446196908
• ISBN-13: 978-0446196901
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,313,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kate White is recognized internationally as not only the veteran editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, the best-selling women's magazine in the world, but also as the critically acclaimed author of both fiction and nonfiction books. Few high-profile editors have successfully balanced the rigors of overseeing a major magazine title with a thriving and independent writing career.

It all began when Kate won Glamour magazine's Top Ten College Women contest and appeared on the cover. Kate earned a position at the magazine and quickly rose from editorial assistant to feature writer and columnist. After holding key jobs at several national magazines, she became an editor-in-chief, running four magazines (including Redbook) before taking the helm at Cosmopolitan in 1998.

Drawing on experiences from her successful career, Kate published the bestselling career bibles Why Good Girls Don't Get Ahead...but Gutsy Girls Do in 1995 and 9 Secrets of Women who Get Everything They Want in 1998. Her most recent nonfiction book, You on Top: Smart Sexy Skills Every Woman Needs to Set the World on Fire published in 2006.

But Kate also has a passion for writing fiction. In penning her first novel, If Looks Could Kill, in 2002--which was selected as Live With Regis and Kelly's first Reading With Ripa Book Club pick--Kate introduced her gutsy and irreverent sleuth, Bailey Weggins. Ms. Weggins went on to solve more grisly murders and entertain readers in A Body to Die For (2003), 'Til Death Do Us Part (2004), Over Her Dead Body (2005), and then again in Lethally Blond (2007), all New York Times bestsellers. The books were recently optioned by Lions Gate Pictures.

Kate's highly anticipated first thriller, HUSH, with her new publisher HarperCollins, will be available in bookstores March 2010. HUSH marks Kate's entry into a whole new genre. Set in the world of fertility clinics and hailed as a "pulse-pounding, chilling, and provocative" read, it's the story of an ordinary woman who flees the scene of a murder and realizes it's not just the law that is hunting her.

Kate's writer's eye has been described by the New York Times as "scathingly observant," capturing "the mood...with a verisimilitude some of her peers might recognize." The Los Angeles Times says of Kate's work: "It's like devouring a box of chocolates!"

Through her magazine work and books, Kate White has influenced at least two generations of women with her unique honesty, passion, and imagination. She is the winner of the Matrix Award for Outstanding Achievement in Communication, as well as the Woodhall Institute Award for Ethical Leadership.

Kate currently resides in Manhattan with her husband and two children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Yet!, May 25, 2007

By 

Fritzy (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lethally Blond (Hardcover)

I've been reading Ms White's books for years, and I have enjoyed them all. But this is the best yet. Her adorable heroine, Bailey, finds herself entangled in the self-obsessed world of New York actors, investigating the sudden disappearance of one of them. Danger and mystery are around every piece of scenery. This has such a ring of reality to it, you know that White must have spent endless hours getting to know these people and the insecure, suspicious and glamorous world they inhabit. And from her position as head of Cosmo, she presumably has great access to celebs and their secrets, which must have helped. Do yourself a favor and take this one along for a fun, gripping, can't-put-it-down experience!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Writing keeps getting better - get a copy editor, though, please!, July 3, 2008

By 

cmp (Merrimack, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Lethally Blond (Bailey Weggins Mysteries, No. 5) (Paperback)

If you did a search on "see all reviews" by me, you could look back several years and see that I was not terribly impressed with the first Bailey Weggins novel. I wasn't sure I'd read the follow ups, but over the years, I have. I don't pick them up as soon as they're published, but I get around to them.

The writing keeps getting better. Bailey is becoming more filled out as a character. I do wish she'd get a little smarter - after nearly being killed several times, you'd think she'd let people know where she was going once in a while - but she's becoming more likeable.

The overall tone, too, is to me becoming better because we're getting more "mystery" and less angst and drama in the magazine business. I understand who Kate White is, and of course the magazine world is what she's interested in and knows well, but I prefer it when she gets away from it for a bit, as she seems to do more in this outing.

This book in particular has a nice solid mystery. It's nothing terribly surprising, but it keeps you guessing. I also appreciate that it could work as a stand alone. I normally say with series mysteries, "Don't start with this - you'll get confused or feel like you're missing out," but I don't think it holds here. If you like it, you could go backwards to "catch up" but you wouldn't be lost if you start here.

My only real complaint is that this is one of the most poorly edited books I've read in a long time - at least in the beginning. Although I know I make mistakes when writing - reviews or otherwise - I am very aware of mistakes or grammatical errors in books, newspapers, magazines - anything that should really have been read too many times by too many people to let this stuff through. Within the first few chapters I found a paragraph where Chris, Bailey's friend, TWICE referred to his missing friend by the name "Chris" in his dialogue. Um, no. Then within another page or two, someone says "ring his neck" - not the right way to spell it in that case, folks.

This just seems sloppy and turned me off a little, although it really has nothing to do with the plot.

All in all, I'll be reading the next one - though again, I probably won't race to get it on the release day. You'll enjoy it if you like the series - or if you're a fan of the "amateur woman sleuth, not too gritty" type mysteries.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Read, September 13, 2008

By 

Bibliophile By the Sea (US) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Lethally Blond (Hardcover)

Lethally Blond by Kate White was a fun audio book to listen to. It took me a little longer to finish than I anticipated, and that was because some parts dragged a bit so it took my longer to get back to it. The readers voice/voices are were not annoying which is always a plus.

In this book Bailey Weggins, celebrity crime reporter of the BUZZ is back. Bailey gets a call from an old flame saying that his friend Tom is missing. Since Bailey has solved a few cases in the past, she agrees to help try to find him, and follows a few leads. Tom turns up dead and there is long list of suspects. Now Bailey begins her search for the murderer.

Since I do enjoy some "fluff" from time to time in a novel, this one fit the bill.