Optional reading
Good Morning, Killer by April Smith (Knopf). FBI agent Ana Grey is an astute observer of human behavior on the job--in this case, tracking a serial rapist who targets teens. Yet when it comes to her personal life . . . well, we all know smart women who make foolish choices, but how many of them--especially those in law enforcement-- shoot their bad boyfriend? It's a good read until overly contrived plot twists mar the ending.
A Body to Die For by Kate White (Warner Books). The corpse of a massage therapist wrapped in Mylar (used in spa treatments) kicks off the action in Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief Kate White's second mystery. Wise-mouthed crime reporter Bailey Weggins solves two murders at her friend's Berkshires spa while dodging death (like a suffocating body wrap) in this light and frothy romp.
Death Gets a Time-Out by Ayelet Waldman (Berkley). Juliet Applebaum, a Los Angeles public defender turned stay-at-home mom turned PI, is back for the fourth installment of Waldman's "Mommy-Track" series. Applebaum, who crams her work between nursery school carpools, helps out Lilly, a movie star friend whose stepbrother has been charged with murder. But the plot resolution is too complex, and there are too many minor characters (Lilly's various step-relatives, their personal doctors, and their hangers-on) to keep straight. -Beth Brophy
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