So Pretty It Hurts: A Bailey Weggins Mystery [Hardcover]

So Pretty It Hurts is loosely based on the theme of a murder weekend mystery, featuring a group of guests invited to the country home of a rich and famous record producer. Most of the guests are amongst the rich and famous (or at least the periphery), including super models, a rock star, a writer, an agent and his wife, two women from a celebrity gossip magazine, and the assorted housekeepers, personal assistants, and other staff. An unexpected snowstorm strands the party at the country home, forcing the group to spend more time together than planned.

One of the guests from the celebrity gossip magazine is actually a true crime writer, and the heroine of So Pretty It Hurts, Bailey Weggins. Sensitive to atmosphere and the tense personal relationships amongst the group, Bailey is quick to observe everyone's behavior and actions. When one of the models dies unexpectedly, followed by a power failure, Bailey's thoughts immediately turn to potential murder and motives.

Once she returns to New York City, Bailey suspects that someone has capitalized on the model's anorexia and what appears to be an accidental death is actually murder. As Bailey tries to uncover the truth through research and interviews, she becomes caught up in a web of deceit and trickery that threatens her career and eventually, her life.

So Pretty It Hurts builds tension through several near resolutions of the crime, exposing the weaknesses and obsessions of several characters before finally revealing the perpetrators for a crime subtler than the reader has perhaps expected.
The sixth Bailey Wiggins mystery, So Pretty It Hurts is a story that mixes mostly fun with a few tense moments. The only part of the book I did not enjoy was Bailey's immature relationship with her new boyfriend, Beau. Bailey's approach to this romance seemed out of character, and distracted from the overall story. Otherwise, So Pretty It Hurts is an amusing and enjoyable mystery story.

Bailey Weggins is a true-crime journalist now doing free-lance work for "Buzz", a magazine specializing in stories about celebrities. Many of the stories published by the magazine are sensationalistic, although Bailey is more of a fact-based reporter. She is also in the midst of developing a serious love relationship with a man name Beau Regan. When Beau is out of town for the weekend, Bailey agrees to accompany her friend Jessie to the rural home of a music mogul for a gathering of celebrities and their aides. The situation there is complicated by a major snowstorm that strands the guests and knocks out the power.
Skinny model and now turned singer Devon Barr is one of the celebrities at the gathering and she is a self-absorbed brat. However, Devon also expresses some fear and when she is found dead in her bed; to others it seems that she had a heart attack due to the stress from her eating disorder. However, Bailey is a quality detective and she notes some unusual aspects of the death.
The case follows several gyrations, it is clear that someone did what they could to push Devon over the edge to death, but it is not clear which of the people actually had the courage to do it. Like many good murder mysteries, there were many with a motive, the issue is to try to determine which one actually acted on it.
This is a mystery where no shots are fired or punches thrown, so if you want action this is not the place to find it. There is some romance, the relationship between Bailey and Beau is an uncertain one, there is suspicion between them and Bailey is uncertain what to do. However, she has no hesitation in pursuing the case, even when her career and life are put in jeopardy.
Based in New York City, this is a murder mystery based on thought, intertwined relationships and a dogged pursuit of the answers. As an Iowa farm boy, I was pleased when Bailey saves herself by remembering a weekend she spent on a working farm when she was young. That was a nice twist for a story based in New York City and involving the entertainment industry.

A new spin on an old formula. The weekend house filled with guests, one of whom dies under mysterious circumstances, first attributed to a possible eating disorder, but could it have been murder? Throw in a snowstorm so no one can leave and calamity ensues. There were a lot of characters to keep straight to the point where I remembered the page number where they were first introduced so I could go back and figure out who was who, but there are plenty of red herrings, and quite the surprising twist at the end. I like the Bailey Weggins character and the fact that she's a crime reporter makes her snoopiness into crimes more believable than some other mysteries where the book seller or the caterer are always falling over dead bodies and solving the crime. There is also the relationship with the new boyfriend and they allude to questions regarding him as well, so something more to guess at. Don't worry if you haven't read the other Bailey Weggins books; sufficient background is given to cover her history and has little to do with the current story. (The books have been released far enough apart that even if we have read the previous ones, it's hard to recall her history.) All in all, an enjoyable read that kept me guessing.