Even If It Kills Her (Bailey Weggins Series #7)

by Kate White

Overview

In this exhilarating new thriller from New York Times bestselling author Kate White, one young woman searches for clues to the murder of her family, only to discover a shocking secret about herself that holds the key to everything.

Jillian Lowe seemed to have it all. Both beautiful and accomplished, she lit up any room that she walked into. All of that dramatically changed when her parents and two siblings were brutally murdered at her childhood home her second year in college. The crime shattered what was once a picture-perfect family and nearly derailed Jillian’s hopes for her future.

Now, sixteen years later, Jillian is shocked to learn that the man imprisoned for murdering her family didn't do it. With the real killer walking free and the cops dragging their heels, Jillian once again feels her life unraveling, and desperately seeks help from an old friend from college, true crime writer Bailey Weggins. 

As the two women return to Jillian’s childhood town to investigate, it doesn’t take long for their sleuthing to cause shock waves. Someone starts watching their every move. As they uncover deeply-guarded secrets, so shocking that they make Jillian rethink her entire relationship to her family, Bailey and Jillian find themselves in fear of their own lives. The truth has consequences and they must decide if they’re ready to face them. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062448873
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/31/2017
Series:	Bailey Weggins Series , #7
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	678,778
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Kate White, former editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, is the New York Times bestselling author of Between Two Strangers and eight other standalone psychological thrillers, as well as eight Bailey Weggins mysteries, including Such a Perfect Wife, which was nominated for an International Thriller Writers Award. 

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

1950

Place of Birth:

Glens Falls, New York

Education:

Union College, 1972

Website:

http://www.KateWhite.com

Editorial Reviews

08/21/2017
In White’s tepid seventh Bailey Weggins mystery (after 2012’s So Pretty It Hurts), Bailey, now a true-crime journalist who does a little amateur sleuthing on the side, is surprised to run into a college friend, Jillian Lowe, at an event at Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y, where Bailey is promoting her latest true-crime book. Bailey hasn’t seen Jillian in 16 years, not since Jillian’s parents and two younger siblings were murdered in their home in the Berkshires town of Dory, Mass. New DNA evidence has exonerated the man originally convicted of the crime, and Jillian wants Bailey’s help in reinvestigating her family’s murder. Two days later, Bailey and Jillian drive to Dory, where they hope to uncover the truth. After one potential witness is murdered and Bailey is attacked, Bailey realizes that the original killer is still loose and that, because they’re stirring up the past, she and Jillian are squarely in harm’s way. A predictable plot and a contrived ending will disappoint newcomers, but series fans will enjoy catching up with Bailey. Agent: Sandra Dijkstra, Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

White builds suspense masterfully, and this seventh in the Bailey Weggins series has the makings of another hit. Bailey is a smart, sexy sleuth, and her exploits make for thoroughly entertaining reading.

Booklist

White builds suspense masterfully, and this seventh in the Bailey Weggins series has the makings of another hit. Bailey is a smart, sexy sleuth, and her exploits make for thoroughly entertaining reading.

Booklist

2017-08-03
A true-crime writer travels to small-town Massachusetts to investigate the murder of a friend's family years earlier only to find a tangle of secrets and lies.Bailey Weggins (So Pretty It Hurts, 2012, etc.) leads a comfortable life in Manhattan: she has a new book out and is on the hunt for her next subject. When Jillian Lowe walks into one of Bailey's author events, it's a blast from the past, and not an entirely pleasant one. They were college pals 16 years earlier when Jillian left school abruptly after her parents and two younger siblings were slaughtered in their home in Dory, Massachusetts. Neighborhood teen Dylan Fender confessed to the crime, and Bailey has always regretted that she never reached out to Jillian after the murders, letting their friendship lapse. Now Jillian has a professional proposition for Bailey and a way for her to atone for her friendship sins: DNA evidence just proved that Fender was wrongly convicted—though he tragically died in jail before being exonerated—and Jillian wants Bailey to find the real killer. Returning to Dory is jarring for Jillian and informative for Bailey, whose investigation often seems to hinge more on luck than on deductive reasoning skills. White (The Secrets You Keep, 2017, etc.) leans heavily on the cliché of the smaller the town, the bigger (and dirtier) its secrets, but Bailey's digging into the lives of the not-so-perfect Lowes does yield a few genuine twists. The continued and unsuccessful attempts on Bailey's life is a well-worn trope but isn't out of place here. A murder case almost two decades old often takes a back seat to the ups and downs of a friendship finding its footing after years and tragedy have taken their tolls—a familiar but well-executed mix.

Kirkus Reviews

Compulsively readable and skillfully plotted, EVEN IF IT KILLS HER is Kate White’s dynamic return to the Bailey Weggins series. It entertains and excites from the very first page – I dare you to put it down!” — Karin Slaughter, New York Times and International Bestselling Author  

“White builds suspense masterfully, and this seventh in the Bailey Weggins series has the makings of another hit. Bailey is a smart, sexy sleuth, and her exploits make for thoroughly entertaining reading.” — Booklist

“Well-executed...The smaller the town, the bigger (and dirtier) its secrets.” — Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Compulsively readable and skillfully plotted, EVEN IF IT KILLS HER is Kate White’s dynamic return to the Bailey Weggins series. It entertains and excites from the very first page – I dare you to put it down!

Karin Slaughter