I enjoyed this mystery for a couple of reasons:

1) I've participated in one of the Durham diet clinics
2) I've been sick with the flu over the holiday weekend, and have enjoyed the light reading.

That being said, I must admit that I'm looking for something a little meatier to read now. Still, I'd like to read the next installment in this series. I did find the protagonist to be a pretty likeable character, and I enjoyed reading a story set in Durham. ( )

Not the book of the same name about anorexia, and clueless about that whole issue, this is a fluffy cosy detective novel set at a fat farm. Our heroine is a TV personality who's out to lose weight and gain a story for the sake of her career.

It's not too bad as an airport/bath/beach read - the prose flows well and the plot twists pleasingly. But it's way too much of a cosy for my tastes, and to top it off, is spoiled further by its Mary Sueishness. Minor spoiler: the guy who is seemingly too good to be true really shouldn't turn out to be actually too good to be true. Not in a detective novel. Maybe in a Mills & Boon. One for the Lifeline box. ( )

The main character is award winning, plus-sized TV news producer Kate Gallagher. Kate arranges to stay at the Hoffman Weight Loss Clinic in Durham NC (aka the Diet Capital of the World – for real – since the Rice Diet in the 1930s started there.) Kate manages a deal with a local TV news station to produce and star in a feature about her own weight loss story to supplement her income since the clinic costs a good bit.

The founder and director of the weight loss clinic, Dr. Hoffman, seems particularly caustic to his clients and Kate finds his body her first morning. He is on the front porch with skewers in his eyes. Kate finds herself on the inside investigating the murder and producing two simultaneous stories for the local news. Things start getting complicated when Kate finds her pulse accelerated by both the attractive British accented Police Detective and a wealthy Lawyer representing the clinic’s new director. Kate quickly finds out she is in a vulnerable position....

Read the rest of the review here: http://mysterysuspence.blogspot.com/2009/12/review-dying-to-be-thin-by-kathryn.h... ( )

Just cute. ( )