Over His Dead Body

by Leslie Glass

In this delightfully infectious novel of love and intrigue, Leslie Glass puts a sly and sexy spin on two of life’s most devastating death and taxes.

Cassandra Sales is a woman with a gift for nurturing things—her husband, the successful wine importer; her two adult children; the fabulous flowers in her garden. After twenty-six years of marriage, however, Cassie’s husband, Mitch, is spending more time skipping abroad than remaining at home with her. Tired of being a modest Long Island housewife who can’t even remember what it’s like to be kissed, Cassie has a face-lift to recapture her youthful allure. The surprise for her husband goes awry when Mitch returns home early from a business trip. When he sees the post-op horror show, he collapses on the spot.

The resulting coma may spare Mitch from the tax audit he’s facing, but Cassie is forced to step in and research the facts of her own life. What she discovers about Mitch and the family business shocks her to the her “loving” husband was preparing to divorce her, swindle her out of tons of money, and run off with another woman.

As Cassie recuperates, she realizes what she’s after is revenge. Big time. But she soon learns that the road to retribution can lead to unforeseen and often deadly complications.

In Over His Dead Body , Leslie Glass blends supreme suspense and warm-hearted romantic comedy into a perfect mélange that is as inevitable as. . . death and taxes.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

LESLIE GLASS's new book, the Mother Daughter Relationship Makeover is a memoir and exploration of the issues that drive mothers and daughters (and also sons) apart. Her experience as founder and editor of Reach Out Recovery, the online wellness and recovery magazine, inspired her to move beyond her beloved April Woo mystery series and focus on helping people by writing recovery books for people of all ages. Since 2011, she has produced two award winning documentaries, The Secret World of Recovery, and The Silent Majority and developed a website with followers from all over the globe wanting to know more about addiction, recovery, relationships, and health. Reach Out Recovery has more than 1500 original articles.

In her early career Leslie worked in publishing and has written for a variety of media. She was a journalist at New York magazine and a short-story and feature writer for Cosmopolitan and Woman’s Own in Great Britain. A playwright and the author of the critically acclaimed mystery series featuring NYPD Detective Sergeant April Woo, Glass is also the author of Over His Dead Body, Sleeper, The Teen Guide to Health, Find Your True Colors in 12 Steps, The 8 C's That Help Me Be All Right.
She lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Series
* April Woo Mystery

Reviews

[Kaitlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to get through when you’re very much young and unfamiliar with lawyer, IRS, and financial jargon. Happy with the ending, though!

[Jess Van Dyne-Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice start but bogged down quickly with too many characters, not enough plot and almost no explanation for what went on. The main character had too much chatter in her head and too many excuses for what happened - 3/4 of the way through, she's (despite ALL, LAID-OUT, EXPLAINED-BY-MANY-PEOPLE reasoning) STILL making excuses for her husband. None of the characters were particularly likeable or sympathetic.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of Leslie Glass' book, Over His Dead Body, fits the plot of the book perfectly! When Cassie Sales turns 50, she wishes she could start over. Married to a top wine importer, with two grown children, about the only thing in her life that she enjoys, is spending time in her garden. But as the book begins, "stories unfold sideways, backwards, upside down. In a single second truth can be shifted like cards and scattered in all directions, never to be arranged the same way again." Cassie begins to recuperate from a face-lift, but before she can even explain what she's done, her husband, Mitch has a stroke! While he is in a coma, she begins to learn that he has been living a double life with a long time girlfriend. When the IRS sends someone for a tax audit, she discovers that she has been kept in the dark on many things involving Mitch's business and his life. This book entertained me from the very beginning. I kept turning the pages until I finished the 321 pages in one sitting. The characters were all well developed and the plot had great pacing. I enthusiastically rooted for Cassie to get her life back!! I give this book 5 stars!!

[Meredith C · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a humorous and fast read with a satisfying ending. I took off a star for all the fat shaming of minor characters.

The wine trivia bores me. Fancy wine seems such a waste of money, but whatever floats your boat.

[Carol Guertin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read. Sometimes it could get longwinded about some characters.

[Nikki (Bonds) Mitsunaga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly confusing, too draw out and the story line was completely predictable, but a decent poolside read.

[karen sharpe]

Bad - couldn't finish it.

[po0108 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gracioso e interesante

Lo disfruté muchísimo tiene comedia suspenso drama y romance
Muy bien escrito
Interesante el negocio y la info del vino

[JBradford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so impressed with the previous book by Leslie Glass, which I had read earlier this week, that I went to my local library to see if they had any more of the Sergeant Woo series. Unfortunately, they did not--but they had a couple of other books written by Ms. Glass, so I grabbed one of them. This one is an absolutely delightful tale (presuming that you are not turned off by overt sex and dirty words) in which Ms. Glass again demonstrates that ticklish, dry humor that so delighted me in the previous book.

The main character in this novel is Cassandra “Cassie” Sales, who after 26 years of marriage finds that her husband no longer pays much attention to her and that life is passing her by, leaving her with nothing to do except attend her beautiful garden, cook wonderful meals, and do volunteer work in the community--so she decides to have a facelift, to see if she can rekindle a spark in her husband. She gets more than a spark; her husband returns from a business trip less than a week after the surgery, takes one look at Cassie’s bruises and bandages, and has a stroke and gets packed off to the hospital ICU. What follows is an exploration into a new life as Cassie learns things about her husband and their business and their children but she never knew--including the fact that her husband was about to leave her to marry his longtime mistress, who has been traveling with him on all these business trips and running up tremendous bills on credit cards on to Cassie’s name to outfit a large house that she had purchased in a swanky are part of the city. Cassie discovers that everyone except her has known about this for years; she also discovers that the IRS is preparing to audit their business … and that her new face is attractive to their doctor, to their lawyer, and to the IRS investigator--but not to the mistress, who approaches life by following the advice in Sun Tsu’s “The Art of War.”

The humor in this book comes not only from the interaction between the characters in an amusingly twisted plot, but also because the author tells us what the characters are thinking, which usually has very little to do with what they say and do. Their external actions utterances are polite; their internal verbalizations are pithy and to the point, as well as being very amusing. I got a lot of chuckles of this book, which was a very quickly quick read.

[Georgiann Hennelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cassandra Sales is a women with a gift for nurturingthings- her husband the successful wine importer her two adult children, and her fabulous garden . But after 26 years of marriage her husband Mitch is spending more time abroad than ever.Tired of being a modest Long Island house wife, who can,t even remember what its like to be kissed Cassie decides to get a face lift to try and recapture her youthful allure. But the surprise for her husband goes wrong when he comes home unexpectedly from a business trip and sees the post op horror show of her face and has a stroke. He goes into a coma. and Cassie is forced to step in and take over and what she discovers about Mitch and the family business shocks her to the core her loving husband was having an affair and was preparing to divorce her , and swindle her out of tons of money, she also discovers credit card accts that she doesn,t have cards for but they are in her name and off shore accts, It seems her children evn knew about the affair but no one told her,and the business is being aduited by the IRS. This is a wonderful suspense novel with warm hearted romantic comedy which blends into a perfect melange

[Sandie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant! I started this book late on the evening of Tuesday, July 7th, maybe got through a half dozen pages and picked it up again for an hour or so in the morning of the following day and here again after dinner, and now here it is 1am and I am done. I did not want to put this book down. What a great story line, very fresh, an angle I had never read before. The leading characters were great and not without faults and issues, you could easily relate to them and feel bad for some and just really hope that justice would be served for others. The book itself is listed as a romantic comedy by Kirkus Reviews, I don't know if I would call it that. There is romance in it, there is a bit of mystery, intrigue, a few twists one doesn't expect. I had thought it was going to be a murder mystery but its not that at all, though the story line is mysterious at times and at times amusing as well.
Leslie Glass has made a brilliant story that should appeal to many. I highly reccomend this story and am looking forward to reading more of her books.

[Alistair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cassandra Sales' attempt to recapture her youth via plastic surgery has unexpected consequences when her husband promptly collapses upon seeing her. Life for Cassie goes from bad to worse (coping with the existence of her husband's mistress, coping with her husband's shonky business dealings, coping with a terrier named Charlie from Internal Revenue doing a tax audit of her husband's shonky business dealings.) The ingredients don't appear to add up to a warm-hearted comedy, but as the book cover declares this is "a novel of sweet revenge." Delicious!

[Peggy Walker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read a couple of the April Woo books. She is almost TOO quirky of a character, so you need to read them in sequence, I think. This one is an independent story about a woman turning 50 who decides she wants to overhaul her life. Her husband has a stroke right after she has a facelift, and the stories told about everyone's assumption she's a victim of domestic violence, complicated by her daughter's explanation that she has been in a car accident are hilarious. Great read.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where do I begin? Funny, disturbing, raw, brazen, completely true! Leslie Glass captures emotions coming full circle in this dark comedy. How many times have we seen "War of the Roses"? This book takes it to the next level. My sister-in-law read the book after going through a horrific divorce and found it hysterical because she completely understood the main character. Definitely a great summer read!!

[Lacey Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a total chick book, which I don't mind reading but it's not very good. The author is a bad writer...full of long sentences and silly cliches. It does have a twist in the end though, and the plot is ok. I wouldn't hunt down this book to read...but if you're bored and you have NOTHING ELSE...

[Irene · Rating 1 out of 5]

If A Thousand Splendid Suns is on my favorites of all time list, this one makes my list of worst books ever written. Honestly, I only finished it to fin one tiny redeeming quality. None to be found. It was punishment only to rival Patricia Cornwell's Isle of Dogs. That's how bad it was.

[JoAnn Ainsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A comedic romp, delightfully told. I enjoyed it even though the heroine wasn’t heroic, which kept me from getting into the plot until I got used to it. The last third of the book is really well written, ties everything up and produces a satisfying ending.

[Susan Senner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing like a woman scorned! And of course she comes out on top.

[Sandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was funny in a dark way.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a funny book.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book keeps you right through to the end!

[Jackie Simons]

Read 1/03

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

enjoyed this fast read

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it but just barely. Might have just not been in the mood for this type of book.