Summertime, and the reading is easy. And that’s not to say that “easy” is bad. “Over Her Dead Body,” a mystery novel by Kate White, the editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, is light and fun, a sexy whodunit tailor-made for media-industry wags.

The requisite murder and intrigue is set in the world of tabloid gossip rags. After a launch party, the editor of a celeb gossip sheet called Buzz (think Star magazine) is found dead. Her name is Mona, and she has all the characteristics of magazine turnaround queen Bonnie Fuller. There are motives and alibis. Buzz has a hotshot girl-reporter, Bailey Weggins, and a worried owner, Tom Dicker. (Hmmm, American Media’s David Pecker, perhaps?)

The author’s familiarity with the world of magazines, publicists, parties, gossip, and celebrities makes the whole thing a near-satire. But that element aside, the story is a straightforward, sometimes suspenseful mystery. Bailey is assigned to cover the tragic events for the magazine – as Mona was a celebrity in her own right. But Bailey goes a little too far and almost gets herself killed in the process.

Bailey is a young, single woman making it in New York as a freelance writer. This is now a stock character, but at least Ms. White makes this one competent. Unlike many who have come before her, she’s clever, resourceful, and not looking to get married. (She already was, once.) She does get in a romantic tangle with a guy she meets while reporting the story, and Ms. White gives her just a sliver of regret, which is more humorous than pathetic: “Why in the world had I slept with him? I was now in slut limbo – just where I deserved to be.”

Ms. White writes in clear prose that floats easily, like a blow-up raft on a Hamptons pool. There is, however, an overabundance of detail. The little details about what Bailey wears, what she eats, or how she prepares her dinner are not integral to the plot. After a while, they become annoying.

At one point, for instance, Bailey gets a call from a co-worker who says she’s in the neighborhood and wants to stop by: “I retrieved my jean skirt from the corner and wiggled into it again. I liked Jessie, but I didn’t think she was ready to see me in a pair of hot pink boy briefs. She arrived five minutes later, breathless, her long glossy brown hair shoved behind her ears.”

What makes this forgivable is that it all rings true to life. Jean skirts are popular. Boy briefs have replaced thongs. A girl in Jessie’s job would have glossy, brown hair.

Another passage describes a scene that a Bonnie Fuller-type is capable of. A co-worker tells Bailey: “I was driving in a limo with her once and the air-conditioning was too high. You know what she did? She called the limo company on her cell phone and had the dispatcher ask the driver to turn it down.” I’ve heard the same anecdote told about the legendarily hot-tempered soprano Kathleen Battle. But it’s funny, no matter who actually did it.

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Ms. White is not the only editor writing about a world that she knows well. Danyel Smith – a longtime music writer, former editor of Vibe, and editor at large at Time Incorporated – has just published her novel “Bliss.” Its cover comes with a blurb from no other than pop songstress Mariah Carey.

“Bliss” provides an interesting, behind-the-scenes look at the music industry. But it’s not a breeze to read. The written dialogue attempts to mimic spoken slang, which can give you a headache and make you re-read lines. “I am fine, sister, I know you know how I do.” Or: “Ima stay with Myra for a minute.” The reader is forced to (oh, no!) concentrate, rather than relax with book in hand.