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California-based private investigator Regan Reilly is all packed and ready to join her fiancé, Jack, in New York to plan their upcoming wedding when a monstrous snowstorm blankets the East Coast and closes all the airports.
When Regan's best friend, Kit, calls and invites her to join her for a weekend in Hawaii, Regan is contemplating the trip. However, when a body washes up on the sandy shores of the resort where Kit is staying, Regan's mind is made up. She's going!
The dead woman is Dorinda Dawes, photographer and columnist for the Waikiki Waters Playground and Resort newsletter. In death, as in life, Dorinda manages to create a scandal not only by turning up dead but also by wearing an antique Hawaiian lei that was stolen thirty years earlier.
Regan isn't in Hawaii long before the manager of Waikiki Waters, Will Brown, asks her to look into the mystery of Dorinda's death. While the consensus is that Dorinda's death was accidental, Will and others aren't so sure. Someone seems to be sabotaging the resort --- and with the "Be a Princess Ball" only days away, Will needs to get to the bottom of these strange happenings.
While Regan is delving into the mysteries involving the hotel, Kit is throwing herself headfirst into a new relationship with Steve, a man who Regan finds tolerable at best. Now she not only has a murder to investigate but also the smooth-talking, self-made businessman who is thisclose to stealing her best friend's heart.
While the waters in Hawaii are crystal clear, just about everything else seems as clear as mud. What was Dorinda doing on the beach alone at night? Who did she encounter while she was there? Why was she wearing a stolen lei that had been missing for thirty years? And, last but not least, it's beginning to look like the real question isn't "Who wanted Dorinda dead?" but more like "Who didn't?"
BURNED contains an interesting array of characters --- including a newly engaged couple, Jason and Carla; a pushy social climbing ex-attorney, Jazzy, who seems to have a too-close relationship with Kit's new love interest and who works for a mysterious millionaire striving to launch a new clothing line; a motley crew of hotel employees; and a very strange and an unlikely group of tourists from a rainy Pacific Northwest town called Hudville.
BURNED is a fast-paced, feel-good kind of mystery, and the characters are fun and diverse. This eighth adventure in Carol Higgins Clark's bestselling series is a very enjoyable read.
--- Reviewed by Amie Taylor
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