CURSED: A Regan Reilly Mystery
Carol Higgins Clark
Scribner
Mystery
ISBN: 9781416562177
With her husband Jack --- head of the NYPD’s Major Case Squad --- in Miami, Florida, at a law enforcement seminar and her mother and father in Palm Beach, private investigator Regan Reilly is on her own. Intending to clear her parents' garage of things she has stored there and move them to a storage shed, she gets right to work only to be interrupted by an urgent phone call.
It turns out that Regan's friend and former neighbor, Abigail Feeney, is in need of Regan's services. Her boyfriend, Cody Castle, borrowed $100,000 from her to get his latest movie project up and running and then disappeared. Luckily he signed an IOU, which has just come due when a friend of Abigail's spots Cody in L.A.
Amidst admonitions from her parents and her husband to be careful, Regan heads out immediately to assist Abigail in getting her money back. Due to an accident on the movie set where she was working as a hairdresser, Abigail has been unable to work for a while and needs that cash to live on and pay her medical bills.
As if she wasn’t desperate enough, Abigail's grandmother, the one who had scrimped and saved to give her the $100,000 to put toward the purchase of a house, is on her way out to L.A. from Indiana to check out a possible condo for Abigail. She will be unhappy, to say the least, to find out that Abigail has lost what she worked a lifetime to give her.
Although Abigail had always told Regan she was cursed, Regan had never taken this theory seriously. But she may have to reconsider soon. Abigail was born on Friday the 13th, she has 13 letters in her name, she is accident-prone, and obviously, as recent events have proven, she is not especially judicious when it comes to her love life either. It's looking like perhaps Abigail really is cursed.
As if one mystery to solve wasn't enough, Regan soon finds herself on the trail of another. Cody Castle has a partner, Dean Puntler, who is involved in the film project. Dean had solicited widower Nicky Tendril as a potential investor in their endeavor, but he turns down the offer. That, in and of itself, might be okay, except for the fact that Nicky is later found dead in his apartment.
It turns out that Abigail also knew Nicky. She had been cutting his hair for free as a project to help the elderly who are in need, but when she found out that Nicky had an account with over a million dollars in it, she suddenly didn't feel so charitable about offering him her free service. The entire case starts to take on more confusion than you'd find at a chimp's tea party, but Regan is more than up to the challenge as she works her usual magic.
I'm a fan of Carol Higgins Clark. Having read most of the titles in the Regan Reilly series, I find that she never fails to live up to my expectations. CURSED is no exception. Here you'll find a memorable cast of characters, all individuals with their own little quirks and qualities, plot twists and turns galore. I invite you to enjoy this fun book as I have.
--- Reviewed by Amie Taylor
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