Cursed (Regan Reilly Series #12) Book

Private Investigator Regan Reilly moved from Los Angeles to New York City when she married her husband, Jack "no relation" Reilly, head of the NYPD Major Case Squad. To help a friend she ends up taking on a case that calls her back to her old stomping ground...

Cursed opens on a cold and gray January morning. Sleet and snow are swirling as Regan arrives at a warehouse in Long Island City with a trunk full of her old case files from Los Angeles. After carting all her boxes into a storage unit, she heads back out into the snow, and her cell phone rings.

Abigail Feeney, a young woman who had lived across the hall from Regan in an apartment complex in the Hollywood Hills, is on the line. Abigail believes her life has been cursed since birth. She was born on Friday the 13th of January, and her parents gave her a name with 13 letters. A hairdresser on movie sets, Abigail was recently injured at work when a piece of scaffolding fell and knocked her over, and her arm was broken in two places. But that isn't why she is calling. "Regan!" she exclaims. "The 'no good bum' has been spotted in town. I desperately need the money he owes me. Can you please come out here and help me find him?"

Regan immediately knows the identity of the "no good bum." From her L.A. apartment, Regan had often seen Abigail's ex, Cody Castle, sitting by the pool, bent over his cell phone, text messaging nonstop. Before he disappeared three months ago, he borrowed $100,000 from Abigail. He promised to pay her back in three months.

"Find him?" Regan asks.

"Yes! My grandmother is flying here tomorrow. There's a condo she wants to buy me. But we need that money. She can't find out I don't have it.Regan, can't you spend a few days with me?"

If Regan weren't freezing, she might have made an excuse. But Jack was away at a seminar, Regan had never liked the "no good bum," and Abigail had brought her chicken soup when she'd had the flu last winter. Within hours Regan is on a flight to Los Angeles where her adventure with Abigail will take her from the beaches of Malibu, to the mountains north of the city, to the renovated lofts of downtown L.A.

Regan starts to feel Abigail's curse is contagious as she encounters a cast of characters who aren't always welcoming. Some are downright dangerous. And there's one who is the most dangerous of all...

Publishers Weekly

Few authors perform their own work nowadays, but Carol Higgins Clark prefers to read her own novels as well as some of those of her mother, Mary Higgins Clark. Unfortunately, as evidenced by her awkward performance of this light Hollywood murder mystery the younger Higgins Clark is not a skillful audio performer. Most of the characters sound similar with a noticeable regional accent (New Jersey?), and her voice rises into a faint question at the end of each sentence; it sounds as we are eavesdropping as Higgins Clark tries out the lines aloud in front of her computer. While a Barbara Rosenblat or Linda Emond could work wonders with the entertaining material, the book suffers from the author's amateurish delivery. A Scribner hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 30). (Apr.)