Carol Higgins, Clark Laced

Laced

Carol Higgins Clark

Scribner, Apr 2007, $24.00

ISBN: 0743289439

Just married private investigator Regan and NYPD Major Case Squad Chief Detective Jack Reilly leave the Big Apple to honeymoon in Ireland with their prime stay at romantic Hennessey Castle. Near their honeymoon lodgings, they spot an old cemetery and stop to look around; the first gravestone they see is marked REILLY. The pair writes it off as an odd coincidence especially since he has family all over the Emerald Isle. They learn that lace-maker May Reilly died in 1822 with one of her delicate lovely items, a tablecloth used for special occasions at the castle. Locals insist May Reilly haunts Hennessey because she never was paid for that beautiful masterpiece.

Not long afterward, Regan swears she saw a woman on the grounds of the castle, who vanished into thin air in a nanosecond. Almost immediately afterward a fire breaks out followed by the Reilly tablecloth apparently stolen by Jane and John Doe, who ridicule Jack for not recognizing them as jewel thieves he has been after for quite a while. With Regan at his side and his Irish Reilly relatives assisting him, Jack gives chase although he knows he is an ocean away from his jurisdiction.

Readers will enjoy the often amusing honeymoon of Regan and Jack as they engage in a couple of lighthearted mysteries both laced to the tablecloth. The storyline is a fast-paced Irish cozy (even if the stars are New Yorkers) as the heroes give chase trying to catch a couple of clever thieves. Fans of the Regan Reilly series will appreciate her mysterious honeymoon as she begins her HITCHED life with Reilly.

Harriet Klausner