Carol Higgins Clark, Burned

Burned

Carol Higgins Clark

Scribner, March 2005, $23.00, 288 pp.

ISBN 0743242750

Private investigation Regan Reilly is ready to leave California and spend the weekend in New York with her fianc Jack. She's also supposed to go over wedding plans with her mother, a bestselling author. A terrible blizzard closes down the airports in the East so when Megan's best friend Kit calls her from Hawaii to invite her to stay with her for a long weekend at the Waikiki Waters Playground and Resort, she gladly accepts.

When she arrives, she learns that an employee of the hotel washed ashore; the police declared it an accidental drowning. What is strange about her death is she was wearing a priceless lei that belonged to Hawaii's last queen. The manager of the hotel Will Brown has doubts about the death and hires Regan to investigate. The lei is the twin to the one that is being auctioned off at the hotel on Saturday. The thief who originally stole the lei returns and takes both leis. What follows is comedy of errors as Regan and the police successfully find the leis. In the meantime, Regan is also involved in saving the lives of two people who just got engaged from two ruthless killers and investigating Kit's new boyfriend to make sure he's on the up and up.

What starts out as a vacation for the heroine turns into a non-stop workathon where she tries to juggle three cases at the same time without getting killed. Carol Higgins Clark has created a fantastic private investigator that is a cross between Kinsey Milhone and Irene Kelly. There is so much action that takes place readers will feel that they have taken a ride on the world's fastest roller coaster.

Harriet Klausner