Fleeced: A Regan Reilly Mystery - Tapa dura

Nelson DeMille Like other great mystery writers, from Arthur Conan Doyle to Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers, Carol Higgins Clark's writing is elegantly clear and concise, her characters are witty and engaging, and her plots and pacing are perfect. "Fleeced" has the feel and comfort of a good old-fashioned mystery with the edginess and pulse of a modern Manhattan suspense thriller.

Regan Reilly is back. The smart, saucy sleuth featured in all of Carol Higgins Clark's bestselling novels was last seen in "Deck the Halls," the holiday thriller Carol wrote with her mother, Mary Higgins Clark. Now Regan is in New York to attend a crime conference organized by her celebrity-author mother. A friend, Thomas Pilsner -- the frenetic president of the Settlers' Club on Gramercy Park -- calls Regan, desperately pleading for help. Thomas is distraught over the sudden suspicious deaths of two members of the Settlers' Club. The men had promised to donate a cache of valuable diamonds to save the Club. But now the diamonds are gone, the men are dead, and Thomas is a mess. He fears the police will suspect he is at the heart of both mysteries, and worse yet, he'll lose his job. Enter Regan. Who better than the star of Decked, Snagged, Iced, and Twanged to solve the mystery of the missing diamonds and suspicious deaths? Who better to contend with the quirky characters around the Club, such as Lydia Sevatura, the self-styled "Princess of Love," who operates a dating service, and her butler, Maldwin Feckles, who has just opened the first school of butlering in New York City? And who better than Carol Higgins Clark, with her sparkling, canny prose, to keep the readers guessing to the end "who done it"? Published to coincide with the paperback of "Deck the Halls, Fleeced" is a witty portrait of modern urban life. This fifth Regan Reilly mystery proves once again that Carol Higgins Clark is a uniquely talented writer.