Resumen
Resumen
Regan Reilly 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 Settler's Club. The men had promised to donate a cache of valuable diamonds to save the Club. But now the diamonds re 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 the suspicious deaths? Who better to contend with quirky characterslike Lydia Sevatura, the self-styled "Princess of Love" who operates a dating service and her butler, Maldwin Feckles, who has just opened up the first school of butlering in New York City? And who better than Carol Higgins Clark whose sparkling, canny prose keeps listeners guessing to the end "who done it"?
Fleeced is a witty pportrait of modern urban life, and proves once again that Carol Higgins Clark is a uniquely talented writer.
Reseñas (5)
School Library Journal Review
Backed by a big promotional effort, this first novel features an "ordinary white boy," still living at home after college and aware that his family and friends are disappointed in him, who has a chance to redeem himself by challenging the forces of hate in his little town. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Reseña de Publisher's Weekly
Los Angeles PI Regan Reilly crosses the continent to visit Manhattan, her parents, and lover (New York cop Jack "no relation" Reilly), but ends up with almost all of her time consumed by a murder mystery. Clark's breezy, choppy style she crams 81 chapters into a page count achieved with generous amounts of white space and cavalcade of eccentric characters are the sum of the book. Dithering friend Thomas Pilsner, president of the Settlers' Club in Gramercy Park, calls Regan when two of the club's oldest and wealthiest members die just before they were to give the club four diamonds valued at more than $4 million. The money would have allowed Pilsner to save the venerable but deteriorating club but, alas, the diamonds have disappeared. Convinced that the "accidental" deaths were nothing of the sort, Pilsner wants Regan to prove it and recover the missing diamonds. A nascent butlering school, a dating service, a histrionic movie director, a pair of grasping con men and a couple of stuffed sheep figure prominently in the cast. A strange collection of oddballs and schemers have made the Settlers' Club the focus of their attentions, and the author rapidly switches her attentions from one to another till they collide in a climactic scene in which the killer stands revealed. Clark's light touch can be entertaining, but those expecting a real solution to the murder might be disappointed. (Oct. 23) Forecast: With a nine-city author tour and foreign rights already sold in France and Germany, plus the high name recognition, this title seems destined for generous sales. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Manhattan's once tony Settler's Club, now reduced to letting space to Miss Lydia and her Meaningful Connections singles' gatherings and Maldwin Feckles and his ill-attended school for butlers (current enrollment: four students), is about to receive a hundredth birthday windfall: Longtime members Nat and Ben, joint-owners of four immensely valuable diamonds, have decided to sell them and donate the proceeds to the club. But Nat slips in the tub; Ben falls under a bus, and-abracadabra!-the diamonds are suddenly missing. Thomas Pilsner, the rookie Settler's manager, asks his p.i. friend Regan Reilly, in town to attend a crime writers' conference with her world-famous author-mom, to help out. Were the two deaths mere accidents? And wherever could those diamonds be? Using Nat's club apartment as her sleuthing base, Regan (Twanged, 1998, etc.) finds herself surrounded by his and his late wife's sheep collection: life-size sheep with sparkly eyes, sheep ornaments that have been collecting dust for years, sheep appliques on towels, and more varieties than you can knit sweaters from. She's also beset by a slew of con artists, burglars, and worse at one of Miss Lydia's soirees. A genuine English butler arrives, a New York film director departs, and those life-sized sheep are trundled all over town before the Club gets what it deserves, and so do all the culprits, though not the long-suffering reader. Baa, humbug. Author tour
Reseña de Booklist
In typical fashion, Clark wields yet another lighthearted, easy-to-read whodunit revolving around Regan Reilly, the smart, sassy, thirtysomething sleuth-about-Manhattan. Thomas Pilsner, president of the fading Settler's Club of Gramercy Park, enlists the help of his friend Regan to figure out who could be behind the sudden deaths of two men who had planned to endow the club with millions. All signs point to Pilsner himself, but Regan is certain that this consummate gentleman, a throwback to the 1890s, did not participate in the foul play. She's not so convinced, though, that others who live in the venerable building are beyond suspicion. There's the eccentric Miss Lydia, who runs a dating service out of her flat, or her equally eccentric butler, Maldwin, whose butler school is just getting off the ground. Then there are the guests and students of Lydia and Maldwin, many of whom are looking for an easy score. With the help of her cop boyfriend and mystery-writer mother (art mirrors life here; Clark is the daughter of Mary Higgins Clark), Regan saves the day but not before immersing herself completely in the wacky lives of her various suspects. This fun, harmless romp may not be quite as slick as the work of the author's mother, but it is definitely designed to appeal to the same crowd. --Mary Frances Wilkens
Library Journal Review
Regan Reilly probes an unsolved murder in an apartment where she is staying. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.