‘Cursed’ by Carol Higgins Clark

  In the literary world, the name “Higgins Clark” used to just mean one person: Mary Higgins Clark, one of the most prominent mystery writers in the world today.
  However, for the past 17 years, her daughter, Carol, has joined the ranks with her own best-selling mystery series featuring private
investigator Regan Reilly.
  Mother and daughter also have teamed up to write some successful holiday suspense novels, the most recent was last year’s “Dashing Through the Snow.”
  I’ve read a few of Mary’s suspense novels and enjoyed them. But I’ve never read any of Carol’s works until now. Her latest is “Cursed,” the 12th installment in the Reilly series.
  The verdict? It’s definitely not as good as her mother’s writings. I would call it "mystery lite," because it features a lot of characters, a
lot of dialogue and not much else. It’s got some humor, a few plot twists and is heavy on sisterhood-style moments, which is totally fine, since the series is geared toward a female audience.
  But actual suspense is lacking and there are way too many characters (at least 13) for a novel that’s under 250 pages. With some of the chapters being very short, the whole story reads like a TV screenplay, which may not be surprising since Carol is an actress and has a little TV experience. I found it difficult to care about Reilly and her new mystery, let alone about any other character. I’ll have to go back and read Carol’s other works. But judging by other critics’ reviews of her past works, “mystery lite” seems to be Carol’s middle name.
  In “Cursed,” Reilly flies to Los Angeles to help an old friend and neighbor, Abigail Feeney, track down a former boyfriend, Cody Castle, who owes her a lot of money. Feeney, a hairdresser who works in films and TV, gave Castle $100,000 to help him get a movie project off the ground. But he’s disappeared along with the money. Feeney’s grandmother had given her the money to buy a home, and now she’s flying into L.A. to see what Abigail is up to. And to make matters worse, Feeney believes she’s cursed, since she was born on Friday the 13th, her name adds up to 13 letters and she is accident prone.
  “Cursed” turns out to be a race against the clock as Reilly and Feeney try to find Castle and the money before Grandma picks up her luggage at LAX. There are some other subplots, which are not well developed and serve only to distract from the main story line.
  A page-turner “Cursed” is not. In fact, “Cursed” isn’t much of anything. It’s like drinking a small glass of watered-down lemonade on a hot summer day.