Cursed

Authors who read their own works can be a mixed blessing, but Carol Higgins Clark is an actor, too, and she capably delivers her twelfth Regan Reilly mystery. Regan is once again back in Los Angeles, having returned to help her friend, Abigail, track down a boyfriend who has absconded. But Abigail Feeney, who was born on Friday the 13th and has 13 letters in her name, feels she's lived her whole life under a curse. As Abigail's bad luck continues, Regan is drawn into a murder case. This cozy provides Clark a real challenge as narrator as it's difficult to sustain listener interest with a plot that has little real suspense. She succeeds, though partly because the listener can be distracted a bit from the story without getting too lost. C.A.T. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine