An easy, quick read. Very light mystery. It's a bit silly, but a fun read. ( )

Cleo Paradise, a young gifted actress spent a few weeks at Edna Frawley's Jersey Shore home, trying to relax. But, it appears that she is being stalked, so she abruptly leaves Edna's home to find a more remote place to unwind. Edna has decided to sell her home and downsize, so she is having a garage sale ehich includes items which Cleo left behind. Edna's daughter is having a fit that her childhood home is being sold. She calls Nora Reilly to please check on the sale. As luck would have it Nora's PI daughter, Reagan was free to go along with Nora to the Shore. Reagan had been hired by Cleo's family to find the missing Cleo. numerous crazy quirky characters fill the pages of this fun quick read. ( )

Once again Regan Reilly stumbles into a case of a missing person, false identity, trickery while helping a friend find out more about her boyfriend. With the help of her husband Jack and her mother she solves the case and it turns out to be the one person I never even suspected. That is why I keep reading her books, I can never figure out who done it. ( )

I'm not a big fan of Mary Higgins Clark, but have read a few by her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark. I listened to this one. A up and coming star named Cleo Paradise, wants some peace and quiet. She made a good movie followed by a bad movie about a stalker who leaves her dead flowers and now someone is sending her dead flowers. She rents a house from octogenarian Edna and the leaves on the run from more dead flowers. Edna has a garage sale to sell everything Cleo leaves behind, but no one seems to know where Cleo is including her parents and her good friend. Regan is on the job and finds Cleo just in time to save her from a stalker. No one dies and it is ok as a story, but I think I have too many other series and authors that I like much more so I am giving away three or four Regan Reilly books that I have in my stash.

Review Originally Posted At: FictionForesight

Cleo Paradise is a movie star who’s recovering from a horrible role in a movie, where she was stalked by a man who leaves dried flowers. She recoups on the Jersey Shore, which is where she rents a house from a friend of Regan Reilly’s mother. Cleo thinks she can safely rest after the horrible press, until those same flowers start popping up on the porch.

This is one of those series’ where each book could be a standalone novel, with only minor hints to books before it so that you can hop in, as I did, and know the plot direction and enjoy the story. Personally, those are my favorite kinds of series’ to read, because I can grab them at random when I see them on sale, and still enjoy them.

Mobbed is definitely a good novel to take to the beach with you, or to read if you wish you could be on the beach instead of doing whatever it is you have to do. The characters, while not very deep, definitely get the story to move along in a fast pace. Clark uses each character to a maximum capacity – like movies along the lines of “Love Actually.” There are many different characters with seemingly separate story lines, but Clark manages to intertwine them into one main plot-line by the end. This is admirable, as almost every character mentioned contributes to the plot, which is a rare trait indeed.

The main story-line seems to be that Edna Frawley has decided that she will sell her beach house on the Jersey Shore and is having an auction that includes some items belonging to Cleo Paradise. Her daughter Karen is distraught and calls Nora Reilly to ask for her help in preventing any of her childhood belongings from being sold. Regan and Nora quickly go down to the house and learn that Cleo mysteriously left early, leaving a note that any items she left behind Edna can discard. It turns out that the garage sale is being run by the new fiancé of Scott, who was followed by Regan for a client to find out that he was cheating on her. And the intertwining never ceases from that point, with us following a single story per chapter, which is every few pages; along with some one-page, ominous thoughts from what must be the person who wants to harm Cleo.

I say that it is third and first mixed, as it is third person but then Clark adds in the character thinking in first person, which does take a bit of getting used to before it feels natural. I really like how she divided the chapters. It’s definitely a book that works if you are busy or constantly interrupted, meaning you read chapter-by-chapter. The random one-liners add to a bit of the suspense that you get, in that you start to wonder who did what and where it coincides with the rest of the plot.

I loved it, but wish that we had gotten a little bit more than the finale had promised. Something just made the book seem too good to be true, everything fit a little too perfectly and made it unbelievable. That’s why it only got three stars instead of five, as there could have been more meat to this and there just wasn’t. I definitely recommend this for the cozy mystery lover, or if you want a beach break without being able to actually go to one.

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