Reviews for Popped [a Regan Reilly mystery] / [sound recording] :
Publishers Weekly
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Set in Las Vegas, Clark's seventh Regan Reilly mystery (after 2002's Jinxed) takes aim at all sorts of eminently spoofable targets, including reality TV shows, advice columnists and screen actors. Regan answers a plea from a grade school chum who's involved in a contest where someone isn't playing by the rules. The owner of the Balloon Channel (aka Hot Air Cable) is sponsoring a contest between two groups-one developing a pilot for a sitcom, the other for a reality TV show. Both, according to the whimsical rules of magnate Roscoe Parker, must have a ballooning theme. The winning group gets its show on the air and a $1 million prize. Regan's friend Danny Madley is trying to put together the reality show, with a couple of assistants, six contestants and a couple of advice columnists. Then there's the cast of the sitcom and its producer, as well as Roscoe, his girlfriend and his assistants. Even Danny's parents show up to meddle or help, as does Danny's ex-girlfriend. The wealth of eccentric characters would be at home in a Dickens novel, but is too much for this slender volume to support. While Regan attempts to figure out who's doing what to whom, Roscoe continues to add obstacles to make the competition more exciting. It all adds up to zany, if not particularly brilliant, fun in the desert, with an ending series fans will love. (Sept. 23) FYI: With her mother, Mary Higgins Clark, Clark is the coauthor of He Sees You When You're Sleeping and Deck the Halls. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Regan Reilly's latest clients are full of hot air-she's been asked by organizers of the nine-day Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta to find out who's threatening the event with disaster. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
Clark's latest Regan Reilly mystery has all the substance of cotton candy, but as a poolside diversion, it's perfectly amiable. Premise is all in the mystery-lite subgenre, and Clark has a doozy here. L.A. private eye Reilly is summoned to Las Vegas by an old high-school classmate, Danny Madley, who needs help desperately. His reality-TV pilot--married couples trying to rekindle the romance and win $1 million, to be awarded in a wedding-cake-shaped hot-air balloon--is being sabotaged by persons unknown. Of course, it's more complicated than that. Danny is in competition with a sitcom producer for the prize of winning a slot on the hot-air-balloon cable network. The network honcho, a crackpot millionaire, will choose the winner after viewing both shows. Clark pulls out all the stops with a cast of goofballs (seemingly borrowed from an old episode of Love American Style) who romp through first Vegas and then Albuquerque, where the ballooning finale takes place. The writing hovers on the edge of cliche, and there is no suspense to speak of, but the silliness of it all delivers a kind of mindless good time. For Clark's devoted fans--or anyone who finds Murder, She Wrote too edgy. --Ilene Cooper Copyright 2003 Booklist
