Ahhh… wedding bells, the chicken dance, the father of the bride dancing with his daughter, all the great things about weddings. And who doesn’t love a wedding, be it an extravagant affair or small - just the close friends-and-family type. The latest Regan Reilly
mystery from author Carol Higgins Clark (Iced, Burned, Twanged, Decked) follows the familiar formula you expect from her in the aptly titled Hitched.
Regan is finally getting married to her longtime beau, New York Police Department Captain Jack Reilly. Regan has a lot of things to prepare for the special day, the most important of them picking up her wedding dress. When she arrives at Alfred and Charisse's Couture in Lower Manhattan’s Little Italy, Regan finds the husband-and-wife designers bound and gagged on their bed. They have been robbed of several wedding gowns and twenty thousand dollars in cash that they won in Atlantic City. A piece of evidence left at the scene, a bloodstained and shredded gown, is her only clue.
Meanwhile, Jack is trying to solve a bank case (a robber who only steals on rainy days) but is more than supportive of Regan’s decision to investigate before their impending nuptials. The storyline concerning Jack isn’t all that interesting except for it leading to an unlikely coincidence - which seems to happen a lot. While all of this is happening, the thieves are on their way to Las Vegas to sell the gowns. With a few other unnecessary, nonsensical subplots, Hitched moves at a fairly rapid pace.
Since this is filed under “mystery light,” you shouldn’t expect anything more than one-dimensional characters running around and a mystery that isn’t really all that deep. It is what it is: a fun, lighthearted mystery. Overall, Hitched is good for someone looking for a light beach or vacation read.