Review: Popped

Regan Reilly, P.I. in L.A., gets a call from Danny Madley, an old school friend, requesting she fly to Las Vegas to help him out. He is producing a pilot for a reality TV show featuring three married couples. They have all had some problems in their marriages but say they want to make it work. They are vying for a chance to renew their vows in a wedding-cake-shaped hot air balloon and win one million dollars. Apparently things haven’t been going very smooth. Many things have happened and he wants Regan to come help him keep any more things from going wrong.

He is in competition with Bubbles who is producing a pilot for a comedy TV show. Unbeknownst to him, she has been having trouble with her actors and things haven’t gone smoothly for them either.

Many things continue to happen including Danny’s parents arriving only to lose a bag of mail for advice columnists helping on his show. Worse than that, his mother read one of the letters and if the advice columnists don’t pay overdue alimony, his pilot might not be finished in time. Since his parents helped cause some of this trouble, they find themselves in deep to help resolve it.

Regan begins to question whether all of the married couples are truly who they say they are. Then there’s Roscoe, the man behind the contest of the two pilot shows. He is a real character and Regan doesn’t really trust him. She has her boyfriend, Jack who is a New York Detective, checking into their backgrounds.

While I liked this book, first one I’ve read by this author, it was definitely not your normal mystery. There wasn’t any murder. There was some investigation into the various characters, but not the normal investigation to solve a crime or murder.

I found this book to be an easy read and enjoyed the story line as it was different than anything else I have read. Even with many characters, I felt the author did a good job of describing them so that I was able to keep everyone straight. I recommend this book.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Dawn Dowdle

Book Review: Popped