Posts Tagged ‘Mary Higgins Clark’
The queen of the easy-going mystery, Mary Higgins Clark, is back with another book: Daddy’s Gone A Hunting. Her latest is about…
…a mysterious fire that sends a family reeling. What was Kate Connelly doing at the family’s furniture company/museum in the middle of the night? Why was Gus, a retired furniture craftsman, with her? Did they start the fire that destroyed the family’s legacy? Or was it an accident?
Kate is is a coma, Gus is dead, and people are looking for answers. Kate’s younger sister, Hannah, needs to clear her sister’s name and figure out what really happened. She lost her mother long ago and isn’t prepared to lose her sister.
I thought this book was meh. Usually I am a huge fan of Clark, but this time I think she fell short. While the story was a good one and the twist at the end was interesting, the story telling lacked zip. Plus, there were so many peripheral characters that muddied up the story.
I hope this was just an anomaly and Clark isn’t losing her magic touch. I’ve always counted on her books being a pleasant diversion not requiring much time or intensity. I’ll have to see what she comes up with next.
You’ve got to love a Mary Higgins Clark novel. They are both predictable and interesting–an odd combination when you think about it. The Lost Years is exactly that.
In her latest novel:
Jonathon Lyons, a Biblical scholar, finds a letter believed to have been written by Jesus. It’s been missing for over 500 years, but was located in a safe in a soon-to-be-demolished church. Before he can do anything about it, he is brutally murdered in his own home. The main suspect? His wife, Kathleen, who now suffers from Alzheimer’s. His daughter, Mariah, has to deal with her mother being jailed, her strained relationship with her now-dead father because of his long affair with another woman, and finding out where the ancient document is. There is no shortage of suspects other than her mother; she must determine which one of her father’s fellow archeology fans could be guilty of murder.
I enjoyed the Catholic elements of the novel much more than I thought I would. I remembered some of the things mentioned from school. Plus, I really like the idea of finding an ancient letter written by Jesus.
This is a perfect summer read. If you’re new to Mary Higgins Clark, you’ll enjoy this. If you’re a long-time fan, you’ll figure everything out long before the end, but won’t mind because it’s a compelling story!
On Goodreads, Mary Higgins Clark has been described as “low key” and comforting “like a warm blanket or favorite sweater.” That’s why I keep reading her year after year…because she is predictable. Clark has found her formula and works it quite well.
In I’ll Walk Alone, interior designer, Zan Moreland is living the nightmare of having her son abducted. Zan goes to a meeting, leaving her son, Matthew, in the care of a teenager babysitter. The child is abducted in broad daylight after the sitter falls asleep in the park. On the second anniversary of the tragedy, events conspire to make Zan–and all those around her–question her sanity, as well as her part in the horrific crime. An irate ex-husband and a now-older former babysitter, who’s tired of being the scapegoat, conspire to bring the story back into the limelight. Pictures surfacing of Zan taking the child herself make everyone re-think her innocence in the crime. Using the very current, very real crime of identity theft to round out the plot, Clark pens the story of Zan’s life going into a tailspin.
Clark offers many different suspects. I’ll Walk Alone isn’t as easy to guess as other Clark novels.
If you’re looking for a light summer beach read, this book is perfect.
