A Stranger Is Watching [Hardcover]

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster (1970)
• ASIN: B000J0M0KO
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,249,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

If I were to define myself in one sentence, I would say, "I'm a nice Irish Catholic girl from the Bronx."

I was a Christmas Eve baby all those years ago, the second of the three children of Nora and Luke Higgins. Mother was pushing forty when they married and my father was forty-two. My older brother was named Joseph. Nineteen months later I, Mary, was born. Three and a half years later, my little brother, John, came along.

We lived in a very nice section of the Bronx on a street off Pelham Parkway. I loved our house. I still love it. After my father died, when I was eleven, my mother had to sell it.

I went to Saint Francis Xavier Grammar School. Two years ago I went back and was Principal for a Day. Escorted by two of the tiniest children, I was led into the auditorium while the whole student body sang "Hello Mary. You're back where you belong." I still tear up thinking about it.

I was awarded a scholarship to Villa Maria Academy which is in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx, otherwise I couldn't have afforded to set foot in it.

I went to Woods Secretarial School and at eighteen had my first full-time job as Secretary to the creative director of Remington Rand's in-house advertising agency. If I were making that choice now I would have gone to college even though God knows we needed the income. On the other hand the three years I spent in Remington Rand was a tutorial in advertising which served me well when I was widowed with five small children. Another plus was that I left Remington to be a flight stewardess with Pan American Airways and when my contemporaries were seniors in college, I was flying to Europe, Africa and Asia.

Warren Clark and I were married on December 26, 1949 and had five children in the next eight years; Marilyn, Warren, David, Carol and Patricia. Warren died of a heart attack in 1964. The highest compliment I can pay my kids are that they are like him.

I sold my first short story when I was twenty-eight. It was alled 'Stowaway'. It had been rejected forty times before a magazine in Chicago bought it for one hundred dollars.

My first book was about George Washington. It was published in 1969 and disappeared without a trace. Three years ago Simon and Schuster co-published it with the Mount Vernon Historical Society and retitled 'Mount Vernon Love Story', it became a bestseller.

My first suspense novel 'Where Are the Children' was bought in 1974 for three thousand dollars by Simon and Schuster. Thirty-three books later, I'm still with S&S.

Time to wind up - at least for the present. As soon as I sold 'Children' I enrolled in Fordham College. Went there for five years at night and earned a B.A. in Philosophy. Summa cum laude, if you please.

I never thought I'd marry again but ten years ago I threw a cocktail party on St. Patrick's day. My daughter, Pat, urged me to invite John Conheeney. Her opening words about him were, "Have I got a hunk for you!" He came to the party and we were married eight months later.

I'm Honorary Chairman of FraXa Research. My grandson, David, has the Fragile X syndrome, which is the second leading cause of retardation after Downs Syndrome. Basically the brain of the people who have it can't send out the proper signals because there's a kind of short circuit in the synapses that carry the signals. We raise money for research with the goal of finding a medication that will work around that short circuit. I go all over the country to the fund-raisers as new chapters of FraXa are opened.

I'm always asked to name my favorite book. They're ALL my favorites. If there is one book that is very special to me, it is my memoir 'Kitchen Privileges' because writing it made me relive my early life including those first struggles to become a writer. I think 'Kitchen Privileges' is both tender and funny and it's me.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great author; great book, December 11, 2000

By 

"koley" (Saginaw, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Stranger Is Watching (Mass Market Paperback)

Four stars go to a wonderful author with several published books. A Stranger Is Watching was particularly intriguing. It keeps the reader interested and not wanting to stop. The short chapters make it an easy book to get hooked on. The mother of a family is killed and a local teen is found guilty of the murder. Ronald Thompson knows he did not kill Nina Peterson but he will be executed in just fifty-two hours. Steve Peterson, the husband of the victim and his new girlfriend, Sharon Martin have different points of view on capital punishment. Sharon and six year old Neil, son of Steve and Nina, get kidnapped by a man for ransom. Only Mary Higgins Clark could write a story this twisted and terrifying. With a good storyline to keep readers of all ages turning to read just "one more chapter," I would recommend this book to anybody that likes suspense. The only negative thing about this book is the way there are so many different groups of people and every chapter switches to tell about a different group each time. The first three chapters are kind of boring but once you get into the meat of the story and discover what is going on, there is no putting it down.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Queen of Suspense has written yet another thrilling nove, December 29, 2004

By 

beaner "shmoopy book" (utah) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Stranger Is Watching (Mass Market Paperback)

I absolutely loved this book! It is a total page turner. The author writes books that keep people on their toes and with this book she definately suceeded. The book is about a young woman named Sharon Martin who is dating a widower named Steve. Steve's wife was murdered about a year ago. His son Neil has not yet gotten over his mother's death and refuses to be friendly with Sharon. Things get complicated when Shaton and Neil get kidnapped by a psycho who is planning to blow them up. I found it very hard to put this book down, especially near the end. I got so sucked into the book that I just had to find out if Neil and Sharon were rescued. The author has a knack for making her characters seem so incredibly real that you actually start to really hate the bad guy and get attached to the heroine. This book was meant to keep people on the edge of their seat and that's exactly what it does. This is definately one of the best books I've read by this author.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A Stranger is Watching" by Mary Higgens Clark, December 5, 2001

By 

nicole DiPaolo (usa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Stranger Is Watching (Mass Market Paperback)

If you are interested in reading an intense novel that keeps you from wanting to put the book down, then "A Stranger is Watching" by Mary Higgens Clark is the book to read. This novel is full of intense situations which makes the reader see things in a completely different perspective.
Kidnapping is a devastating situation which occurs in everyday life. In "A Stranger is Watching", it shows the viewpoint from which one is kidnapped. The novel gave a horrifying insight on what, the character that had been kidnapped, had to go through. It gave great detail on the emotional distress that the character felt, it made the reader feel as if he/she were the ones going through the terrifying tragedy. It also showed the viewpoint from the police officers and the investigators, and the stress they had to go through as the victems lives depended on them.
It's truely amazing what a difference one person can make and how many lives they effect. Many people were effected by this tragedy and many people put in 110% effort to help save the victems lives and to obtain justice. The novel shows the reader what the many people that are effected have to go through in real life situations. I recommend this novel to anyone who loves intense reading.