All Around the Town [Mass Market Paperback]

Mary Higgins Clark (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1993

Mary Higgins Clark, the Queen of Suspense, crafts a terrifying story of murder and obsession with "a slambam finish" (Los Angeles Times Book Review).

ALL AROUND THE TOWN

When Laurie Kenyon, a twenty-one-year-old student, is accused of murdering her English professor, she has no memory of the crime. Her fingerprints, however, are everywhere. When she asks her sister, attorney Sarah, to mount her defense, Sarah in turn brings in psychiatrist Justin Donnelly. Kidnapped at the age of four and victimized for two years, Laurie has developed astounding coping skills. Only when the unbearable memories of those lost years are released can the truth of the crime come out -- and only then can the final sadistic plan of her abductor, whose obsession is stronger than ever, be revealed.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Clark pulls out all the stops in this efficiently suspenseful page-turner, a Literary Guild main selection and a 15-week PW bestseller in cloth, telling of a college senior accused of murder and the televangelist couple who abused her as a child.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

For her ninth sure-fire bestseller, Clark returns to what she does best: using a threatened child (this time, a regressive college-student traumatized by a childhood kidnapping) to grab you by the throat and shake well. Back in 1974, four-year-old Laurie Kenyon was abducted from her posh New Jersey home by Bic and Opal Hawkins, a pair of hippies who raped and terrorized her for two years before the heat got so close they turned her loose. Now she's an honor student at Clinton College who unwittingly harbors four personalities--sexy Leona, truculent Kay, four-year-old Debbie, and a nine-year-old boy--that she's developed to keep her childhood memories at bay. Meanwhile, her kidnappers have transformed themselves into TV preachers on the brink of stardom who keep putting scary photos, knives, and severed chicken heads in Laurie's way in case she recognizes them and wants to speak out. The flash point comes with the murder of personable prof Allan Grant, who'd just gone before the administration with proof that the steamy letters from ``Leona'' he'd been getting were typed on Laurie's typewriter. When Laurie finds herself standing over Grant unable to remember whether or not she killed him, it's up to big sister Sarah, fanatically dedicated to protecting Laurie, to quit the D.A.'s office, take charge of Laurie's defense, and incidentally begin a chaste romance with Justin Donnelly, who's trying to tease the truth out of all those alter egos even as Bic Opal step up their campaign from threats to violence. Not enough menace for you? Clark even throws in the mystery of who really killed Grant, though her heart's not in it: broad hints from the outset will tip off all but the most witless readers. No whodunit, then--but Clark's legion of fans, enthralled by her undeniable skill in pushing their buttons, won't even notice. Just be grateful the author isn't running for office. (Literary Guild Split Dual Selection for July) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 341 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Star; First Edition edition (February 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671793489
• ISBN-13: 978-0671793487
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (143 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #15 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Mystery & Thrillers > Authors, A-Z > ( C ) > Clark, Mary Higgins

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

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rollarcoaster thrill-ride! Suspense until the end!, October 25, 2001

By 

Tracy Talley "Book Addict" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All Around the Town (Mass Market Paperback)

I am amazed that I was kept on the preverbial 'edge of my seat' with this book! I read it in 6 hours and could not put it down! The suspense and twists were enough to make me wince and become anxious! Unbelievable suspense from what I now refer her to, THE Queen of Suspense, Mary Higgins Clark...

~'All Around the Town' is a simple childs rhyme, but not to little four year old Laurie Kenyon. She has been abducted and held mercilessly for two long and torturous years, suffering abuse and horrible mind games so severe that when she is released at age six, she doesn't even remember what has happened to her!
Now at age 21 she is found accused of murdering her English professor, Allan Grant, but she has no memory of the gruesome crime!

Apparently during those horrible years of being held prisoner, she has developed multiple personalities, one of which is a sex kitten calling herself "Leona". Leona has been writing crazed love letters to Allan Grant and has been secretly entering his home! She watches him sleep and wishes she could be with him...but the host personality, Laurie, is unaware of the many other 'people' living inside of her.

When things seem to go farther downhill for a suffering Laurie, her sister and best friend, a reknowned prosecutor,Sarah, takes up her defense and brings her to a psychiatrist Justin Donnelly, a specalist in MPD, Multiple Personality Disorder. Justin must be the one to help Laurie unlock her forbidden memories from those missing two years of captivity. But evil is lurking in the shadows...Laurie's abductor, now a famous televison evangelist, is still hopelessly obsessed with little Laurie and is determined to get to her one last time.

This story has twists upon twists that will leave you gasping for air and wanting more! The sad tale of a tortured woman trying to save herself by remembering who she is and what has happened all those years past. We get to see her world through her mind's eye and what we see is horrible and obscene. The preacher will never let her remember, but can Laurie beat him to the punch? A real rollarcoaster thrill-ride packed with suspense, enough to keep you on the edge of your seat until the wee hours of the night!

(...)

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Another winning murder mystery...., May 28, 2002

By 

Ratmammy "The Ratmammy" (Ratmammy's Town, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: All Around the Town (Mass Market Paperback)

ALL AROUND THE TOWN by Mary Higgins Clark is a murder mystery involving two sisters. Laurie Kenyon is the younger sister, and her story starts with her kidnapping years ago when she was only 4 years old. She disappeared for 2 years, only to be found again, but never to be the same happy child she once was. Sarah Kenyon is her older sister. She watched as her family fell apart while her parents tried desperately to find their daughter. With this in mind, Sarah becomes Laurie's protector, and vows to always be there when Laurie needed her.

The story revolves around the two women, as a murder mystery unfolds where Laurie is the accused murderer. As the story progresses, Sarah, who is now an attorney, tries to save her sister. But the more Sarah learns, the worse it looks. Laurie is discovered to have multiple personalities, and could one of her personalities have been the murderer?

I've read many Mary Higgins Clark books, and this is probably one of her best. It left me on the edge of my seat and was so riveting that it took me only two days to read it. I highly recommend this book!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great thriller, February 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: All Around the Town (Mass Market Paperback)

All Around the Town is a book about a girl, Laurie Kenyon, who was kidnapped at the age of four. Her kidnappers abused her while she was in their custody and somehow managed to form multiple personalities. Unfortunately Laurie was unaware of them, but when she was returned to her family they supposedly disappeared. Now at the twenty-one she is accused of murdering her English professor, Allan Grant, although she has no recollection of the murder at all. One of her many personalities had fallen in love with him and constantly wrote him letters under the name Leona. Laurie's sister, Sarahm does not believe this could be happening and since she is a lawyer quickly goes to her sister's defense. I had a wonderful time reading this book, once I started it I could barely put in down. The suspense was just too thrilling. There was not a single part of this book that I did not enjoy. I just kept on wanting to know what was going to happen next. This is a great book and I recommend it to everyone, even those people who do not enjoy reading suspense novels will certainly enjoy this book.