Customer Reviews

Dashing Through the Snow

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark have come up with another of their Christmas mysteries featuring Alvirah, former cleaning lady now lottery winner, her husband Willy, Nora Regan Reilly (MHC's alter ego, a mystery writer), her husband Luke, their daughter Regan, and her husband Jack (no relation) Reilly. As usual, it is a fast, fun read. There are the usual assortment of quirky characters, most of whom are good people. There are, however, a few who are not including The Skunk, wife of the local storekeeper. Of course there are a couple of bumbling criminals who really aren't evil when push comes to shove. But there are two others. . .

Set in a little town in New Hampshire, the short but sweet novel takes place during the first annual Festival of Joy, which the young mayor and his camera-happy wife hope will put their charming little town on the map.
A group of disgruntled employees of the local grocery, who have reason to be unhappy because the owner's wife has given them wedding pictures of herself and her husband instead of the monetary Christmas bonuses they were counting on, have won the powerball lottery. But another winning ticket was sold in the next town. Who has it? And where is it?

Add to that a lovestruck grocery clerk and his sweetheart, who has flown from California to surprise him but has gone missing, and you have a situation just made for Alvirah & Regan.

I enjoyed this book, and you will, too. Take it with you on your holiday flight--it should fill the time between airports. I look forward each year to the Clarks' Christmas novel and to Anne Perry's Christmas novel. They did not disappoint me.

Mary Higgins Clark is not bad. Her daughter has ridden to publishing success on her mother's coat tails. Shame on her and shame on those who publish her incredibly sloppily written work. This particular novel was clearly written in bulk by the daughter. It has all the earmarks of her slap dash dialogue, improbable plot lines and boring predictability. I have read just a few of Carol's novels in the hopes that experience might improve her product. I give up. And I wish her mother wouldn't put her name on the same book as her daughter's. Mary's books, while not destined for a spot on the 'classics' shelf, at least read well, are suspenseful and are not cringe-worthy.
Unless you are truly a fan of Carol Higgins Clark (I can't imagine such a creature.)don't waste your money.

And to the publishers of these woefully bad bits of dreck - what are you thinking? I guess it really is all about the money, isn't it? And that's a shame because there are a lot of excellent novelist out there whose work should be published. They just don't happen to have a famous author mom on whose success they can trade.

You can read a synopsis of the plot in any other review here, but the bottom line for me was that this was an incredibly boring book . . . and I ordinarily LOVE Christmas-themed books! The plot was thin and very predictable. The characters were one-dimensional and not fleshed out by any means. Perhaps, if I'd read the other books in the series they would be a bit more so, but after reading this one, I'd never waste my time doing that! The dialog was trite and left me yawning. The "action" was inane.
My sweet daughter bought me this book for Christmas, so I felt obligated to finish it. She's only fourteen and, after reading the enire book, I honestly feel that it was a total waste of her hard-earned money and a total waste of my (too little) free time. If they'll take it, I plan on selling it to a used book store, and give the proceeds to my daughter.
Don't waste your time or money on this book, as there are many, many good ones out there!

This book was so predictable and probably the worst I've ever read by this author. I'm sorry i wasted my time reading it , but it was for my book club. Everyone there agreed with me.

I wanted a light, fun read to get me in the mood for the holidays..seems like they are coming so fast...and I was not disappointed by Mary H Clark and Carol H Clark's new book.

It has all my favorite characters...the darling and dashing team of Regan and Jack O'Reilly, sophisticated mom Nora and her stoic husband, Luke Reilly, and those lucky lottery winners, Alvirah and Willy Meehan, who haven't let winning all that money stop them from being such great people.

The book is 226 pages, and I didn't want it to end!

It has the usual good guys and bad guys and I love the quirks and devious plot revolving around people that have money, and those that want to take it from them!

If you are concerned that this book is a re-print, it is brand new and has not previously been published.

If you have enjoyed any of their previous books, you won't be disappointed. If you haven't read any of them, you can still read this book without knowing all the back stories and be entertained. Then you'll want to get all the rest!

We recently took a trip to the beach and decided to listen to an audio book on the way. We selected Dashing Through the Snow by Mary and Carol Higgins Clark. Carol narrated the book and did a nice job. She was easy to follow and very energetic in her reading. She did not have a unique voice for each character as some narrators do but it didn't detract from the listenablity of the audio book. Alvirah, a former cleaning lady who won $40 million in the lottery, her husband Willy, Nora Regan Reilly, a mystery author, her husband Luke, their daughter Regan, a private investigator, and her husband Jack, from the NYPD all attend The Festival of Joy in Branscombe, New Hampshire. Branscombe is turned on its ear with a missing person, a kidnapping, two $160 million winning lottery tickets, and a bunch of crooks. The storyline was a little far-fetched, but, then again, it is fiction. It was a soft-core mystery which was enjoyable and appropriate for both adults and kids.

Very disappointed in this book. Mary Higgins Clark usually has such a higher quality of writing. Felt as though I was reading a book written by a newcomer with not much skill.
Valerie

This is a good story & a quick read. The characters are believable & so is the plot.

I love Christmas themed books and Mary Higgins Clark can be quite good so I decided to give this one a try. There is not much redeemable about this book. The characters are weak especially the reoccurring ones from Mary and Carols other books. I did not find anything here to make me care enough about them to seek out any of the other books they appear in. The setting is weak and the Christmas theme very thin as is the plot. It is a quick and easy read but even for a must read situation like a plane trip it may be too boring to hold anyone's attention.

"Dashing Through the Snow" is very entertaining and easy to "Dash" through. I look forward to the Christmas books that Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter Carol Higgins Clark write together. It makes the Christmas season more joyful for me. Of course, I love Mary Higgins Clark's regular mysteries. They are entertaining and adventuresome without the use of sex or bad language. Keep up the good work, Mary!!!