Customer Reviews

Deck the Halls/The Christmas Thief: Two Holiday Novels

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Deck the Halls/The Christmas Thief: Two Holiday Novels I own every Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark book these ladies have written. Carol is Mary's daughter. On three occasions they have collaborated at Christmas time to write mysteries using characters from both their books. Mary uses her first character from the Lottery Ticket, Alvira and her husband. Carol uses her PI, Regan and her new hubby, Jack with the same last name, Reilly, who is a NY Detective; who are her characters in every one of her books. These books are really nice collaborations and I look forward to their Christmastime books! I would recommend buying any of the Clark books if you love mysteries! Amazon.com will help you keep your favorites cataloged and even give you the opportunity to purchase the newest editions!

Bestselling suspense novelist Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter and bestselling author Carol Higgins Clark joined together when they wrote Deck the Halls, first published in 2000. Their sleuths, Regan Reilly and Alvirah Meehan, team up again in the 2004 The Christmas Thief.

Although both stories were enjoyable, I especially liked the first novel, Deck the Halls. The writing was crisp and the storyline taut. While the underlying humor was interesting, the plot centered on how the inept kidnappers were going to pull everything together and whether the victims were going to be rescued in time to spend Christmas with their families. Although the ending was a given, the ride throughout was fantastic fun.

With The Christmas Thief, the criminals were just as inept, but the storyline just wasn't as interesting or mysterious for me. The authors spent too much time on the suspects and not enough on the main characters, whose lives prove to be much more interesting.

Fans of the authors will enjoy that these two stories are now combined in one book and available to read as we head into the Christmas season.

Deck the Halls/The Christmas Thief: Two Holiday Novels

Deck the Halls. California private detective Regan Reilley flies home to New Jersey to spend the holidays with her parents. Regan visits her mother, Nora a patient at the Manhattan Hospital for Special Surgery for a leg she broke tripping over a rug. At her mother's room, Regan also sees her father Luke, a funeral home owner, who quickly races off to attend the Goodloe funeral before going onto a dentist. However, Luke never makes his appointments as Petey the Painter and C.B. Dingle kidnap him for providing terrible financial advice. C.B. demands Nora send them one million dollars for the safe return of her spouse and his driver. Regan searches for her abducted father starting at the dentist's office where she meets local amateur detective Alvirah Meehan, who offers her help.

The Christmas Thief. Con artist Packy Noonan talked people into investing over 100 million in his phony shipping company, but though his confederates escaped Packy went to jail. After serving twelve years he heads to Stowe, Vermont to get the diamonds that are hidden in an eighty foot blue spruce tree belonging to his former employees Lenny and Viddy. He doesn't know the tree is heading to Rockefeller Center. Others head to Stowe like Alviah Meshim and Megan Reilly with a convergence about to occur.

These are reprints of entertaining lighthearted mystery collaborations of Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark. Each entry is fun as stars from the mother daughter authors' solo books team up for the holidays. Although the underlying premises for the action are stretches, no one will care these are enjoyable Christmas suspense thrillers.

Harriet Klausner