Three New York Times Bestselling Novels The master of suspense returns with three of her newest—and best—novels:While My Pretty One Sleeps; Loves Music, Loves to Dance, and All Around the Town. All three of these powerful thrillers have topped New York Times bestseller lists.
Three New York Times Bestselling Novels The master of suspense returns with three of her newest?and best?novels:While My Pretty One Sleeps; Loves Music, Loves to Dance, and All Around the Town. All three of these powerful thrillers have topped New York Times bestseller lists.
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.
This review is from: Mary Higgins Clark: Three New York Times Bestselling Novels (Hardcover)
As little as I like to read books which involve the abuse of children, I found this to be a gripping novel which covered the condition of Multi Personality Disorders as well as the often common reason for murder--greed! Laurie is a very beautiful girl who was kidnapped at the age of 4 and was held and abused sexually for 2 years.During the years of abuse, the tiny child learned to retreat into her mind to block out whar was happening.After her rescue, she made wonderful progress until the accidental death of her parents,which made her alter personalities emerge. When one of her teachers is murdered and she is connected with the scene, her sister Sarah, a prosecutor with the District Attorney's Office, becomes aware that the murder may have been committed by one of her alter personalities. Meanwhile Laurie's kidnappers,Bic and Opal have become TV evangelists and are intent on continuing their control over Laurie's fragile mind.This is a suspensful thriller and will keep you glued to the book till the end.
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5.0 out of 5 starsLoves Music Loves To Dance- A Must Read!, February 21, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Mary Higgins Clark: Three New York Times Bestselling Novels (Hardcover)
Loves Music, Loves to Dance was one of my favorite Mary Higgins Clark books yet. It was entertaining, believable, and definately suspenseful! I was really surprised with the killer!
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5.0 out of 5 starsAll Around the Town, February 21, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Mary Higgins Clark: Three New York Times Bestselling Novels (Hardcover)
This was a great book. It's plot was chilling and terrifying. I couldn't stop reading it. The way it turned out was a real surprise. I didn't know what to think of Laurie's alternate personalities. Could she really be a murderer without knowing it? I loved how Laurie's alternate personalities would jump out while talking to Justin. They would slowly release information from her past, but would it be enough to know what happened? This book it a suspenseful must-read.
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