Customer Reviews

It Only Takes a Moment LP: A Novel of Suspense

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

In Mary Jane Clark's "It Only Takes a Moment," Eliza Blake is the popular host of a morning television show who dotes on her seven-year-old daughter, Janie. When Janie is abducted along with her nanny, Eliza is devastated. She is inconsolable, even though her colleagues and friends rally around her and give her much needed support. The question is: Who took Janie and Mrs. Garcia and why? FBI agents explore every credible lead, hoping to find the missing pair before it is too late.

Clark's writing style is very simple and straightforward. Each chapter is, at most, a few pages long and some are as short as half a page. The characters are thinly drawn: Eliza is beautiful, bright, even-tempered, and thoroughly likeable. Carmen Garcia, Eliza's Guatemalan housekeeper, is an altruistic and pious woman who puts Janie's welfare ahead of her own. Eliza's devoted boyfriend, Mack, flies in from London to be at her side during this difficult time. The villains are ciphers with no distinct personalities. Clark throws in a number of red herrings and a final twist to deliver the obligatory surprise ending.

This is a formulaic and unchallenging thriller in which Clark deals superficially with the predatory nature of media executives who want to get the story first at all costs. Clark's writing should appeal to readers who dislike overt violence and profanity, since the author assiduously avoids explicit language and gore. "It Only Takes a Moment" is escapist entertainment suitable for an airplane trip or a lazy summer afternoon.

I've read all of her books and usually enjoy them but this one was a big disappointment. In fact if she repeated herself, which happens quite often in this book, I'd just skim ahead. I couldn't wait to finish it so I could move on to something more interesting. The story fell flat and I wouldn't recommend it.

I love mystery/suspense novels, and this one really came across. It's a quick, easy read, although the story keeps the reader engaged and turning pages.

"It Only Takes A Moment" follows a kidknapping through the five days the girl is missing. It is laid out in short chapters that jump between the girl, her mom, her nanny, the mom's best friends, the mom's boss, the FBI, and the kidknappers.

The plot includes several good red herrings and a (small) twist at the very end that really makes the story. Note: Mystery/suspense readers will find the plot similar to another popular novel. I see this as coincidence, and it didn't affect the quality or enjoyment of the book.

I received this books as part of the Amazon Vine Program.

This book was like a bag of potato chips - you can't stop eating until the bag is empty but it isn't a real meal. I read this book in a few hours one evening - you really can't put it down once you start. It was an entertaining, easy read but at the end I felt unsatisfied. The characters were cardboard cutouts, almost cartoon-like in their simplicity. I did not feel any emotional connection to what was happening, which was strange since it was a standard TV news-type "heart-wrenching" scenario. I am not a usual reader of Clark or this genre and this book did not inspire me to want to read more about these characters.

This book has some aspects to recommend it. The author's characterization is very good....most of the characters were fairly well fleshed out and became "real" as the book progressed, or so it seemed to me. However, there are really a lot of characters in this book and I found it hard to keep them straight. The minor characters popped in and out, some with huge time gaps between "visits." I found that I had to spend some time going back in the book trying to figure out who was who.

Another thing I liked about this book is that the author demonstrated a lovely use of language; she seems very comfortable with words and her ease shows as the story develops.

Conversely, the chapter structure is unusual; most chapters have 1 to 3 pages; each chapter focuses on one story component or a character's thoughts or actions , sometimes too briefly for me. I found that some chapters ended before a particular aspect of the story line has been fully explored, and I was left wondering what a particular character fully thought or felt.

Given that this story is something that every parent fears, the suspense is almost a given and yet, I felt not a quake of fear or that lump in my throat I have felt for so many characters in other books. I never forgot that this was a book I was reading, instead of an experience in which I had become immersed.

All in all, I think that the book was good technically in many ways, but for me it lacked the magic that transforms great fiction from words on a page to a world that I get to visit for 300 pages or so.

I gave the book 3 Stars because of its good attributes, and because it occurred to me that someone else might find the book much more compelling than I did.

This book was uninspiring to say the least. This is "a novel of suspense", but I found that I had to force myself to pick up the book. It was bland and predictable, and not worth the time spent reading it.

I was really looking forward to reading this one and read all of Mary Higgins Clarks as well as Mary Jane's.. but this one just didn't do it for me. It was so routine and I found myself drifting away while reading it NOT a good thing when reading a riveting book. After several chapters I put it down and didn't resume reading for over one month . Now I usually read a book from cover to cover within 24 hrs..... The plot was the same as I have seen on TV or a old mystery novel. Nothing new or capturing.

I passed the book to a avid book reader and she felt the same. Struggled to get to the end. Sorry. I was really looking forward to a good one

If you're looking for books to donate to a literacy program, this is a good pick: there's not a word over two syllables in it. (OK, there's Camp Musquapsink and Guatemala, so not a 2-syllable work that isn't a proper noun.)

The characters are flat, the dialogue is simplistic, the settings are bland, and the whole thing verges on falling into Romance Land. It was one of the few books left when I picked it from Vine, and now I see why it was still there.

The Sunrise Suspense Society is a poor woman's knock-off of Patterson's Women's Murder Club - and I'm not much of a fan of that cliché-ridden series, either. Yes, there's a kidnapping and yes, there's a solution, but with these cookie-cutter characters spouting banalities (Eliza actually says "prison is too good for you") it's very hard to care about either.

I couldn't put this book down once I start reading it, but when I finished it, I was left very unsatisfied.

Too many abstract characters made the book confusing at times. And I don't think that any of them were fleshed out enough for me to feel like I understood their motivations. While I loved the short chapters, I do think some of them were too short, which detracted from the story.

All in all, while she's miles better than Carol Higgins Clark, Mary Jane Clark is no Mary Higgins Clark.

Eliza Blake is a TV show host whose seven-year-old daughter, Janie is abducted. Eliza is absolutely hysterical despite the extensive FBI investigation and complete support from family and friends.

Well, she may be close on the shelf, but that's where it ends. Mary Jane Clark may spin a good yarn but her ability at suspense doesn't quite measure up to the queen of scream - Mary Higgins Clark. Fiction readers should enjoy the story, but don't expect to be biting your nails.