He Sees You When You're Sleeping [Kindle Edition]

Mary Higgins Clark (Author), Carol Higgins Clark (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A dynamic team." -- People

Product Description

From the “Queen of Suspense,” Mary Higgins Clark, and bestselling author Carol Higgins Clark—the acclaimed mother/daughter duo—comes this holiday treat, a heartwarming tale of redemption and love.

Sterling Brooks has been cooling his heels in the Celestial Waiting Room for forty-six years, waiting for admission to heaven. Finally, just days before Christmas, he’s summoned before the Heavenly Council and found unworthy; throughout his life he had been hopelessly self-absorbed. To redeem himself, he is given the chance to go back to Earth and find someone to help.

At New York’s Rockefeller Center skating rink, Sterling encounters Marissa, a heartbroken seven-year-old whose father and grandmother have been forced into the Witness Protection Program; they had overheard two gangsters hatch a sinister plot to collect money from a debtor. Able to travel through time and space, Sterling devises a master plan to reunite little Marissa with her family in time for Christmas. Along the way, he discovers within himself what it takes to earn his wings.

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 242 KB
• Publisher: Scribner; Reprint edition (November 20, 2001)
• Sold by: Simon and Schuster Digital Sales Inc
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000FC0PKI
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,137 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DYNAMIC DELIVERY OF A YULETIDE THRILLER, November 25, 2001

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: He Sees You While You're Sleeping (Audio Cassette)

The Clark ladies are a formidable literary pair, often co-authoring to offer double dips of pleasure for mystery loving readers. Now, they've taken a leaf from the classic Christmas film "It's A Wonderful Life" and spiced it with danger. Carol Higgins Clark gives authentic voice to their story.

Sterling Brooks might be everyman--except for the fact that he's in heaven's anteroom, where he's been waiting for almost 50 years for admission to heaven. In his case patience isn't its own reward, and the Heavenly Council proposes a test for him. Sterling must return to Earth and prove his Pearly Gates eligibility by helping someone else.

Where to start but Manhattan and the Rockefeller Center skating rink? There he finds a woebegone seven-year-old, Marissa, whose family has been placed in the Federal Witness Protection Program due to the threats of the murderous Blodgett family. It is the Christmas season and Marissa is separated from those she loves.

It does take some work and thought on Sterling's part but, of course, the tale has a happy ending. After all, even almost-angels have mysterious powers.

29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Check Your List Twice Before You Buy, November 20, 2001

By 

James E. Carroll (Cape Cod, Massachusetts, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: He Sees You When You're Sleeping : A Novel (Hardcover)

Sterling Brooks is marking time in the celestial waiting room watching everyone else get their wings. As a lawyer during life, described as the kind of person who was first in the lifeboat, who never went out of his way for anyone and who was too smug and self-absorbed to notice what was going on around him (trial lawyers won't like that portrait of one of their own), it's not going to be easy for Counselor Brooks. Summoned by the Heavenly Council and informed that his only chance for admission will be his participation in an earthly experiment to recognize someone with a problem and help them solve it, Brooks is off to earn his wings. Transported back to Rockefeller Center during the holiday season, Brooks doesn't have that much time to help seven year old Marissa get reunited with her father and grandmother. The road to heaven may be paved with good intentions; but Brooks' trip takes him to the underworld of gangsters Junior and Eddie Badgett who have scared Marissa's father and grandmother into the witness protection program because of something they know.

While this book may fly off the shelves this holiday season because of its authors' following, it's not destined to take up residence next to Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" or Capra's "It's A Wonderful Life" in this reviewer's holiday collection. Sure, it's probably not expected to be a classic, but even as an afternoon read with Mel Torme crooning in the background and the chestnuts roasting on an open fire, it's a disappointment.

There's not enough humbug in me to say don't read this book during a free moment in the holiday rush. It is short at 199 pages. It's just that I think mother-daughter authors Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark could have done much better if they lightened up on the sugar coating.

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome suspense, November 26, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: He Sees You When You're Sleeping : A Novel (Hardcover)

I don't give book reviews but here goes. This one will get you to sit straight up, no slouching. My wife told me my eyes would be so wide open at times... and she was right. I can't see why anyone would not enjoy this good writing. Mary has a very real and capturing way. We have all seen movies and read books about the person who needs to do the good deed on Earth to gain rights to Peter's gate, but this one is arousing. I am not a regular reader of Mary's, my wife is, she also says this is intense. I want to recommend another book my wife ordered here, and is as satisfying, SB 1 or God By Karl Mark Maddox.