Stillwatch [Hardcover]

Mary Higgins Clark (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (1964)
• ASIN: B000LB8H5S
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)

More About the Author

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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exciting and quick read., May 1, 2003

By 

Beverley Strong (Australia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stillwatch (Mass Market Paperback)

When investigative journalist Patricia Traymore is invited to Washington to make a special TV documentary on prospective Vice Presidential candidate Senator Abigail Jennings, she moves into her familys old home- the scene of a terrible tragedy when she was a child.In the course of her investigations some rather murky truths begin to emerge and she receives threatening letters, warning her to leave the past alone. As she continues to live in the house, old and horrifying memories begin to surface, forcing her to relive forgotten episodes from her childhood and revealing facts which threaten to affect her safety.I found this to be a very good, fast read which is gripping to the last pages.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mary Higgins Clark at The Top of Her Game!, May 17, 2005

By 

Susie Morris "Book Junkie" (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Stillwatch (Mass Market Paperback)

A warning note was passed under Pat Traymore's door, which was a reminder of her past. As a television journalist and TV series producer, she knew instantly it was a warning. Her series on Senator Abigail Jennings, who was nominated as the first woman vice president of the United States seemed to be the center of the warning. With the aid of an old friend who happens to be a congressman (Sam Kingsley), Pat searches for clues as to why Abigail's life had gone this route. But in the process, the Senator's reputation and Pat's career could be on the line.

STILLWATCH is a story that will keep you at the edge of your seat and entertained from the beginning until the end. Mary Higgins Clark is at the top of her writing game with this book. There are a lot of twists and turns throughout this book, that keeps you guessing at all times. Some may figure out the villain, and others won't, but all will agree that STILLWATCH should definitely be on everyone's Must Read list!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gotta' read it!, October 12, 2000

By 

Hope Stallings (Georgia USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Stillwatch (Mass Market Paperback)

Patricia Traymore is wealthy, young, and beautiful. She has a stable career in television doing programs on famous American women. Her first subject: Abigail Jennings, senoir senator from Virginia. When Pat moves to her family house in Washington DC, to research Abigail, she has breakthrough memories about her own childhood, which her sub concence has hidden from her. Her mother and father were both murdered when she was 3, and she was slammed against the fireplace and shattered her right leg. With the help of the man she loves, Sam, she digs into Abigail's past, only to find it more troubling than her own. Will her own past be revealed to her? Who killed her parents, her mother or her father? Will Abigail become vice president? What about Abigail's past, was her husband's death an accident? Find out all the answers in "Stillwatch", one of Mary H. Clark's best books. If you like mystery and suspense, you'll love this one!