Customer Reviews

Two Little Girls in Blue: A Novel

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I was once a huge fan of Mary Higgins Clark, but several books ago tired of her young woman in jeopardy theme and said "no more." However, the buzz on this one lured me back one more time and I'm glad. She returns to the subject she did so well in her very first (and still the best) novel, "Where Are the Children?"

Two beautiful three-year-old twins are taken from their home while their parents are at a party and the baby sitter is overcome by the kidnappers. It's every parent's worst nightmare and MHC excels in showing the anguish Margaret and Steve Frawley feel when Kelly and Kathy are abducted from their own bedroom. The most interesting part of this story, however, is the telepathy the three-year-olds have. When one twin is returned safely and the other one is feared dead, only Margaret believes Kelly is communicating with the still-missing Kathy. But soon the police, FBI, and everyone involved becomes a believer and a desperate chase from New York to Cape Cod ensues.

The chapters are brief and riveting, the characters well-defined, and the suspense all-encompassing as readers experience the trauma and abuse inflicted on the children by the kidnappers. There are lots of red herrings and only the savviest reader may figure this one out before the finale.

I have only read a few of Mary Higgins Clark's books and this will no doubt be my last. After eagerly waiting two weeks for the book at the library, I finally got it and spent the whole day reading it. I am very thankful not to have spent my own money on it.

The characters are just not realistic. The twins are supposed to be three years old yet their verbal skills are far more advanced and would be more applicable to a first grader. Their "twin talk" between each other is more like a "super telepathic psychic connection" as even though they are separated great distances, they hold conversations with each other just by speaking aloud and they share each other's injuries and sickness. In addition, they can both see what the other sees.

There are a number of characters who have vital clues to the children's kidnapping, but for silly and often implausible reasons, they brush off their feelings as absurd and never bother to involve the police. When a young store clerk believes she knows who the kidnapper is and where the children are located, she never bothers to contact the authorities. Later, when she really has proof and knows that she was probably right all along, she still does not contact the police or FBI, but goes off on her own to the kidnapper's home to check it out herself! Several characters decide to wait before contacting the police or they have convenient distractions that prevent their calling.

Like a cheap horror film, the plot was predictable and the characters' behaviors ridiculous and unbelievable. I literally found myself wanting to yell at the people to stop being so damned stupid and just do what any decent, normal person would do in the same situation.

All in all, it was an extremely disappointing read and there is nothing to recommend it.

The characters in this book are shallow and undeveloped. I kept waiting for the characters to be developed or to catch my interest. Never happened. Ms. Clark introduces character after character to keep the story moving but never fully explains their personalities. What a boring read! I predicted the plot long before there really was one. I bought into the buzz about this novel and now wish I hadn't bought the book or the buzz. What a disappointment!

I also was a fan of Ms. Clark early on. Have been very disappointed in her latest efforts...but still keep hoping. Too bad for me...I think the main thing that dissappoints is the 'level' of the writing. I am not 10 years old!

I was EXTREMELY disappointed with Mary Higgins Clark's new book! It was very slow, and other than mentioning who the culprit behind the kidnapping is, the entire book is on the jacket summary...it just took her 322 pages to write it again.

I own all of her books, and this book doesn't compare to any of her other books. I was very disappointed and feel like I've been ripped off.

With Daddy's Little Girl, Mary Higgins Clark began experimenting with first person point of view writing ("I"). Personally, I can't stand 1st person POV, especially in a suspense novel! It takes away from the suspense in a major way.

Unfortunately, the last few books have also been in 1st POV. One of them, I skipped to the end to find out who "the Owl" was (and never finished it), and the others I had to force myself through. One of them, I didn't read at all.

I was DELIGHTED that Two Little Girls In Blue was written in third person POV...classic Mary! YAY!

I can't remember the last time I was so engrossed in a novel. I HAD to finish it...and just kept reading...and reading...and reading. (Exactly what I used to do in Junior High when I read MHC's books!)

It's a shame that Publisher Weekly (and the dust jacket) lets out so much "spoiler" information and I'm not going to add to it here. Let me just say that the novel is plot driven, for the most part, but the kidnapped twins offer a good bit of character driven angles, too. It's obvious that MHC did a lot of homework concerning telepathy in twins, and it was fascinating to see this type of interaction played out in Two Little Girls in Blue.

I admit, I usually know who the culprit is early on, but THIS time, I honestly wondered if two main characters close to the twins had something to do with the kidnapping!

Kudos, Mary, for keeping us up all night once again. Please keep them coming--and in third person POV!

I used to be an avid Nicholas Sparks fan. His last few novels, however, have been very drab. So, I went looking for something on the "New Fiction" shelf of my library. And found "Two Little Girls In Blue". It's my first mystery and what a way to introduce someone to the genre!

From the very first page, you can get the eery feeling of what is to come. This book was an easy read and ran smoothly, with no excessive babbling on. Every 2-3 pages, a new chapter would begin. This was a wonderful bonus for me because when I put down a book to do something else, I like to end the chapter first. No "wait 30 minutes to finish the chapter" with this book..

This was the first book in YEARS that I had to keep reading, I couldn't put it down. Literally! I would often quickly finish my daily chores just to hurry up and get back to the book!

I suggest everyone go read it.

This book was a huge disappointment. The plot was promising, the subject matter of twins communicating telepathically was unique and potentially interesting.

I instead got a story about a bunch of FBI hacks chasing kidnappers through New York and Cape Cod. The story had a dizzying array of characters, gaping holes, and no character development whatsoever.

It is a shame that someone with a name like Mary Higgins Clark can pen her name to such rubbish and have it be an instant blockbuster, while there are so many truly gifted writers out there going virtually unnoticed by the masses.

I rather like this particular author. While she is not my favorite by any means, she still produces pretty readable stories. She can be a rather good story teller when whe brings her A Game into play. I fear though that she might have been a bit off with this one. Like several other reviewers, I was a bit put off by the simplistic style and felt the author was capable of so much more, as she has proven many times in the past. I am certainly not going to go into any plot line here, that has been done several times already so I dare say I would not have much to add. If you are looking for a good, simple read, that is not the authors best work, then you will probably not be sorry you read this particular work. There was a good mystery involved, and had the style not been a bit off, this one could have been a real page turner, and in fact probably is. This quite quite well be just me that was not as thrilled as I should have been. For Mary Higgin Clark fan, you probably will not be sorry you read it, and you will not have wasted your time.

Half of the novel consists of the moronic characters "thinking" to themselves in complete sentences. There are about thirty clues that hit these folks in the face, yet they luck into finding the bad guys almost by sheer luck. Since the reader already knows who all but one culprit is, this is not very entertaining plot work. When the final kidnapper is finally revealed, you mostly just scratch your head. He did what? Because of that? Come on...