Where Are You Now?: A Novel [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio CD]

Mary Higgins Clark (Author), Jan Maxwell (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 8, 2008

It has been ten years since 21-year-old Kevin MacKenzie, Jr. ("Mac"), has been missing. A Columbia University senior, about to graduate and already enrolled in Duke University Law School, he walked out of his room in Manhattan's Upper West Side without a word to his college roommate and has never been seen again. However, he does make three ritual phone calls to his mother every year: on her birthday, on his birthday, and on Mother's Day. Each time, he assures her he is fine, refuses to answer her frantic questions, then hangs up. Even the death of his father, a corporate lawyer, on 9/11 does not bring him home, or break the pattern of his calls.

Mac's sister Carolyn is now 26, a law school graduate, and has just been hired as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan. She has endured two family tragedies -- her brother's inexplicable disappearance, and the loss of her father. Realizing that neither she nor her mother will ever be able to have closure and get on with their lives until they find her brother, she sets out to discover what happened to Mac, and why he has found it necessary to hide from them.

Her journey into the world of people who willingly disappear from their own lives leads her to learn about others who may or may not still be alive, and ultimately to a deadly confrontation with someone close to her who suddenly becomes an enemy -- and cannot allow her to disclose his secret...

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mary Higgins Clark's latest novel is a well-paced thriller sure to please longtime fans. However, Jan Maxwell's reading is uninspired and sluggish. Her voice rarely diverts from the monotone droning that dominates most of this tale. There is little attempt to relate the underlying tension that Clark has layered throughout the story, and Maxwell offers little in the way of character development. The result is disappointing; an unenthused experience that will turn many listeners away thanks to a nuance-free performance from this Broadway star.
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Review

"An imaginative tale of murder and deceit...will keep readers guessing to the nail-biting conclusion." -- Publishers Weekly

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Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio; Unabridged edition (April 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743571320
• ISBN-13: 978-0743571326
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (115 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #6 in Books > Books on CD > Authors, A-Z > ( C ) > Clark, Mary Higgins

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

113 of 118 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Missing Person, April 8, 2008

By 

Tom S. "filmfan3" (New York City) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Where Are You Now?: A Novel (Hardcover)

Years ago, a college student named Charles ("Mack") MacKenzie walked out of his life for no apparent reason. Since then, once a year, he calls his mother to assure her that he's all right, and to ask her not to look for him. Now, Mack's younger sister, Carolyn, has decided to find him. Her search uncovers a lot of old secrets among the people closest to her, and someone is trying to prevent Carolyn from solving the mystery behind her brother's disappearance--by any means necessary....

Once again, Mary Higgins Clark has provided us with a sleek, fascinating thriller that builds to a terrific payoff. I read it in one long sitting, and you'll be tempted to do the same. There's a good reason for her 30-year reign as America's "Queen of Suspense," and WHERE ARE YOU NOW? is ample proof of her extraordinary talent. Recommended.

70 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Crisp, clear, and clean writing; a surprising and satisfying plot resolution, April 9, 2008

By 

Roy E. Perry "amateur philosopher" (Nolensville, Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where Are You Now?: A Novel (Hardcover)

Mary Higgins Clark, America's Queen of Suspense, hasn't lost her touch. In Where Are You Now? she writes a chilling tale of a psychopath stalking his prey on the streets of Manhattan near the SoHo night clubs.

Four women are missing and presumed dead. Also missing for the past ten years, but presumed alive, is Charles "Mack" MacKenzie, Jr., who calls his mother once a year on Mother's Day, telling her he is OK and not to search for him.

Mack's sister Carolyn is frustrated that the NYPD and a private investigator, in spite of their intense efforts, have been unable to solve the mystery of Mack's disappearance. She resolves to find him, and, of course, by doing so, puts her own life in jeopardy.

Is Mack still alive, and if so, what kind of trouble is he in? Is he the serial killer? If not, then who is? And what is Mack's motive for dropping out of sight?

Scattering red herrings along the path, Clark leads us to suspect various candidates as being the shadowy predator of young women. We begin to wonder whom can we trust?

Clark's writing is crisp and clear. Although surprising, the plot resolution is convincing and satisfying; the veteran author ties together all the loose ends. And, as always, her work is admirably clean, without obscenity or profanity.

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars He Calls on Mother's Day, April 20, 2008

By 

J. E. Stephens "Jeanne" (Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Where Are You Now?: A Novel (Hardcover)

If you have a free afternoon, this book won't disappoint you. Carolyn's brother disappeared over 10 years ago. He calls his mother once a year on Mother's Day.

Carolyn sees the toll his disappearance is taking on her mother. She also wants to get on with her own life. She tells her brother she is going to find him on his most recent call.

On that same day, a young student disappears while walking home from a club.

Carolyn begins to search for her brother while uncovering many connections to the new disappearance and other cases of missing girls.

This book held my interest. Early on I suspected someone but the connections were a total surprise.

You will enjoy this book. It is as good as early MHJ books.