Where Are the Children? [Import] [Hardcover]

Mary Higgins Clark (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 254 pages
• Publisher: Readers Digest (2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762188626
• ISBN-13: 978-0762188628
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (118 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,441,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intelligently written book., November 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Where Are the Children? (Hardcover)

I think Mary Higgins Clark was at her best with this book; Where Are the Children. It was well written, and it kept me thinking constantly throughout the book. She made the story seem so realistic by letting the characters feelings and emotions relate to what other people in the same circumstances would have felt like. I really enjoyed reading this book. It was very descriptive about what was happening to the characters. Mary Higgins Clark makes reading enjoyable and relaxing. I did find the book a little hard to follow in the beginning, but the rest of the book made up for it. So, I decided to give Where Are the Children 5 stars. It was about a lady named Nancy Eldredge and her family. She was married to Carl Harmon and had two children, Peter and Lisa. She was very happy, and then one day her children disappeared. Her children were found dead and Nancy was framed for the murders. During the trial her husband and closest friend went against her. She decides to start a new life, and so she changed her appearance. She moved to Cape Cod and married Ray Eldredge, so that she could try to get rid of her horrible memories from the past. Nancy and Ray had two children named Mike and Missy, who were helping her move on with her life. Just when her life is going the way she wanted it to, Mike and Missy disappeared, leaving nothing but a little red mitten as a clue for the police to follow. Nancy couldn't remember much from the day her kids disappeared, so the police thought that it was her again. Will Nancy be committed for the crime again, or will it be someone else this time? The book has a very surprising ending. Read the book to answer all of the puzzling questions, and to find out what happens to Nancy and her family. In my opinion it's a book well worth reading.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the better Mary Higgins Clark Books, August 12, 2006

By 

Casey (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Where Are the Children? (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the first book i read of mary higgins clark and it is one of my favorites. It is so suspensefull and an incredibly enjoyful read. I could not put it down if your reading this review you should so get this book! it is excellent.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where are the Children?, April 20, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Where Are the Children? (Mass Market Paperback)

This boook is called "Where are the Children" by Mary Higgins Clark. The publisher is "Dell Publishing CO. INC.". The price of this book is $7.99. "Where are the Children?" is a chilling mystery. It takes place on Cape Cod and the main character is Nancy, a stay at home mom. Many years ago Nancy was accused of murdering her two missing children. ONce she was set free from trial she moved and started a new family and had two more kids. When these children go missing the story takes you on a whinding twists and turns as police try to find the children and find the killer. Nancy goes through hard questioning which forces her to confess all of her darkest secrets. But the many people involved with the case only have little time because who knows who could have the children now. I loved this book because at times you thought you knew who had taken the children but then later you get completly thrown off track. This story kept me reading for hours at a time. I would reccomend this book to anyone who is looking for a good reading that hooks you on the first page and keeps you hanging until the very end.