While My Pretty One Sleeps: Library Edition [Import] [Hardcover]

Mary Higgins Clark (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 276 pages
• Publisher: Century (October 18, 2001)
• ISBN-10: 0712614834
• ISBN-13: 978-0712614832
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 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

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great success by Mary Higgins Clark...., November 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: While My Pretty One Sleeps (Mass Market Paperback)

"While My Pretty One Sleeps" is another great novel that adds to the proof of Mary Higgins Clark's great writing talent. I gave this novel five stars because it was a great book packed with mystery and suspense. Once you pick it up you do not want to put it down. The mystery begins to unfold with the disappearance of the famous gossip columnist Ethel Lambston. Neeve Kearney a fashion boutique owner, in which Lambston shops, realizes that something is wrong and does not rest until she gets answers to all of the mysterious questions that begin to unfold. This is an absolutely wonderful novel. Any person that enjoys Mary Higgins Clark or likes mysteries should definitely pick up this book.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is one of the most suspenseful books I've ever read..., May 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: While My Pretty One Sleeps (Mass Market Paperback)

I used to not enjoy reading, but after picking up While My Pretty One Sleeps, I think I've changed my mind! Unlike other mysteries that are boring and hard to follow, this book has a great plot and is very suspenseful. I admit that I had a hard time putting it down at night! You're hooked within the first chapter, when the story begins with the murder of gossip columnist Ethel Lambston. Lambston had written a column that could destroy the careers of many fashion designers, and someone was angry enough about it to kill her! There are many suspects, but you really won't know who did it until the last pages. The only person who cares about Ethel's disapperance is Neeve Kearny, owner of an expensive boutique where Lambston was a customer. When Ethel is found dead in a park, Neeve is reminded of her mother's murder. As she stuggles to find the truth, she doesn't realize that she may be the next to die... While My Pretty One Sleeps is more than just a mystery, it also has a little romance added in. The characters are very realistic, and there isn't a boring page in the whole book! I would definetly recommend this book to anyone!!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It wasn't all that great., September 10, 2001

By 

"schmooth" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: While My Pretty One Sleeps (Mass Market Paperback)

I am still a big Mary Higgins Clark fan, but I am sick of her portraying men in her novels with seemingly irreversible flaws while the women have the endurance and character of Wonder Woman. While her stories are fictional, can we at least stop living in a perfect world? Every woman on earth is not supermodel material. I say this because if I read about another perfectly formed woman who is not a day past 25 and can solve a murder within three days, I'm going to scream. The men, of course, are either good looking for their age (i.e. - they looked good a long time ago or they have potential but they don't utilize it) or bald, fat, ugly, and chauvenistic.

This book came highly recommended to me by a family member. Frankly, it was a boring read and I only read all of the book out of respect for my family member. I could put it down very easily and I found the lead characters unbelievably boring. The murderer was a disappointing surprise (yet again another male). Also, it is good to give details about surroundings in books, but enough is enough. It's great that the author has a niche for fine fashion (and this was a fashion book), but the constant descriptions of sweaters, skirts, and blouses added to the consistent boredom of the novel.

Funny thing though, I just picked up a copy of We'll Meet Again. Yet again there is another female heroine with uncanny youthful looks who will undoubtedly solve another murder (probably by a man again) within three days. Remember Me and Weep No More My Lady were typical Mary Higgins Clark books but with more excitement. This is probably due to more characters who were diverse enough to carry a novel. I believe I'll start saturating my mystery collection with other authors - for at least SOME variety.