You Belong To Me [Import] [Paperback]

Mary Higgins Clark (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: UNSPECIFIED VENDOR (1998)
• ISBN-10: 067102602X
• ISBN-13: 978-0671026028
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (153 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

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Just Couldn't Put It Down, December 18, 2001

By 

Tracey A. Nettell (Houston, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: You Belong To Me (Mass Market Paperback)

The 5 stars are not given because this is a great piece of literature - it doesn't pretend to be. They are awarded because I simply could not put this thriller down. It grabbed me from the first chapter and other activities I should have been doing simply had to take a back seat while I immersed myself in the book. Susan Chandler, however innocently through her radio talk show, begins to uncover the trail of a serial killer who preys on lonely women across the four corners of the globe. The book has lots of great characters, lots of plot twists and keeps you rivetted until the very end. There are several characters who could be the killer - but you will have to go there yourself to find out just who it is!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You Belong to Me, December 3, 2000

By 

Rebekah George (Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: You Belong To Me (Audio Cassette)

Mary Higgens Clark is one of my favorite authors. She writes suspensful and page turning novels. "You Belong to Me" is one of the most entertaining books I have ever read. Her style of writing is original and intense with excitement. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys books that are so riveting, it's difficult to put down. The story's main character is Susan Chandler, a psychologist with her own radio show. She uses the radio show to look into a case of a missing woman, Regina Clausen. Regina disappeared on a cruise ship and was never seen again, but in her possessions was found a ring with "You belong to me" engraved on it. A woman, who calls herself Karen, calls into the show and states that she has a similar ring and a picture of the man who gave it to her. The killer hears her and is enraged that his identity might be revealed. He follows Karen, whose real name is Carolyn Wells, to the post office and pushes her in front of a speeding van. The killer is so obsessed with protecting his privacy, he kills three more people who might have had information leading to his identity. Meanwhile, Susan is dating a wealty man named Alex Wright, and another psychologist, Don Richards. Susan likes both men, but is really interested in Alex Wright. She continues to uncover more clues about the killer and is starting to understand the connection between the recent deaths and the killer's habits. She is at her desk one night going through pictures she accured when the killer suprises her and attempts to kill her. To find out who the cold-hearted killer is, read "You Belong to Me". There is nothing I would change about Mary Higgens Clark's book. I applaud her ways in keeping the reader continually guessing the identity of the killer. The unexpected ending will bewilder you. I look forward to reading her next book and encourage everyone to read her splendid book, "You Belong to Me".

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining but could have been better, April 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: You Belong To Me (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is vintage Mary Higgins Clark in that it has a fast-moving plotline that makes for effortless reading. What I have trouble with, however, is that the ending seems a bit rushed and that the so-called heroine never had an inklinhg of who the killer was until he came knocking on her door. Also, in trying to set up everyone as a suspect, most of the characters were underdeveloped and the whole book in general less involved than her earlier works. It seems to me that lately, the queen of suspense seems to have found a formula that worked and decided to stick with it. As a result, her previous three novels have been so similar in style and presentation that they were simply, well, forgettable. The fact that I was able to guess accurately who the killer is the moment he was introduced in all three books was another reason why I have stopped buying her books. For those of you who's looking for good/entertaining read, I strongly suggest that you try some of her earlier works such as "A Cry in the Night," "A Cradle Will Fall," and "I'll Be Seeing You." You'll definitely get more out of your money that way.