Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Mary Higgins Clark

Happy birthday to the Queen of Suspense, Mary Higgins Clark! Here are her ten top rated novels, according to Goodreads users.  (Presented in alphabetical order, not rating)

All Around the Town - Professor Alan Grant is found stabbed to death in his New Jersey home. All the evidence points to an obsessed student, twenty-one-year old Laurie Kenyon, who sent him passionate letters, followed him, even watched him through his study window-and awakens in her dorm room, covered with Grant's blood and clutching the knife that killed him.

The Cradle Will Fall - A minor road accident landed county prosecutor Katie DeMaio in Westlake Hospital. That night, from her window, she thought she saw a man load a woman's body into the trunk of a car...or was it just a sleeping pill induced nightmare? At work the next day, Katie began investigating a suicide that looked more like murder. Initial evidence pointed elsewhere, but medical examiner Richard Carroll saw a trail leading to Dr. Edgar Highley. He suspected that the famous doctor's work "curing" infertile women was more than controversial -- that it was deceitful, depraved, and often deadly. But before Richard could tell Katie his fears, she left the office for the weekend and an appointment for routine surgery...in Dr. Highley's operating room.

Daddy's Little Girl - Ellie Cavanaugh was only seven years old when her fifteen-year-old sister, Andrea, was murdered near their home in Oldham-on-the-Hudson, a rural village in New York's Westchester County. There were three suspects: Rob Westerfield, nineteen-year-old scion of a wealthy, prominent family, whom Andrea has been secretly dating; Paul Stroebel, a sixteen-year-old schoolmate, who had a crush on Andrea; and Will Nebels, a local handyman in his forties. It was Ellie who had led her parents to a hideout in which Andrea's body was found -- a secret hideaway in which she met her friends. And it was Ellie who was blamed by her parents for her sister's death for not telling them about this place the night Andrea was missing. It was also Ellie's testimony that led to the conviction of the man she was firmly convinced was the killer. Steadfastly denying his guilt, he spent the next twenty-two years in prison. When he comes up for parole, Ellie, now an investigative reporter for an Atlanta newspaper, protests his release. Nonetheless, the convicted killer is set free and returns to Oldham. Determined to thwart his attempts to whitewash his reputation, Ellie also returns to Oldham, intent on creating a Website and writing a book that will conclusively prove his guilt. As she delves deeper into her research, however, she uncovers horrifying and heretofore unknownfacts that shed new light on her sister's murder. With each discovery, she comes closer to a confrontation with a desperate killer.

Let Me Call You Sweetheart - A visit to a prominent New York plastic surgeon with her daughter leads Kerry McGrath, a New Jersey municipal court judge and former district attorney, on a quest to find a killer, before a man she had once helped convict of murder dies for a crime he did not commit.

Loves Music, Loves to Dance - After college, best friends Erin Kelley and Darcy Scott move to the city to pursue exciting careers; Erin is a promising jewelry designer, Darcy finds success as a decorator. On a lark, Darcy persuades Erin to help their TV producer friend research the kinds of people who place personal ads. It seems like innocent fun...until Erin disappears.
Erin's body is found on an abandoned Manhattan pier -- on one foot is her own shoe, on the other, a high-heeled dancing slipper. Soon after, startling communiques from the killer reveal that Erin is not the first victim of this "dancing shoe murderer." And, if the killer has his way, she won't be his last. Next on his death list is Darcy.

Pretend You Don't See Her - One day, while showing a luxurious skyline co-op, Lacey is witness to a murder -- and to the dying words of the victim.... The dying woman is convinced that the attacker was after her dead daughter's journal -- which Lacey gives to the police, but not before making a copy for herself. It's an impulse that later proves nearly fatal.
Placed in the witness protection program and sent to live in the Minneapolis area, Lacey must assume a fake identity, at least until the killer can be brought to trial. There she meets Tom Lynch, a radio talk-show host whom she tentatively begins to date -- until the strain of deception makes her break it off. Then she discovers the killer has traced her to Minneapolis. Armed with nothing more than her own courage and clues from the journal, Lacey heads back to New York, determined to uncover who's behind the deaths of the two women -- before she's the next casualty.

Remember Me - A young couple retreats to tranquil Cape Cod to escape from the horrors of their past--only to become trapped in a nightmare beyond their understanding, and out of their control.

A Stranger is Watching - The family of a murder victim, a journalist opposed to capital punishment and the man convicted of the killing find their lives bound together as the hour of execution approaches, while the person who knows the truth about the murder waits to plunge them into an abyss of terror.

Where Are the Children? - She thought the nightmare was over ... Nancy Harmon fled her California home, the macabre deaths of her two children, and the hideous charges brought against her. She changed her name, died her hair and sought refuge in the srenity of a small New England town.

While My Pretty One Sleeps - Neeve Kearny may be the only person in New York worried about the disappearance of Ethel Lambston. Ethel, a bestselling author famous for her juicy exposés, is one of the best customers at Neeve's exclusive Madison Avenue boutique. But Ethel's ex-husband, her parasitical nephew, and the fashion moguls skewered in her latest article all have reason to be glad she's no longer around.
When Ethel Lambston is found with her throat cut, Neeve's memories of her mother's long-unsolved murder loom up once again. Now as an innocent witness in the Lambston investigation, Neeve is drawn into a new nightmare...a sinister labyrinth of greed and ambition that will lead her into mortal danger...

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