While My Pretty One Sleeps - by Mary Higgins Clark

I must have liked Clark’s earlier novel somewhat because when I went to return it I asked the Assistant if they had another of her novels lying about. She remembered seeing a few but it took her some time to fish one out – While My Pretty One Sleeps.

If we were given a generous dose of the shenanigans going on in the real estate business in “Before I Say Goodbye”, this time Mary Higgins Clark has chosen the rarefied world of Fashion for her plot.

So this time we have pretty Neeve Kearny with her pretty little boutique tucked away in Manhattan. It’s not any wardrobe malfunction but a prized client’s disappearance that causes wrinkles in her pretty world. Soon, Ethel Lambston’s frozen body is discovered in the state park. And then a few suspects come tumbling out of the cupboard – Lambston’s ex-hubby who can ill-afford the lifetime alimony, her good-for-nothing nephew who also happens to be her sole heir, some of the fashion world’s bigwigs who Ethel has threatened to expose in her new article.

In the midst of all this chaos there is a contract put on Neeve’s life by Nicky Sepetti – the mafia who spent a few extra years behind bars because he was suspected in the murder of Neeve’s mother Renata 17 years back. Neeve’s dad, ex-New York City Commissioner Myles Kearny and publisher Jack Campbell complete the cast.

Alas, I could figure out the murderer halfway through this one as well. To be fair, I wasn’t bright enough to guess the motive :-( But a good read if you can tolerate the constant references to the streets of Manhattan and descriptions of high-end fashion clothing.