Before I Say Goodbye - by Mary Higgins Clark

I had never read Mary Higgins Clark's before. And somehow was under the impression that she churned out Romantic novels. So when I picked up her “Before I Say Goodbye”, it was more to confirm my impression than to find out what it was all about. However, whatever I read seemed interesting enough to take the novel with me.

The story begins when a yacht blows up in waters somewhere near the Statue of Liberty. On board are 4 people - Adam Cauliff, an architect, his assistant Winifred, his business partner Sam and one of the foremen on his sites, Jimmy Ryan. Cops figure that it was no accident. But the list of suspects is rather long. Is it another associate of Adam and Sam who conveniently got into an accident and so couldn’t make it to the meeting? Was it the enraged son of the lady who sold her land to Adam? Was Adam involved in a real estate and construction scam and so was bumped off? Or was the real target Winifred – whose knowledge of the construction business was deemed too dangerous by someone?

These are the questions that Adam’s widow Nell MacDermott is left to grapple with. The dyed-in-the-wool politician grandfather of hers – Cornelius MacDermott – and his sister who believes in peoples’ psychic powers complete the cast. Oh, wait a minute. I almost forgot pediatric surgeon Dan Minor who arrives on scene to save the pretty lady from coming to any harm.

And what do I think of this novel? I must begin the answer with a “Well”. :-) It was engaging at the beginning but halfway through the narrative I knew who the killer is. And so thereafter it became a matter of either proving or disproving my theory – even if that meant wading through peoples’ darkening auras. :-)