I Heard That Song Before – by Mary Higgins Clark

If you have read my earlier posts, you must be now be saying to yourself “oh, you got to be kidding me!” :-) But I assure you, this is the last Higgins book I will read – at least for the near future that is :-)

Ok, so now for the plot. We have Kay Lansing – daughter of the Landscaper for the wealthy Carringtons. Her dad had disappeared under mysterious circumstances 22 years ago – about 2 weeks after the Carrington heir, Peter is declared “Person of Interest” in the murder of his friend and neighbor Susan Althorp. Kay hasn’t ever been able to figure out who the couple was that she overheard arguing in the Carrington chapel the night Susan died.

In a bizarre twist of fate, almost a decade later, Kay meets Peter, falls in love and ends up walking down the aisle with him. But their married life is always under the cloud because of Peter’s suspected involvement in the death of not only Susan but also of his pregnant wife Grace a few years back. Just a few weeks into their marriage, Susan’s dying mom Gladys is hell-bent on putting Peter behind the bars. And then the bodies start turning up at the estate as if it were a cemetery.

Kay is convinced that Peter is innocent but soon learns that it is a tough job to even begin to prove it. There is no dearth of suspicious characters. To start with, there is Vince Slater, Peter’s trusted aide. There’s Peter’s stepmom Elaine and her good-for-nothing gambling son Richard. There’s Gary Barr, one of the servants. And finally, there is Susan’s dad, Ambassador Althorp, who was angry with her the night she died.

The best part about the novel is that despite racking my brains, I couldn’t even begin to guess who the killer could be because the needle of suspicion has been consistently pointed at everyone in equal measure. :-) Of course, I am never thrilled at the references of Manhattan that have appeared with unerring frequency in Clark’s earlier novels that I read. But having spent some time in New Jersey it was fun to come across mention of Englewood and Mahwah :-)

If you can tolerate the “Till death do us part” love story of Peter and Kay, then this whodunit is definitely worth a read!