I have decided to read all novels by Mary Higgins Clark that the library stocks. And only then turn to another author :-)
Wonder why most of Clark's protagonists are females and usually from legal profession. So here we have Kerry McGrath - a well-known prosecutor who on a visit to a plastic surgeon, Dr. Smith, for treatment of her daughter Robin, sees someone whose face seems vaguely familiar. She does ask the receptionist her name but it doesn't ring any bell. On her next visit she sees the same face but this time the name is different. Kerry is rattled when she realizes that the face is eerily similar to a murder victim, Suzanne Reardon, who was killed in a fit of rage by her husband, Skip Reardon, who has been serving a life sentence for the same since past 10 years. Kerry also realizes that Dr. Smith was Suzanne's father and his testimony had been instrumental in putting Skip behind bars.
As Kerry tries to investigate the possibility that Skip could have been framed, Robin is almost run over by a car while on her way to school. Kerry's ex-husband makes it plain that the conman he is defending, Weeks, wants Kerry to back off. While Jonathan, Kerry's well-wisher lets her know in no uncertain terms that if she persists in her efforts to exonerate Reardon, she could lose an opportunity to become judge because if Reardon is proven to be innocent it would ruin chances of Kerry's boss, Frank Green, to become the next governor - given the fact that it was Green who had been a public prosecutor in the Reardon murder case.
I guess the success of any author of a murder mystery can be gauged based on how successful he or she has been in keeping the reader guessing about the murderer. Clark scores spectacularly on this front because it is only during the final few pages that we get an inkling as to who could have done it.
But even when I put the book down, I wondered when it was that Grace saw Suzanne's picture with the 'momma-and-baby' pin?
Wonder why most of Clark's protagonists are females and usually from legal profession. So here we have Kerry McGrath - a well-known prosecutor who on a visit to a plastic surgeon, Dr. Smith, for treatment of her daughter Robin, sees someone whose face seems vaguely familiar. She does ask the receptionist her name but it doesn't ring any bell. On her next visit she sees the same face but this time the name is different. Kerry is rattled when she realizes that the face is eerily similar to a murder victim, Suzanne Reardon, who was killed in a fit of rage by her husband, Skip Reardon, who has been serving a life sentence for the same since past 10 years. Kerry also realizes that Dr. Smith was Suzanne's father and his testimony had been instrumental in putting Skip behind bars.
As Kerry tries to investigate the possibility that Skip could have been framed, Robin is almost run over by a car while on her way to school. Kerry's ex-husband makes it plain that the conman he is defending, Weeks, wants Kerry to back off. While Jonathan, Kerry's well-wisher lets her know in no uncertain terms that if she persists in her efforts to exonerate Reardon, she could lose an opportunity to become judge because if Reardon is proven to be innocent it would ruin chances of Kerry's boss, Frank Green, to become the next governor - given the fact that it was Green who had been a public prosecutor in the Reardon murder case.
I guess the success of any author of a murder mystery can be gauged based on how successful he or she has been in keeping the reader guessing about the murderer. Clark scores spectacularly on this front because it is only during the final few pages that we get an inkling as to who could have done it.
But even when I put the book down, I wondered when it was that Grace saw Suzanne's picture with the 'momma-and-baby' pin?
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