Review of The Shadow of Your Smile by Mary Higgins Clark

From Oklahoma's NewsOK --

Book Review: Secrets of faith, fortune interplay
Suspense: Best-selling author offers twists --

By: Betty Lytle --
April 11, 2010 --

"The Shadow of Your Smile” (Simon & Schuster, $25) by Mary Higgins Clark is a fast-paced suspense novel that draws the reader in with the first few pages and doesn’t let go until the climatic ending.



Olivia Morrow, 82, has kept a family secret all her life. Her deceased cousin, Sister Catherine, a nun, is about to be beatified. Before she entered the convent, Catherine had conceived a child. The man who fathered the child, Alexander Gannon, invented orthopedic devices that made him a fortune. Catherine’s granddaughter is Dr. Monica Farrell, a pediatrician in a New York City hospital. Should Olivia reveal this secret, Monica would be entitled to her rightful inheritance. But if she tells, the information could jeopardize Catherine’s beatification.

Catherine is being considered for beatification because she was founder of several children’s hospitals and because of her work with children. Michael O’Keefe, a 5-year-old diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, was deemed beyond hope. His mother organized a prayer crusade to Sister Catherine, and Michael’s cancer disappeared. The boy was Monica’s patient. Though skeptical of prayer’s power to heal, she agrees to testify at the beatification hearing that his recovery is beyond medical knowledge and likely a miracle.

Monica learns from a limo driver, the father of one of her patients, that an elderly passenger, Olivia Morrow, told him she knew Monica’s birth grandmother. Monica’s father, who was adopted, spent nearly his whole life searching for his birth parents. Monica calls Olivia and arranges to see her the next day. But when Monica gets there, Olivia is dead.

This is a great story, in bookstores Tuesday, with many twists and turns that mystery fans should enjoy.

Review of The Shadow of Your Smile by Mary Higgins Clark

From Blogcritics Books --

Book Review: Shadow of Your Smile by Mary Higgins Clark --

By: Sahar --
Apr 06, 2010 --

I have been a fan of Mary Higgins Clark for many years now, and a new book release is always cause for celebration. In Shadow of Your Smile, her newest one, Mary Higgins Clark manages yet again to flawlessly weave a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page.

Monica Farell's father spent his life searching for his biological parents, but to no avail; he passed away without ever finding them. Thirty-one year-old Monica isn't particularly concerned with her biological heritage; after all, her own family is everything she could have asked for. On top of that, the demands of her job as a beloved and successful pediatrician don't leave much time for anything else.



But her biological heritage catches up with her. Her biological grandmother, Catherine, told only a handful of people about her pregnancy, which occurred right before she entered a convent to become a nun. Since that fateful day, Catherine and most of the secret holders have passed on. The only secret holder left is Olivia, Catherine's cousin and adoptive sister. Olivia has in her possession letters proving the latter is Monica's grandmother. She has kept this knowledge safe throughout her life but now, the 82 year-old is on her deathbed. Faced with at best two to three weeks, she has to decide: will she share what she knows with Monica, or take it with her to the grave?

The situation is delicate for many reasons. Telling Monica who she really is entails Olivia betraying Catherine’s wishes by revealing the story behind Monica’s ancestry. As a nun, Catherine has served the cause of children as a nun during most of her life and is being considered for beatification by the Catholic Church when a four-year-old boy diagnosed with terminal brain cancer is miraculously cured after his desperate mother organized a prayer crusade to Catherine. Curiously enough, this little boy's pediatrician is none other than Monica Farell. While there have been rumours of this child before, Catherine's good name had, up to then, kept the gossips at bay.

There is also the fact that Monica Farell would stand to inherit all of her grandfather's holdings — or whatever is left of them. After his adventure with Catherine, Alex Gannon became a internationally renown doctor, a scientist at the cutting edge of his field and the inventor of numerous hip & knee prosthetic replacements. Alex Gannon knew about the child Catherine carried and gave away, but was never able to find out the identity of said child. However, in the hopes that, one day, his fortune would return to his rightful heir, a stipulation in his will and testament clearly states that were his biological child ever to be found, the Gannon fortune will go to it or it's descendants.

But while Alex Gannon and his direct biological descents are hardworking, honest people, the inheritors of his estate certainly are not. Alex Gannon's nephews have been squandering their uncle's fortune, and there is almost nothing left of it. Greg and Peter Gannon hid their inclination towards extravagance with philanthropy, but their carefully constructed public image is falling apart. Thankfully, no one knows about Gannon's biological child and the one who did know had no intention of sharing the information — until Olivia found out she was dying.

Unfortunately, Olivia confides in the wrong person. Since there is no money left, and since their public image would be ruined were the truth to come out, neither nephew wants anyone to come poking around in their finances — something that would certainly happen were Monica to be identified as Alex Gannon's descendant.

How do you solve a problem like Monica? You get rid of both the cause and the source, i.e. Monica and Olivia — permanently.

It's not for nothing that Mary Higgins Clark is known as the Queen of Mystery. The author of twenty-eight previous suspense novels, all of which have been best-sellers, she once again delivers a flawless book that bit by bit builds tension, bringing together a collection of people who would have otherwise never met. And the years have been kind to her writing, as its quality been steadily increasing. Not only has the level of intricacy of her stories increases, but the number of themes covered in her stories has also been increasing. In Shadow of Your Smile, Monica struggles with the seeming conflicting concepts of religion and science, in particular medical science, as well as the definition of what one's identity is and entails.

Another great piece of literature, a great travel companion that is bound to make summertime traveling a lot easier, since you won't notice the time passing while you read it.

Just make sure you don't miss your flight.

Interview with Mary Higgins Clark

From The Financial Times --

Continuity, chaos and clan --

By Margaret O’Connor --
January 15 2010 --

Mary Higgins Clark has sold more than 100m copies of 28 novels in the past three decades. The elegant 82-year-old Irish-American splits her time between a mansion in Saddle River, New Jersey, a Victorian property in the seaside town of Spring Lake, New Jersey, a pied-à-terre on Central Park South in Manhattan and a beach bungalow in Dennis, Massachusetts. She is working on her next suspense novel, ‘The Shadow of Your Smile’, about the beatification of a saint.

How does where you live influence the stories you choose to tell?
At least five of my books have been inspired by things I discovered in and around my homes. But the stories in my head tend to overpower my physical surroundings. As long as I’m in a space with natural light, I can buckle down anywhere.

Where did you start writing?

I’ve been inventing narratives since I could string together a sentence. I wrote my first novel on the kitchen table in our house on Walnut Street in Washington Township, New Jersey, where I raised five children. I stored my typewriter and manuscript on the kitchen floor. When I hit the keyboard at five o’clock in the morning I travelled to some scary and wonderful places in my imagination.

What are your most vivid memories of the Bronx from your childhood?

My first memory is looking down at my new baby brother sleeping in my doll carriage because his crib had not been delivered in time. Being a responsible three-year-old “mother”, I was distressed that my favourite doll had to adjust her naptime around my brother’s sleep schedule. The memory of waking to the clipclop of the horse-drawn cart delivering milk and bread to 1913 Tenbroeck Avenue reminds me how much the world has changed during my lifetime. I slept in the little room over the front door and had to vacate it for a boarder when my mother let out rooms during the Depression. We weren’t able to afford the upkeep of that grand home after my father died.

You lived out of a suitcase the year before you married your neighbour, Warren Clark. How did you adapt to travelling the globe as a Pan American stewardess?

Back then, working for Pan Am was the pinnacle of glamour and adventure. It was amazing to see Europe, Africa and Asia in 1949 as the world was on the brink of wide-scale change. The flight crew grew close during our long expeditions; it took three weeks to travel to and from India or a month to do South Africa.

Your first husband died from heart disease early in his life, like your father. Did you leave the home you shared with Warren to escape your shared memories?

I decided continuity would ease the pain of this great loss. One of the superficial things I did several months after the funeral was to buy a new bedspread and paint the bedroom to change it from “ours” to “mine”. I believe it helped the children to finish school where they had started and to remain close to friends.

What drew you to the Saddle River property that is now your primary home?

When I had five children, a husband and mother under the same roof I didn’t know I had a small house. When I was living alone, I decided I needed more room. I wanted to be close to my five grown children and six grandchildren. It’s on a wonderful two-acre plot. The kids enjoy having tennis and pool parties here.

Do your two guest bedrooms see much action?

My son Dave and his two children were guests for five years following his divorce. My family knows I’m serious about my open-door policy. Sharing the joys and sorrows of everyday life keeps me going.

How did you integrate John Conheeney into your home when you remarried 13 years ago?

John needed a sanctuary from the madness of my fiction enterprise. As the former chairman and CEO of Merrill-Lynch Futures, he needed a place to monitor the markets and world news. I created a quiet, second-floor office for him. We also installed a catering kitchen in the basement to minimise the madness in our home. Our combined clan of 30 creates chaos when we’re celebrating birthdays and other special occasions.

You’ve battled with arthritis and broken bones in recent years. How do you navigate a three-storey home?

I installed an elevator. It was the smartest $40,000 investment I’ve ever made.

Do you observe a seasonal or functional migration between your homes?

I enjoy keeping one foot on either side of the Hudson. Central Park South serves as my dressing room for the philanthropic functions I attend in the city. I’ve been a director of the Irish American Society, Catholic charities and the Mystery Writers of America – all of which give me ample reasons to be in town. Summers at our two beach homes recharge me in different ways. Sitting on the porch in Spring Lake with a pot of tea or a glass of wine, I enjoy great craic with friends stopping on their way to and from the beach. Our place on Cape Cod is much more isolated. Seeing the sun set on our deck is like watching the arms of God embrace the end of the day.

Have you ever returned to your Tenbroeck Avenue home in the Bronx? You render the property in great detail in your memoir Kitchen Privileges.

My brother and I stopped at the front door after a funeral but decided not to ask for a peek inside. Other happy lives are being shaped there now.

*****

MY FAVOURITE THINGS

Paintings, photos, figurines

My Edgar. Being chosen Grand Master of the 2000 Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America was one of my proudest professional achievements.

The painting over my fireplace I picked up during a special vacation along the Seine. In Normandy a cardinal who was travelling with us insisted we climb the 900 steps to the abbey at Mont Saint-Michel, where he robed up with the monks and said mass.

The photo of my mother Nora which is hanging behind my writing desk, encourages me to persevere. On seeing it, one of my bishop friends remarked: “If she’s not in heaven, then who is?”

The Royal Doulton figurines in my living room evoke the prosperity my mother enjoyed – and lost – in her lifetime. I especially like the one of a woman drinking tea. My mother always had a cup and saucer at hand.