At a party in Manhattan, Maggie Holloway -- one of the fashion world's most successful photographers -- is thrilled to be reunited with her beloved stepmother. A widow now, Nuala Moore is equally delighted to see her long-lost stepdaughter, and invites Maggie to spend a few weeks at her home in Newport, Rhode Island.
But when Maggie arrives, she finds Nuala murdered, apparently by a burglar. Heartbroken, Maggie is stunned to learn she had inherited Nuala's stunning Victorian home...and horrified when she begins to suspect that Nuala's death was not random, but part of a diabolical plot conceived by a twisted mind. When Nuala's dear old friend, Greta Shipley, does suddenly of supoosedly natural causes, Maggie is convinced that there is a link between these two and other recent deaths among the older women of Newport. What she doesn't realize is that she has now become a target for the killer as well, and that each clue she uncovers brings her closer to an unimaginable fate. In her most chillingly suspenseful novel yet, the Queen of Suspense delivers a tale of brilliantly sustained terror, woven with the skill and insight into human nature that have made all of Mary Higgins Clark's books major bestsellers.
Amazon.com Review
Newport, Rhode Island: a world of old money, old names, and sinister secrets. Maggie Holloway, a fashion photographer, goes to visit an old friend -- but when she arrives, the friend is dead, the victim of a violent robbery. Maggie is stunned when she learns that she's the beneficiary of the will -- and even more stunned when she recognizes a pattern of murder in Newport society that will lead the killer straight to her.
From Publishers Weekly
Pretty photographer Maggie Holloway begins Clark's latest (after Silent Night) lying in a coffin buried in a grave, pulling desperately at a string that leads to a bell with no clapper. How she got there is the essence of a convoluted tale of a ritzy Newport, R.I., retirement home whose well-heeled residents seem to die with alarming frequency, leading to high-profit turnover of their apartments there. Latest to shed her mortal coil was Maggie's much-loved stepmother, a fact that led intrepid Maggie to take an unwise amount of interest in the deaths-and also to question why several of the graves seemed to have little funerary bells on them. As usual with Clark, there is a stalwart admirer whose love does not immediately speak its name, and a surfeit of suspicious characters, including a scholarly funeral nut, a shady investment broker, a venal lawyer, a drunken, inept doctor and a nosy nurse. There's some fun in the sprightly Newport oldsters, and the many scenes and characters are shifted around smoothly and with a practiced hand. The bells gimmick seems no more than that, however, and the book is light on thrills-though there's nothing to put off Clark's myriad fans. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection; Reader's Digest Condensed Books selection; paperback rights to Pocket Books; author tour. (May). Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
At a party in Manhattan, Maggie Holloway -- one of the fashion world's most successful photographers -- is thrilled to be reunited with her beloved stepmother. A widow now, Nuala Moore is equally delighted to see her long-lost stepdaughter, and invites Maggie to spend a few weeks at her home in Newport, Rhode Island.
But when Maggie arrives, she finds Nuala murdered, apparently by a burglar. Heartbroken, Maggie is stunned to learn she had inherited Nuala's stunning Victorian home...and horrified when she begins to suspect that Nuala's death was not random, but part of a diabolical plot conceived by a twisted mind. When Nuala's dear old friend, Greta Shipley, does suddenly of supoosedly natural causes, Maggie is convinced that there is a link between these two and other recent deaths among the older women of Newport. What she doesn't realize is that she has now become a target for the killer as well, and that each clue she uncovers brings her closer to an unimaginable fate. In her most chillingly suspenseful novel yet, the Queen of Suspense delivers a tale of brilliantly sustained terror, woven with the skill and insight into human nature that have made all of Mary Higgins Clark's books major bestsellers.
Amazon.com Review
Newport, Rhode Island: a world of old money, old names, and sinister secrets. Maggie Holloway, a fashion photographer, goes to visit an old friend -- but when she arrives, the friend is dead, the victim of a violent robbery. Maggie is stunned when she learns that she's the beneficiary of the will -- and even more stunned when she recognizes a pattern of murder in Newport society that will lead the killer straight to her.
From Publishers Weekly
Pretty photographer Maggie Holloway begins Clark's latest (after Silent Night) lying in a coffin buried in a grave, pulling desperately at a string that leads to a bell with no clapper. How she got there is the essence of a convoluted tale of a ritzy Newport, R.I., retirement home whose well-heeled residents seem to die with alarming frequency, leading to high-profit turnover of their apartments there. Latest to shed her mortal coil was Maggie's much-loved stepmother, a fact that led intrepid Maggie to take an unwise amount of interest in the deaths-and also to question why several of the graves seemed to have little funerary bells on them. As usual with Clark, there is a stalwart admirer whose love does not immediately speak its name, and a surfeit of suspicious characters, including a scholarly funeral nut, a shady investment broker, a venal lawyer, a drunken, inept doctor and a nosy nurse. There's some fun in the sprightly Newport oldsters, and the many scenes and characters are shifted around smoothly and with a practiced hand. The bells gimmick seems no more than that, however, and the book is light on thrills-though there's nothing to put off Clark's myriad fans. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild main selection; Reader's Digest Condensed Books selection; paperback rights to Pocket Books; author tour. (May).
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.